YES.. a waste of a hour. The tour was nice though.
I took mine at Hals... where did you go?

 

I recently completed the MSF course as well, completed on the 1st of August. I had ridden dirtbikes when I was a kid, but hadn't ridden a bike at all since I was 12, which was about 15 years ago. I got on that nighthawk, and the instructors were great, kept our attention, and payed attention to the way that every student did the exercises. If one thing was wrong, they would pull you aside and let you know what you could do to improve it. I really liked the instructors, and the exercises we had to do. I liked thier attention to detail, and to each student. It was a great class, and I will be taking their advanced rider course when I get some miles under that sportster.
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience at your MSF course.

 

i did mine at House. I liked the dealership, but there was too much time given to "look around the shop and try things on."

 

I took the MSF course in Miami, FL last summer(Petersons HD Dealer) and I have to say it was GREAT!The instructors were really watching everyone of us and telling us when we did something right or wrong... I learned a LOT during this weekend...
Ride Safe,
Patrick

 

Wife took the Rider's Edge course thru Mid America Harley, she had nothing but praise for the 2 instructors. But by no means did it make her ready to ride the streets. As she said it taught her how to practise the right way and give her the basic skills needed, plus some confidence. Hey sorry, I wouldn't let her practise on the King, no way. She now has her own bike, a sportser 1200Lthat she picked out. I bought her a 1999 883 and she just couldn't clutch it and the vibration was too much. She is/has done great. We bought some cones and most every evening would go to a vacant parking lot and she would practise and practise.She has smooth controll when slow riding and her slowturns have improved greatly.She is now on the road and is doing great.

 

I just took a MSF course last month in NYC. I felt the instructors were patient and thorough in their explanations of technique. It seemed as if they took their jobs seriously. I went from being a first time rider who was some what intimidated by his XLH1200 to a more confident rider ready to tackle the local high school parking lot on his own bike. The class does a great job at instilling the confidence neccesary to begin riding, but anyone who expects to ride into the sunset the next day is sadly mistaken. All in all I was very satisfied and glad I took the course. There is also a riding in traffic course where they actually take you out into the streets to practice, which in the south Bronx where I took the course, would be a trial by fire.

As far as the experienced rider course goes, the level of difficulty is definately, but not intensley bumped up from the BRC.However, you do it all on your own bike, whatever it maybe which also increases difficulty.

My 2 cents.

 

I will be taking my MSF course (through the local HD dealership here in CT), this coming week, and am glad that this thread was posted up. I have been practicing the last three months on back roads and parking lots mostly, but am anxious to get proper instruction.

I'll write back and let you all know how my experience goes with the class!

Thanks for sharing this.

 

i've never taken the msf course and after reading this post i believe it to be an absolute waste of my time.By saying this i am NOT saying that i am a perfect rider. I have had some close calls,but by simply being aware of my surroundings i have avoided a few serious possibly even deadly accidents. I have been told by numerious people on this forum that i should send my wife to one of these "classes" before letting her ride.I am leaveing that up to her. If she wants to take a class fine ill boot out the dough for it, but if i can learn by myself, with what little instructions i recieved as a child, im sure that my wife ,who is a lot smarter person than I, can do this too.If takeing a MSF course helped anybody on this forum then good for them.But i would rather know that my wife was being shown the proper techniques than to hope she doesn't get instructors like Steveinca had and come away thinking shes safe because she took a class and passed.


But remeber this is just my personal opinion. if you feel the need to take the course then take it.

 

I just finished taking the course in Ohio. It was one of the worst experiences I have ever had. I went with another ride who has been on the road for 10 years. We were treated like dirt, bossed around like kids{ I am 52}....much of the time was a waste. During the class time, the instructor just read from the book. That's it. I could have read it home. You were never quite sure what the instructor wanted from you. Also, the instructors often broke their own rules, doing a wheely , not geared up , riding with sneakers, they made often made you feel like you were imposing on their time. I would never recommend this course to anyone. I'd say go out and practice the test course at a school etc or with another skilled rider. I did get some practice in , but always felt stressed by the instructor's attitude. I felt he didn't care about my questions and often had a smart-aliky answer .... I guess he felt like a god there with all the people gropping for cards. But I think if you had a good instructor, it maybe might be fine .

 

Quote:

ORIGINAL: jsherman540

I took the MSF course as well. The biggest difference that I noticed was the fact that we were not riding "real"bikes. I rode a Kawasaki something or other during the class. When I got on my Sportster 1200C, it was like night and day. The Sportster has sooooo much more power than the bikes used in the class. I guess to the un-prepared rider this could be very disheartning and intimidating. Just my 2 cents, but people should either be required to ride their own bike or atleast the MSF should lobby the manufacturers for bigger more powerful bikes. Who rides a 250 cruiser?

My course was at HD dealer so we road Buel Blasts (500cc). Okay bike but did not the feel of only 1 cyclinder.

I totally agree that the difference between a Sportster and toy Jap bike is night and day. But by riding on a 250 for the next few months (besides being very expensive, now that I am selling it), I gain a lot of experience at real speeds, on real road, in light traffic. I think if I had ridden on a Sportser right after the course I would have several spills.