I had a completely random saturday off work. After a miscommunication with my boss, and deciding to take the day instead of asking to work and make more money-- I ran into a guy in the commissary with an MSF shirt on. I asked him if he was a teacher, etc. Long story short, I found out that there were three guys in town doing the advanced rider course. I asked if I could get in on that, and did so...
Great way to spend a Saturday. It was very challenging, and I felt like my riding skills improved immensely as the day went on. The instructors were great and worked with each of the riders, providing positive reinforcement and constructive feedback throughout. Even if most of your riding is off the road, I would recommend taking the advanced course if it is available.

 

i've had a few close calls riding on bikes over the years. probably the funniest one (funny afterwards) was driving down a street doin about 50mph (limit 45) on my 97 yamaha yzf1000 sport bike. girl on a cross street didnt see me until she pulled out and was blocking the street. i slammed on the brakes and ended up pulling a nose wheelie, coming to a stop about 2 feet from her driver door. back end of the bike starts coming down then stops while still a few feet in the air when the back tire landed on the hood of the car behind me (thankfully he slammed on his brakes when i did!). start swinging my legs trying to find something to rest a foot on to prevent the bike from falling over, yea didnt work lol

 

Nah! just go our and get yourself a lucky rabbits foot , you'll be fine. LOL
just kidding, be safe.
Dan

 

Advanced rider course?! Puh-leeze! All you need is a loud pipe!

 

I've been riding motorcycles, street and dirt, since 1986. I've also taken half a dozen racing level track and dirt riding classes taught by undisputed legends of each type of riding.

Still, within the recent years I've twice taken the MSF Advanced Riding course and each time I found it very beneficial and fun!
It's a good opportunity to meet other local riders, it's great fun and it is very likely going to save your *** one day.
It is totally possible to keep riding around, even for decades, and never get into a serious accident while being totally sub-par rider. But when that moment comes when your own well-being depends on your reactions being the CORRECT ones, you'll be very happy for all the training you've got.

--
Mikko

 

Simple rule of thumb... Look at every incident as always being your fault. If a car pulls out on you.. It's your fault you crashed.

Why? Because you didn't anticipate that he 'may' pull out on you and take action.

If I ever see a car approching a junction.. I ASSUME, he's not going to see me and pull out on me, even though 99.9999% that will not happen. The reason for this is so that I can take appropiate action. In that i mean, evaluate what's behind me, move into a position so that I can avoid if nessecary, reduce speed, have brakes covered, look at the driver, see if he / she is on her phone paying attention.

It's all about anticipation.

I've been riding for 20yrs and most of that time was communting through London during rush hour. That's when you need eyes around the back of your head.

I've also crashed from mistakes in my early days, such as too much front brake on a slippery wet road.. You learn by your mistakes. Same thing happened to me, on a similar conditioned road, I had to emergency stop, I managed to pump and emergency stop, And manuver around the car that had stopped infront of me, to avoid a colision. I would have almost certainly slammed in the back, had it not been for my previous experience.

Good luck, its fun learning.

 

The MSF courses are a great learning experience. The only problem with them, they don't teach you about the laws of gravity. Well, besides balancing on the motorcycle. On a dualsport, there may be times when you will have to push the enevlope and ride on a exceeding 45 degree angle hill. But they are always a good refreshing course to rehome your traffic riding skills.

 

In the particular class I took, there was a lot of focus on stopping quickly, swerving, and using mass to be able to change the center of gravity to be able to negotiate curves tighter, there by using more lean. It was pretty sweet.