I passed my MSF course!!!

"themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles" (themanwithsauce)
05/18/2015 at 01:17 • Filed to: None

I couldn’t get this up sooner because I took a nap and then the girl made me nachoes and then she poured a scotch and gave me a massage and then........yeah anyways here are the highlights. My trusty steed for the weekend has been a yamaha TW200 and it is kindly described as “handling like a beat up truck”

Seriously, that was my biggest gripe about the program which says something that I have to nitpick the bike selection. It was an incredible weekend through and through. But the TW200 is a god awful little bike. Here’s why - We also had XT250s (enduros) and Star 250s (cruisers) but the TW200? I unlcoked all my experiences of riding my old tube framed trail bike with a craftsman 15hp 4-stroke when I was on it. ANd that trailbike was something my dad cooked up out of leftover parts from some nearby shops.....back in the early 90s.

Now this is not to say that I couldn’t learn anything. On the contrary, I learned quite a lot. I am ready to begin practicing on my old nighthawk and if it survives (which it probably should with just a few more scrapes and bumps) then I wouldn’t be opposed to taking the advanced courses with it. But on the TW, I just felt like the bike was not representative of what I would be riding on the street in terms of physics. We had an “obstacle encounter” that involved riding over multiple bits of debris..........And I had a massive grin and I just kept going faster and faster when hitting crap. That’s what a trail bike does. It takes all the shit you throw at it and asks “got another one in ya?” but I watched the riders on the stars have to struggle through figuring out how to remain stable when riding over a 2x4 at 25mph. It is not easy to do it consistently well.

I guess I can see their point of “the basics remain the same” as countersteering was actually very easy at low speeds on the TW. I could also do ridiculously tight U-turns on it. It chugs like a diseased tug boat but I managed to work the clutch and throttle like a surgeon and did a U-turn in about.....15 feet? Something like that. They give you 24 to do it as practice and the test is 20. So it can be wrangled. I just wish I left with more confidence in my own bike. I can already tell what skills/turns I need to practice with my much heavier, much lower, much longer nighthawk. I don’t think I’ll be able to easily roll such a tight u-turn my first try. I don’t think hitting a 2x4 will be the same with much lower profile tires. I think the lutch will hopefully have more of a friction zone and I REALLY hope the dual front disc brakes are more consistent than a single tiny disc and a nearly non-existant drum.

I am incredibly glad I did it and I am thankful I got my experience this way instead of getting a learner’s permit form the state and just sorta winging it but I just wish I could’ve had even the enduro. There was only two XT250s and three Star 250s. There were 12 people. I got unlucky this time I guess. But I made it work and rocked as hard as I could with a single 200cc thumper. Side note for Peter Black - The TW200 is a god awful first bike. Get an XT250 instead if you’re in the yamaha dealership. Other than that, get your ass out to the MSF basic rider course.

DISCUSSION (22)

Fookin' Prawns > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 01:39

Nice! I'm thinking about getting my endorsement by going to a school and learning to ride, rather than getting a permit and teaching myself.

TheOnelectronic > Fookin' Prawns
05/18/2015 at 02:08

I would really recommend it. There are a lot of things that would take a long time, if ever, to figure out on your own.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Fookin' Prawns
05/18/2015 at 02:10

Definitely recommended to do it this way. You can beat on someone else’s bikes instead of your own. ALso a great way to build confidence and knowledge. Just pray you get Honda CBR300s or Ninja 250s instead of the “Yamaha farm collection” that we got.

Birddog > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 03:16

“But I made it work and rocked as hard as I could with a single 200cc thumper. Side note for Peter Black - The TW200 is a god awful first bike.”

You owe me a Beer. Maybe a keyboard too..

Fookin' Prawns > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 03:23

My roommate is pushing me to get a Ninja 250 pretty hard. Is it bad that I want an enduro, though? I almost bought an old-ass Yamaha DT100.

cornerslide > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 05:50

Congrats. Now let’s go back to the part about the massage and the scotch.....................

Mike > Fookin' Prawns
05/18/2015 at 07:07

Nah, I’m planning on getting a light-ish adventure bike as my first “real” bike. Something like an F650GS, probably. Gonna do the MSF course at some point in the next month or two.

BloodlessWeevil > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 07:50

Congrats. If you want to build confidence with your bike, try finding an empty parking lot (early morning/weekend) and practicing some of the drills you learned from the course. You can find layouts and drills online (don’t have a link, google it) and those practice cones are dirt cheap: http://www.amazon.com/Set-Disc-Cones…

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > cornerslide
05/18/2015 at 08:11

Use your imagination.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Fookin' Prawns
05/18/2015 at 08:13

250cc-400cc enduros seem pretty tame. Not really high strung or difficult to ride so go for it. The basic advice the motorcycle experts on here gave is to avoid the modern 600cc+ sport bikes tuned for racing. Basically once power gets into triple digits.....probably not a beginner bike. 30-60hp seems to be the rough range on a smaller bike for a good beginner bike.

uofime > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 09:46

After my course the instructors told us that we were more than welcome to and they in fact highly recommended that we come back and use the course, which they typically just leave set up on weekends, on our own bikes later once we had them.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > uofime
05/18/2015 at 10:41

Our area was a parking lot back area for a dealership. Sadly, it gets taken down after every class.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Birddog
05/18/2015 at 10:43

I make no apologies.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > BloodlessWeevil
05/18/2015 at 10:44

I need to find a good parking lot. There’s some churches down the street from me. I might use those. But first I need a battery that can hold 12 volts.......First battery didn’t fit and the second battery struggles to hit 11? It’s not a big enough batter to turn the engine over at that level.....

uofime > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 10:47

That’s too bad. Every bike is a bit different. We had the same bike mix when I did my course. Moving to my ninja 250 was a revelation in handling. You realize now why many caution against the old Japanese bikes for first timers.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > uofime
05/18/2015 at 11:08

Eh, I’ve heard the opposite and that the 80s UJM style standards are great first bikes. You just need to understand you will need to spend some money to make sure the brakes and engine and electrics are in good order. Of course the newer 250cc sport bikes are great too since they need very little work if they’re from the early 2000s and are easy to balance and turn.

uofime > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 11:37

I’ve ridden both, the UJM was well cared for and the suspension, the brakes and overall steering/handling were still not good. If all you’re going to do is blast down straight roads, yes UJM’s have twice the power, yes they are much faster, but if you ride on a nice curvy road in the mountains, which in my opinion is the only fun place to ride, you’d be so much happier on a little ninja. The way that little bike handles is sublime, you can buy new bikes that cost far more that would struggle to keep up with a ninja in the twisties and not be nearly as fun.

The ninja 250 is the Miata of the motorcycle world

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > uofime
05/18/2015 at 11:51

My UJM was 800$ and had recent service history and new tires. Ninja 250s of siilar price were........ummmm.......beaten hard.

uofime > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 12:00

yeah, they hold their value obnoxiously well. That’s bad when you buy, but great when you sell.

Manny05x > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 12:56

I am going to be taking classes to start riding myself, too bad the next available days they have are in July. I want a Honda cb300f as my first bike, I have also looked into getting a grom.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Manny05x
05/18/2015 at 13:53

I would try to avoid buying new if possible. Unless its super cheap. Or you really love riding daily then using like a 2008 cb250 for a month or two before buying a new cb300 is possible. I’m not sure how often or where I will be riding my own bike so I went cheap to start. In case I don’t like it, I’m not out too much money.

Manny05x > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/18/2015 at 14:37

Yeah I am going to see what's the best for me. I really like the cb300f msrp $3900.