Adventures in motorcycle instruction...

Just another day teaching new riders....

Botany lessons included?

I believe that is what we would call an "agricultural experience" at the track.


....Do tell the back story, it has to be pretty good.

They didn't tell us to camouflage the bike when parking it during my MSF course :huh

“Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it.”

Come out, come out where ever you are.

Pfftt. I don't see any ambulance.

Fail at riding.

Failed the course?

Not too much to tell.

I was watching the class as they were riding around the perimeter of the asphalt. As they made a turn to the right, one of them didn't complete the turn. I ran down to see if they were alright. They were completely fine. I asked what happened, they shrugged and said "I don't know". I said "Lemme take a crack at it.... you were making the turn, noticed the weeds and briars, your brain told you 'don't go there' but you couldn't look away and the motorcycle went straight to the spot where you were looking". The student said "Yeah - that's exactly what happened".

A cheap lesson for my student.

Target fixation is a powerful thing! We once had a student ride several hundred feet across an open, empty parking lot to run into a dumpster - The only thing out there.

Sounds like most crash reports- the difference is that experienced riders make something up to mask the target fixation/brake locking that actually occurred

Once had a student challenge his TW to a wrestling match in the middle of a basic perimeter drill. When I untangled him from the wreckage and asked what happened he said "I just started grabbin' shit an' stompin' on stuff".:huh

That is the quote of the day. Signature material for sure.

LOL! That's pure gold.

Damn straight, I'm good with my excuses.

That is funny.

This I believe. I know when I took the BRC I had never ridden a motorcycle before, but was comfortable with an ATC (auto clutch) bicycle and manual transmission auto. The first day on the course there were several times where I had to think before I knew which lever to pull or which pedal to push to accomplish what I was trying to do. I imagine someone with less experience and slower reaction times could easily get to the point where they had no idea what to do and they just react. Riders that have been doing this for a while or who grew up riding don't realize how much muscle memory you have to put together to ride a motorcycle smoothly. Its really not a simple thing.

Craig

There's a zen saying that goes something like "A great teacher will remember what it's like to be a student". That is how I try to teach :)

One thing I *think* helped me (its been a couple years), is doing things similar to how my dad taught me to drive stick.

First and foremost is to remember how to pull the clutch in, and how to brake.

AKA, in a car, "Both feet to the floor." If something bad happened, I was to punch the clutch through the floor, and get on the brakes. Similar thing on the bike, except I was slow on the brakes in order to not fall over.

Generally going to the car experience causes new riders to spend very little time in the friction zone, which leads to dumped engines and dumped bikes. Or really impressive TW200 wheelies.