Dust Off Your Motorcycle Skills This Summer

"It can be crazy to think that we recognize the need to tune up our motorcycle, but we don't tune up ourselves or our judgment," Motorcycle Safety Foundation President Tim Buche says. "Our skills and our judgment can be kind of perishable."

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) offers riding courses on everything from motorcycling basics to specialized skills for dirt bikes, sport bikes, and even three-wheelers. If you are one of the 50 percent of American motorcyclists who has never taken a riding course, an MSF Basic RiderCourse still might have a lot to offer, even if you have years of experience. "Anytime you're on a motorcycle is a fun and exciting experience," says MSF Vice President Robert Gladden, but for more advanced riders, MSF specialty courses offer an especially challenging brand of fun.

For instance, the MSF Advanced RiderCourse, developed as a civilian version of the Military Sport Bike RiderCourse that trains soldiers to ride safely, instructs students in the art of balancing a bike through tricky maneuvers. Riders may enjoy the thrill of steering with one hand through a series of curves, or braking hard on the way into a sharp turn, but mastering these skills can save lives out on the street, where unpredictable conditions demand skilled reflexes.

"Often you have to go out to a track day for something like that," says Gladden. "The Advanced RiderCourse is some of the most fun you're going to have on your motorcycle."

The MSF's Bike Bonding RiderCourses have attracted many cruiser and touring bike riders. Available in Basic and Ultimate levels, the Bike Bonding courses are more challenging and push riders to learn more about their bikes and their limits.

"Sometimes the students go into it not even sure they can accomplish what the coach is trying to teach them," Gladden says. Students practice challenging exercises, such as steering through turns that tighten up partway through the curve; these "decreasing radius turns" require riders to slow down, turn more sharply, or both throughout the curve, all while keeping the bike balanced. By the end of the course, the complex task becomes second nature.

Off the pavement, dirt bike enthusiasts and beginners alike enjoy splashing across creeks and bouncing over rocks on a dirt trail as part of a Trail Riding RiderCourse. A pair of coaches lead small groups of students over a network of trails, where they practice navigating obstacles like sandy patches, mud, and steep hills.

MSF courses have been adopted by most state motorcycle safety programs and the U.S. military, and many local colleges also offer MSF courses. The cost of a Basic RiderCourse ranges from free in some states to $400 in others, with a national average of $170; fees cover instruction, classroom materials, and the use of a motorcycle and helmet for the two-day course. Advanced RiderCourses usually cost less than $100 because they last only half a day, and students use their personal motorcycles. In some areas, advanced courses and specialty courses are scheduled according to demand. In addition to its RiderCourses, MSF has recently launched a series of iBooks for Apple users, along with an iTunes app focused on the physics of riding.

Other organizations, such as that National Motorcycle Training Institute and Stayin' Safe Advanced Rider Training, also offer motorcycle courses for riders at various experience levels.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/motorcycles/news/dust-off-your-motorcycle-skills-this-summer-15470893?src=rss

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