Give her plenty of room to learn at her own pace. My wife took the course last year. I took her to practice what she learned on her own bike in a parking lot. She seemed to do fine so I pushed her to get out on the road. It didn't take long to realize she wasn't ready for the road. One problem is I don't think she had been over 15 mph yet

I found her an empty mile of pavement going nowhere with no driveways or side roads to practice getting up to 50 mph and stopping. I also encouraged her to get a little more aggressive in the parking lot so it was more like she would have to deal with on the road, i.e. quicker starts and stops, starting into a turn, etc. It didn't take much more practice for her to get noticably better. Starting out though it was easy to say she knows how to steer and use the brake, clutch and throttle so what more is there. Confidence is a very important part of riding a bike though and it's worth the extra time to build that confidence.

 

My wife decided she would only ride a motorscooter, period. That, or nothing.We got her a 250cc scooter and both enrolled in the MSF course. The scooter was trailered to the class and when we entered the building the first person we saw was a women holding a helmet. They both entered the bathroom about the same time. Twenty minutes later Im wondering what is taking so long: turns out the other lady was one of our instructors and she had convinced my wife to leave the scooter on the trailer and take the class on a 500cc Kawa. The wife had a blast and did very well on the course. Two weeks later, she was picking the color of the Deluxe we were purchasing for her. Now, she only starts the scooter to make sure the battery isn't dead. I knew it would end this way but if we didn't go through the scooter thing first for a few weeks, she just wouldn't have jumped in with the program. Three of her friend now have big-twins, and a couple more are enrolled in the course!

 

In '02 I bought an Ironhorse Outlaw, I had not been riding for a few years & during that time I met my wife. She had never ridden at all. Two months and about 1000 miles on the back of that bike she took the course. She's a petit woman. She started shopping for her own bike.
All of the Harleys were to top heavy or uncomfortable for her except the fatboy and she decided she didn't want to spend the money for a small bike just to trade up later. Two months later her Ironhorse Ranger was delivered. Low seat height, low center of gravity and 107 cu in of raw power and great torque. Her favorite part was it was purple & lots of chrome. Put an extra 1 1/2" of padding in the back of the seat to push her forward to get her feet to the forward controls and she rode it for 7 years.
It was for her a great bike to start on and keep. She never rode any other bike except at the class and never realized how fast it was.

 

Is MSF available for signup, I've been looking, but it still shows unavailable in Illinois cook county, I,ve called and they won't tell me when it will be available, how does it work, will they give a notice when it will become available or will it be a surprize?

 

First, congrats.. and good luck. We are doing the same thing, my wife is signed up to take the course this coming march. She does have a sporty.. partly because the 883 low is one of the few bikes she can sit flatfooted on comfortably. Without going through the whole rant.. once she decided she wanted to learn to ride.. we started looking. We looked at pretty much everything from a 250 rebel to a lowrider, deluxe and super glide. She decided on the sporty. We found a really nice 07 883L and put a deposit on it this past wednesday. We'll get it home in a week or so and so will begin her adventure. She's been driving a stick for years, so I think she'll be fine. And as I mentioned in my thread "another look what I went and did" After talking to two female friends who ride and took the class and a former msf instructor I work with, the plan is to just get her familiar with the controls before the class so she'll hopefully be a little more comfortable during the class.

As for the sporty being top heavy.. yea it is.. but that's the bike she felt best on.. ( and I know, it's hard to really know without riding, but it is what it is.. ) so that's what she got. I'm guessing she'll be fine regardless since she's a pretty capable lady. Anyway, good luck have fun and maybe we'll see y'all out on the road

Cheers

mavrick

 

The registration start dates were available on the NIU msf website yesterday. Registration usually opens up late Feb or early March. Make sure you keep on top of it....classes fill fast.

 

I must be looking in the wrong site, should I be looking at Rider programs or what.

 

I'm a little further south, so we're taking it through the Illinois State University program. They opened up a new online registration site maybe a week or two ago.

When I took my class, the instructor told me that up in the Chicago area participation was determined by lottery due to the number of people wanting to take it - that true or was he misinformed?

We've been thinking about taking a trip up to Starved Rock State Park this summer, and I suggested we wait until after she takes the MSF course and we can both ride (my suspicion is that she'll be borrowing her father's V-Star 1300 - my father has a '96 1200C, but it's a bike set up for some very specific requirements and isn't novice-friendly).

I do hope she enjoys the class enough to want to keep riding - it would be nice to make motorcycling a thing we can both enjoy together.