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Ok. I am a total beginner, never been on a bike before, period! Although I drive a standard shift car, I had no idea how the gears operate on the bike and did not take my new CBR out for practice anywhere.
Last night I scored a 98 on the written test. It was pretty much logic and rather easy, but yes I learned some things.
So this morning is Day 1 on the bikes. There were six of us on the range. Three experienced riders and 3 beginners. Well us three beginners did not make it past today for different reasons.
This was an all Harley group, nice people, but they were currently riding on the streets.
First guy was OK on the bike, he was just slow moving and holding us back a little. Second lady in her 50's dropped the bike by grabbing to much front brake in a turn headed for a curb. She was OK, but they asked her to stop.
Then there was me. I completed eight of the nine skills, but was having trouble on the last one where you have to shift through third gear headed for a turn, then down to second. I kept getting close to the slower person in front of me which lugged the bike in third and I had to keep downshifting back to second to slow the pace and then back to third until I started getting confused so I pulled off the course and said I needed to regroup my thoughts to continue; then went back out and completed the exercise.
Instructor said that shifting to third in a turn is too important a skill for me to have trouble with.
I am kinda bummed, but I learned a lot and it was my first time on a motorcycle and I loved it!
So I gotta rethink this and decide if I should take my CBR out in the parking lot behind my place to practice, or just re-sign up for the MSF. Instructor said I could skip the written class and just retake the range and can probable do it for free.
I am kinda lost because I did not think it would feel kinda geared to those in the class who have previous riding experience.
I promised myself I would not take my CBR out even for practice until after I passed the MSF, but now I am not so sure. Instructor said that he would rather I did not, cause it is better to drop their bikes than my new one. But I never came close to dropping their bike. If you drop their bike you are targeted for failing and there is some paperwork that has to be done, the lady that fell stopped our class for 15 minutes then we were told that we were 1 hour behind so he rushed us to finish on time.
Send me your thoughts, please!
I'm gonna buy some farkles and a lasagna to celebrate my defeat.