Sven here, taking over for Day 2 of our MSP (Motorcycle Safely Program) experience. I was feeling mighty sore that morning. I learned that I shouldn’t have shaved my head extra short right before spending an afternoon in Corona in mid-August… lesson learned. But thankfully day two started at 6am and was fairly cool and overcast. With our morning coffee in hand, things became a tad more tolerable and promising.
It was business as usual once the instructors and bikes were ready to go. We conducted our “pre-flight check” and saddled up. Feeling much more confident with my lil Kawasaki Eliminator, I found the exercises and scenarios a whole lot easier, and in fact more enjoyable. Sure that first feeling of lifting my feet from the ground as the bike picked up speed was a feeling so surreal, that I still feel boggled by it even now. But there is a different feeling that seems much deeper now that I have utmost confidence and control of such a machine.
Back to the riding though…
Where Day 1 was a general introduction to the motorcycle and all its intricacies, Day 2 focused more on applying a motorcycle to road like conditions and situations. Instead of learning how to turn and roll the bike, or how to shift gears, Doc and his partner turned the focus to higher speed turns and evasive swerves. As the speeds increased, the complexity of the excises did too. Now we were accelerating, assessing turn speeds, breaking accordingly, using the desired line (outside-inside-outside), then downshifting to a complete stop (remember: always end in 1st gear)
The day eventually drew to a close, and all that was left was our evaluations. The final test was pretty much a 3 stage test.
Stage 1: low speed U-turns in a preset box (Remember: use the counter steer method. Shift body weight away from the pitch of the motorcycle)
Stage 2: accelerate to a preset speed then perform an emergency swerve from an obstacle
Stage 3: accelerate to a preset speed then brake hard to a complete stop in as short of a distance as possible (without losing control or wiping out)
Surprisingly, everyone passed even though a few shouldn’t have. On the flip side of it all, we were given a MSP completion card which can be used to get up to a 15% discount on gear and other select motorcycle related purchases. We are currently in the process of finding as many local retailers that honor the card and will get those to you as they come in.
One Little Victory!
Links:
Motorcycle Safety Foundation:
California Motorcycle Safety Program:
Ride Rite
