As most of you probably weren’t aware, this week I went to Motorcycle Safety Training at Murray High School in Salt Lake City, UT.
On the recommendation of a co-worker, I signed up for the $180, three-day motorcycle course: one Wednesday evening from 6PM to 9PM, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. “All Day” really means from 7:45 AM until some time between 2PM and 4PM. I had some misgivings about if I actually needed the course — after all, I’ve been riding for several months on my learner’s permit without incident — but wanted to get my waiver without having to book time with the tester at the Driver License Division of the Utah Highway Patrol.
If you’ve ever been to a Utah DLD, you know why I want to avoid that particular bureaucracy as much as possible. It’s simply an excruciating wait to get anything done.
So I showed up to the Wednesday class on my bike. I needed to take one U-turn on the way, and this reminded me why the class would be a good idea: I was having a lot of trouble finishing my U-turn in a reasonable amount of space. I thought perhaps it was simply the size of my bike. After all, it’s a big 1100CC.
Anyway, Wednesday classroom time focused on keeping your bike maintained, the benefits of riding, and managing risk. It was quite boring, actually, and I was worried that if this was all there was, it might have been a waste of my money.
Saturday dawned rainy and cold. I drove the car to the high school. This was our first “range day”. The first half of the day would be spent outdoors on the motorcycle, getting acquainted with the controls and learning the very basics. Since I arrived early, I got first pick of the bike. I could pick one of a Suzuki GZ250 (I think it’s called an S30 now), Honda Rebel 250, or the one Kawaski Ninja 250.
I have fond memories of friends having Ninjas in high school, so I picked that one. It’s a very serviceable beginner bike, and it hauled around my 230+lb butt just fine. It was also the only bike in the class easily capable of greater than 75MPH at our altitude (4200 feet), which would be a good bonus for anybody else from Utah who’s looking for a starter bike.
Since I had already ridden for a few months, at the start of the class I was quite bored. However, I learned that I had a few bad habits that I needed to address, such as only braking with one brake or the other, rather than using both brakes all the time. As I began working on those, the range class became more interesting.
By the end of the time practicing on the range, I was soaked to the bone despite my rain gear, and very sore, particularly in my left “clutch” hand. We spent a few more hours in class discussing how to maneuver the bike safely in traffic and around hazards.
The third day of class, Sunday, also dawned rainy, but much colder than Saturday. This was to be an all-range, all-day class.
Utah’s motorcycle licensing is tiered into three categories, and what you take your test on dictates what you’re allowed to ride. The three tiers are “-250cc”, “-650cc”, and “+650cc”. I rode my 1100CC Honda V65 Sabre to class, despite the driving rain, in hopes that I could take my riding test on it. However, the instructors said I would first have to pass the -650cc test on the Ninja 250cc bike, and after I passed that, if they had time, interest, and the weather was OK, they’d test me on my bigger bike. Otherwise, I’d just have to pay my $15 and come back another day, or else schedule a regular exam at the Driver License Division on my bigger bike.
This range day was MUCH more interesting. We practiced everything covered in the Motorcycle Test: panic stops, swerving to avoid a collision, the offset cone weave, clean entry and exit from a turn, evaluating turn speeds, etc. A focus was kept on keeping your speed up during many maneuvers, because attempting to perform them at too low a speed might lead to dropping your bike.
After hours of practice, my hands, shoulders, and legs were quite sore. It’s far more physically demanding to wrestle around a motorbike at low speed than to drive a car. Finally it arrived:
Exam Time.
The skills evaluation was actually really straightforward. Everybody in our class passed except “Scooter Lady”, so named because she had ridden the day before on her 90cc scooter. She didn’t bother showing up for the second day on the range. Perhaps she assumed, incorrectly, it would be called on account of the constant, steady rain.
By the end of the exam, the sun came out and it started warming up. I got my -650cc endorsement card, then Twila (one of the instructors) told me to go warm up my big bike. She let me dry-run through all the tests several times on the bigger bike.
I had to score 20 points or fewer to pass. Final score on the 250cc Ninja: 8 points. Final score on the 1100CC V65: 1 point, given only because I went one foot past the stop-line on the panic-stop test.
The bike weighs twice as much as the little bikes. You’d think that would be taken into account.
Well, regardless, I’m going to go back and spend several hours in Hell — I mean, the DLD — tomorrow to get my new driver’s license with full endorsement.
I just hope they don’t insist on me taking another riding exam.