On day 4, we built on what we had learned doing more advanced maneuvers. For instance, we had to do a S-turn in a limited space rectangle. The rectangle starts at 24 feet across and goes down to 20 feet across. You drive the bike into and make a u-turn and then make a u-turn the other direction. Roughly, you make an S. I and most had trouble with that. Though once or twice I got it perfect. I wondered about the utility of this lesson. But I looked it up online, this is preparing you to do a u-turn on a street. Most streets are about 24 feet wide. The S-part is just for extra practice or the really indecisive about which direction they want to go :)
We did other things, like swerving. This is something you don't think about on a bicycle, but its weird. At a low speed, turn the handle bars in the direction you want to go. At a higher speed, turn the handle bars the opposite of the direction you want to go. Or as they said in the class, push to the direction you want to go. Roughly explained, as turn handlebars for a turn and push in direction for a curve.
Another neat thing is look in the direction you want to go. Turn your head in that direction and you'll go there. There were turns I didn't think I could make, but if I did that, I did them. It doesn't make sense, but it just works, like magic. Speaking of magic, it is magic that the bike doesn't fall over when your turning. I was talking to a classmate. I told him I thought of it like Bugs Bunny. Bugs didn't know gravity existed, so he could walk off a cliff. I just thought to myself I am Bugs Bunny and didn't question the physics.
And we actually got to ride in a giant loop for a few exercises. That was the most fun, actually trying out riding the motorcycle. I understand why they go over the braking day 1, you've got to know how to stop. But it was sure nice to actually try out the actual driving part.
Physically, this wasn't as a hard as day 1. My legs still hurt from the smaller bike. But less pushing, power walking, and on/off bike meant less physical exertion.
Overall, I would have liked a slower pace. Both today and yesterday, it felt I just started to get something and we'd move on to the next sequence. Like I had that S perfect and then messed up the next try and then sequence over. As someone who studies all sorts of things, it felt like mastery level was around half or slightly better. However, the MSF course is a lot to cram into 2 days, so I don't know how much flexibility the instructors fully have. But I wouldn't have minded practicing each sequence until I felt around A or at least B level confident.
Still I learned a lot and the instructors were supportive. I went from never driving a motorcycle or dirt bike to being able to drive a motorcycle in 2 days. That's amazing if you think about it.
We had two instructors. One was the owner of a dealership. I really liked that the owner did this. It showed really caring. The other was a retired fellow who had been riding his whole life. He had lots of tips and stories from his long motorcycling life. I was glad we had him. I had choices in where to take the MSF class. One I didn't think about too much in advance was who would be teaching it. You might consider that if you have a choice. If schedule and everything else works, maybe call them up and ask about who will be teaching the class and their background.
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