- This topic has 19 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 11 months ago by gitchy42.
Time for Training
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April 30, 2010 at 12:44 am #3915gitchy42Participant
Well, the Team Oregon motorcycle training course I’m taking starts tomorrow evening. I’m not sure if I’m nervous, or anxious. I’m sure that I’ll do well, but there is always that little bit of doubt back there.
Anyways, I am definitely looking forward to the training, and getting my endorsement in the very near future. I’ll post how the training goes, a daily update and ‘review’, as it were. Anyways, hope everyone has a great weekend
April 30, 2010 at 4:31 am #26070eonParticipantNot sure if I answered your concerns before but I’ve certainly given this advice before. Forget about tests and licenses and simply go in there to learn and to have fun. If you do that the rest will follow. You can always take the test another day so just relax and remember your are doing this cause it’s fun!!
May 1, 2010 at 4:29 am #26081gitchy42ParticipantHi Everyone,
Part one of the training is done, a two-hour classroom section. We did introductions, gear introduction, some theory and went over the rules for the range day tomorrow. The instructor, Dan, seems to be knowledgeable. We mostly went through a workbook, but didn’t read verbatim from the workbook.
All in all I thought that this section went well, back at it again tomorrow.
May 1, 2010 at 4:30 am #26082gitchy42ParticipantThanks for the advice, I appreciate it.
May 2, 2010 at 2:11 am #26108owlieParticipantGlad to hear the classroom section went well. I hope that today also went well. I know for me it was an exercise in frustration, but the second day was an absolute blast.
Best of luck!
May 2, 2010 at 3:54 am #26111gitchy42ParticipantFirst, thanks for the encouragement!
Part One today was 5 hours of practical, on the bike training, with out two instructors; Ted and Carol. Carol seems like a nice, laid back person that is a thorough and conscientious instructor. Ted seemed a little ADD, and seems a bit high-strung. It surprised me a little to find out that the V-Strom in the lot was Ted’s, and the FZ6 in the lot was Carol’s
I was put onto a Yamaha TW125. The training started with finding the controls, starting and shutting down the engine, then feeling out the friction zone……and more friction zone. Friction zone ride/walk it over and back a few times. Then, we all lined up, two lines opposite sides of the range and did the ride/walk between cones, stopping at each one, spaced about 20 feet apart. After that between the large cones, about 40 feet apart. Then it was time to ride, lol. They had us go about 80-100 feet (I think, not the best judge of distance), stop, then get in the other line. Then slow ovals, then learning to shift. One person in the class had trouble with the shifting, but managed to get the hang of it by the end of the day. Pretty much the rest of the day was doing ovals one way, or the other, sometimes shifting, sometimes just staying in one gear. We were coached to slow, look, roll, push to go through the corners. That’s slow down for the turn, look through the turn, roll on the throttle (a little) and push the bar to set the lean through the turn. It was interesting that when Ted and Carol stood at the ends of the range, everyone seemed to do better at Carol’s end. Well, time well spent, my skills definitely improved through the exercises, though that’s not hard to do considering I was almost at 0 at the beginning.
After the bike session was two more hours in the classroom, learning to scan the road and identify potential problems and how to deal with them. For this they put a slide on the overhead, turned the overhead on for a few seconds, then the class had to describe the scenario, identify potential threats and work out how to deal with those threats. We talked about lane selection, lane position, how to negotiate different kinds of turns…umm and the theory of swerving and emergency breaking in a turn.
Tomorrow back at it in the morning with another classroom section, knowledge test, then more time one the bikes and I would assume the practical test.
Oh, one more thing i learned today, Arai helmets are not for me, at least not the style I was wearing today.
May 3, 2010 at 2:16 am #26126gitchy42ParticipantWow, through the last day. We started in the classroom this morning, learning how to deal with ‘special situations’, ie poor weather, obstacles in the roadway, debris, gravel roads, small animals, etc. Also learned why NOT to ride while impaired. Then the written test.
On the range, more riding in ovals, hard braking, swerving, braking in a turn, some more weaving. Then the practical test.
I am happy to say that I passed the written test at 96% and the practical test with 100% (YaY)!!
Now on to getting my endorsement, just have to fill out the paperwork and take in my completion card. Then, GET A BIKE. Unfortunately, on craigslist the only bikes under about $2000 in my area are either old (late 70’s/early 80’s), or abused/in poor condition. Because of this I’m probably going to go for a new bike, or used from the dealership. If I’m going to have to pay between 2-4000, I want a bike that I know I’m not going to have problems with. But, I’m going to keep looking. Probably won’t be buying a bike till after next pay day, so I have a couple weeks
May 3, 2010 at 3:07 am #26128DinugePampleParticipantDid you know how to shift before you got there? With clutch and everything?
May 3, 2010 at 3:49 am #26130gitchy42ParticipantI have driven a manual car (prefer to actually, my Ranger is an Auto) ;-( so the concept of shifting was not foreign to me. Also, I have ridden quads before, so I was familiar with the shifter position and shift pattern. The difference here was that I was on a motorcycle, a little more to think about when shifting. In my class it seemed that most people understood what was going on.
There was one person that was having a lot of trouble with shifting. I talked to her a little during breaks, it seems that she can’t shift at all in cars either. I suggested that she look at scooters, twist and GO, lol.
May 3, 2010 at 4:45 am #26131DinugePampleParticipantI’ve ridden quad’s too, so I know the position, just the ones I’ve ridden didn’t have a clutch. And they had a thumb throttle thing.
I’ve never really been in the position to drive a manual car, even though when I was 13 one of my dads girlfriends tried to teach me. Didn’t really work out too good. I couldn’t get it to move. Hahaha.
May 3, 2010 at 6:05 am #26133madjak30ParticipantI start my course next Wednesday, I had to take a couple of days off work…either that or wait until mid June, so I used a little of my vacation time…this will be a long week…next week will go faster, I will be out of town until my course, so I won’t have time to think about it…I’m in Alberta, Canada, but it sounds like the course layout is similar, except we do all the classroom stuff on the first evening (4hrs), then it is all practical for the other two days (6hrs per day)
May 3, 2010 at 11:06 am #26134TrialsRiderParticipant…don’t do that,
giving up on driving anything that has more than 1 gear is like never learning to chew because baby food is too easy, gear selection is not rocket science and after a while, I guarantee it will feel natural.May 3, 2010 at 9:21 pm #26143owlieParticipantHa Ha! We’ll be taking riding courses at the same time! Whoo-hooo!! Okay, so that might mean something if we were even in the same country.
May 3, 2010 at 9:21 pm #26144owlieParticipantCongrats on making it through the class, Gitchy. It sounds like everything went smoothly- which is the best kind of report people can give…
So- how’d you do with the box? (U-turns..)
May 4, 2010 at 5:26 am #26156madjak30ParticipantJust because we don’t live in the same country, doesn’t mean we can’t keep each other informed of the progress…you know, your own online moral support line…
I know I am pretty pumped, I called to confirm the class today. I also called to arrange for the dirving test right after the class is complete…hopefully I can get my bike insured and registered on Saturday…then I can practice around my neighborhood all weekend…
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