Yeeehaaa! Congrats Tara. Now starts the rest of your life with a permanent grin on your face!!

I took the course years ago, in the heat. I thought I was going to pass out during about the 3rd last test on final day. They made us line up with all our gear on and wait for each person to do test. It was 102 that day, and on asphalt, probably 120. I walked off. He(I had a **** instructor) asked me where the heck I was going. I told him to that tree to pass out!! So call 911!

I finished the test, passed. We had some crazies in that class. It was funny, when we were all lined up, ready for our very first run around the track, the instructor stood in front of us all and said "In the next 10 seconds 10% of you will fail this course" Sure enough as each of us started off, one woman hit the throttle and ran her bike up the back end of another! This 6'10" guy thought he would show off and did a wheelie and the bike fell back on him! And two other people gunned it and crashed! Instructor was right!

Have fun!

 

And don't stop at the beginners course. Take an intermediate level course as soon as you have some experience under your belt.

 

Good job taking and passing the class SuburbanMom!! I am a Rider’s Edge and MSF instructor and have probably put 150+ new riders on the road this year. Believe me, a class dropping a bike every now and then isn’t unique but all of the bikes being on the ground at one time or another probably resulted in your coaches taking a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings for a couple of tall cold ones after class.

One thing I close my classes with is this. “You are now professionals at riding in an empty parking lot. We have given you the tools on how to properly operate a motorcycle. It’s up to you to take these tools and use them to become a more accomplished rider.” Like others on this post have said, practice, practice, practice and then practice some more. I also stress the students become self evaluators since the instructors can’t always be there when they ride on the street to answer questions. By the time we get to exercise 11 or 12, most of the time the student rides up, tells us how they need to improve and rides off. A class on “autopilot” that are coaching themselves is a wonderful thing…

As for the ERC/SRC, that depends on the operator’s comfort level on their personal motorcycle. Some people will be ready for the ERC/SRC 500 miles or so after they graduate the BRC/NRC. Others may need to ride thousands of miles before they are ready. It’s all about being comfortable on YOUR bike. The exercises are basically the same from the new rider course to the skilled rider course but the only major variables are the rider’s base skillset and their comfort level with the motorcycle. As a BRC/NRC graduate, you have the advantage of being on a range before and knowing the basic layout of the range exercises and how the coaches are going to communicate with you. That eliminates a LOT of things you need to think about and in turn makes the class easier for you. I personally work very hard to give the student as few things to think about on the range at once as I can. If they devote more mental power to learning the task at hand and not trying to find their way around the range or figure out some cryptic hand signal the coach waved at them, they tend to learn a lot more and are more comfortable during the class.

Again, congratulations on taking and passing the class. You will be amazed at how much of the things you learned in the past 2 days will be put to use immediately.

 

I feel for ya!! In my class 3 weeks ago, it was over 127 on the range with an ambient air temp right at 100. We ended up with a break after every exercise and still lost 5 out of 11 students due to heat exhaustion.

Ok, I'll be blunt on this one.... That instructor is an idiot for saying what he said and he got what he asked for. Believe me, if the MSF or Rider's Edge heard of an instructor making a statement like that to a class, no matter how true it may have been given the skills of the class, that instructor would have been decertified at worst and severely counseled at best by their state and/or regional coordinator. He literally got what he asked for when everyone did what they did. An intentional wheelie on my range earns you an all expenses paid trip to the parking lot to get in your car and leave. MAJOR safety violation….

 

Congratulations on taking the class and doing so well on the test! You'll love riding! I got my license in April, and haven't ridden often because its TOO HOT in the desert. But I plan to really put the miles on when the weather cools.

As for the rest of the girls in your class... our dealer just recently started an introductory class. It's only 4 hours and basically covers the first hour of the Riders Edge course. That would greatly benefit people that aren't sure if they even want to ride. I know it did wonders for me, as an introduction to my friend the clutch!!!

Have fun riding and stay safe!