Last summer, after spending months riding on the back of a friend’s motorcycle, I decided I needed one. Her dad found a cheap bike I could practice with, and after I bought it they helped me learn how to ride it. Unfortunately, my Shadow 1100 was much too large to handle as a starter bike and I was so nervous about making my instructors proud that I proved an exceptionally poor student.
I eventually sold the bike when I moved from North Carolina to the heavily-populated D.C. area, partially because I couldn’t think of a good way to get it up to my new home and partially because I was sure I would kill myself on it without more training.
Riding was fun, however, and I knew I could figure it out with more practice. A friend of mine in D.C. did some research and discovered a class that would, for a modest fee, train students how to ride using bikes provided by the course under the expert eye of seasoned instructors. Even better, passing the class would waive the state-required road test and pave the way to your motorcycle license. It seemed like a great deal, and we signed up right away.
Day One: Bookwork
The first day was the classroom portion of the course, which mostly consisted of 24 people watching educational videos about road safety and answering questions from a workbook. There was nothing presented here that I didn’t already know.
At the end of the day we were split into two sets of 12 people each in order to move on to the driving portion of the course, which was divided into “morning” and “evening” riding sessions. My friend and I were assigned to “morning”, and though we were both excited about it I would be lying if I said we weren’t anxious too.
Day Two: Training Wheels
When we arrived we found 12 motorcycles of various styles set on the course awaiting riders. There were two yellow Ninjas (sport bikes), a couple of Army-green dirt bikes, and a good assortment of black Nighthawks and Rebels (cruisers). I selected a Rebel partially because it was what my friend from N.C. had ridden and partially because it was the closest bike they had to my old Shadow. My friend selected a Ninja initially, though she moved on to a Rebel after the Ninja refused to shift gears.
The morning passed quickly, and by the time we left we had learned how to start, stop, use the clutch to control speed, shift up to and down from 3rd gear, turn, and counter-weight turn. We were told that this was “passing high school”, and that we needed to “be ready for college” the next day. It was a lot of fun.
Day Three: Playtime’s Over
The third day started out hard and fast by throwing us all into “The Box”, a drill that forces you to make a series of tight U-Turns (think Figure 8) without straying from a very small area. This is followed by a lot of work with sweeping curves, swerving, passing, and emergency stopping.
I did very well at all of these things except “The Box”, which proved exceptionally difficult to me (mostly because it requires you to stay in 1st gear and use heavy clutch-work to keep the bike moving fast enough to turn but slow enough to stay in the boundary). I suppose experts could do it in 2nd gear with fast counter-weight shifting, but that skill would take more time to develop.
After we completed the drills, we’re told to prepare for our final test. The test has 4 parts (“The Box”, Swerving, Emergency Stopping, Sweeping Curve), each of which has various point values. You earn points for making mistakes, and if you earn more than 20 points you fail. You also fail if you drop the bike during the test. We are assured that the most points you can surrender to “The Box” is 8 – so as long as you don’t drop the bike during that portion it can’t fail you. After the road test is a written test based on Day One material, but nobody is worried about that in the least.
Testing, Testing
I start off with a strong road test, surrendering the following points:
The Box: 4 points for crossing a boundary
Swerving: 0 points (perfect)
Emergency Stopping: 1 point for stopping 8 inches too far away from the target
Sweeping Curve: 1 point for finishing 0.02 seconds over the time limit, 15 points for missing a cone
Yeah, that’s 21 points.
The instructors pulled me aside and told me that I was one of the strongest students they’d seen and that without the cone-missing part I’d have a score of 6, which would have been the best in the class. Currently my score’s on appeal with their superiors because they think I deserve to have the 0.02 second point waived, though I agree when they say “that’s really not what failed me”.
Results?
My friend did pass with a score of 17, so that’s good news. Of course I’m disappointed I didn’t pass, but I did prove to myself that I’m a lot better at riding a motorcycle than I thought I was. I’m flattered that the instructors felt I was somehow wronged by screwing up the test, and from the videos I’ve seen of the Virginia DMV Road Test I’m sure I can ace it – it’s a lot more simple than what they had me do.
The most annoying part of the whole thing is the Sweeping Curve is something I had done perfectly 5 or 6 times prior to the test; it is so me to focus so much on “the hard part” (in the case, “The Box”) that I neglect to pay enough attention to “the easy part”. Of course, on a real road and with a real curve, you don’t get second chances. I can’t argue with that.
I might not have gotten a license waiver at the class, but I did learn all I need to know to eventually get one. And one day I’m going to do just that.
EDIT: Nov 08, 2010
I just heard that my appeal went through and I’ll be credited with course completion after all. This is extremely exciting and will make it much easier to go out and practice! Bottom line? If you’re even a little bit interested in learning how to ride, definitely look into instructional courses in your area. I couldn’t have asked for better teachers!
Mistopia: Post-Collegiate America 