It was cold and dark when I got up on Saturday morning but it didn’t matter, I was finally taking my motorcycle safety class! I had been registered for a class two weeks previously right after I bought my scooter, but they had canceled the class because the weather was supposed to be cold. Ha. That weekend ended being warm!
Still at 5:30AM as I left, it was 10F at the house so I was a little nervous that all we’d be able to do was the indoor lecture portion today. It was supposed to be 45F and sunny and in Colorado, if it is sunny even when its cold, you warm up (higher elevation + lower humidity = more intense sunlight).
As I drove along the Peak-to-Peak highway I dreamed ahead to this coming summer and hearing the drone of Harleys riding through “po-taa-to, po-taa-to”… and that I might be able to join them on my scooter “ringggg-dinggg-dingg-dinnggg” And then I saw some elk on the slope and really started paying attention to the road. It was clear. The canyon road was clear, so was Highway 36 and I-70.
An hour and a half into my drive and a mere 3 miles from the Aurora Town Center where the class was to be taken there was a thick rind of snow on the road. I watched as a truck wildly fish tailed almost into the wall and the traffic start to slow down – it was slippery and I was going to be late!
The parking lot was covered in snow. I saw one fellow walking to the mall entrance with his helmet, so I knew I was in the right place. There ended up being five of us and our instructor, Curt. Curt has years of riding and racing motorcross experience, and while I think he’d prefer everyone to ride motorcycles, he was cool with the two of us who wanted to take the course on scooters.
Our class was quite a mix: an attorney who plans to ride dual sports with his wife and teenage son, a young man who graduated early and moved to Colorado for school, a former college-football star about my age, a young woman who is also in college, and me, a middle-aged computer and education geek doing her part to help save the environment by using less gas.
The morning passed quickly; we covered the homework questions and watched videos that helped show important concepts, then we took the written test. If you read the MSF book, you’ll pass the test. We all did. Then we took a lunch hour and met at the riding range – it’s a section of the mall parking lot that has been blocked off by cones. Curt had us walk the lot to prove to ourselves that there was no ice.
It had warmed up to 35F and they had plowed the lot, so there really was no ice, just wet areas. Fine, we’re good to go! And we started off with baby steps by duck walking our bikes getting used to the throttle and clutch from one cone to another. The hardest part was pushing our bikes in a tiny s to turn around. The second hardest part was learning to shift (for the motorcycles). I really think that if there weren't so much machismo attached to motorcycles, that starting to learn on scooters without shifting would be (is) better, and then once the handling skills are down, then teach the shifting part. Look at driver's ed for cars... I was riding a Kymco Bet & Win 250 cc – it weighs 350lbs! The other scooter was a Vento Phantom 150 and two Suzuki dual sport 200’s and a Suzuki cruiser ~250cc. 350 pounds is a lot of weight to push on a slight incline.
It was great once we were allowed to use power to help turn ourselves around. We practiced riding straight and then gentle curves and even gentle swerves. I won’t describe all of the exercises, I will say that MSF has really thought through their training program and be a training developer myself, it is SO nice to take classes that are well thought out... and theirs is meticulous in preparing you.
My body and head stayed warm the whole time; I had on a polar-max undershirt and long underwear, a lightweight poly and wind resistant vest, a neck gaitor, and an Olympia Air-glide jacket plus jeans. I had on hiking boots and wool socks – my feet were toasty. My hands stayed warm for most of the afternoon and then suddenly they got cold and I couldn’t do anything to get them warm. My cold went from slightly annoying to turn-on-the-faucet and I went through a whole pack of tissues. Oddly my nose only ran when we stopped riding.
With our weather delay we only made it through 6 and a half exercises our first day and by the time we left it was getting very overcast, dark, and cold. Still I was thrilled to have ridden at all! Even the long commute back home was OK – I crashed early that night, my hips and wrists a little sore.
Day2, Sunday. We didn’t start until a little later to give the sun time to re-melt any ice. We had 10 ½ exercises to get through and all of us were chomping at the bit to practice our quick stops, swerving around dump trucks (in reality little green cones), and counterweight our way through that little box. My ears wouldn’t equalize (my drive took me from 8200’ to 5400’) and I was a little worried that my balance would be off. We started off the day at ~33F.
And off we went! All of the exercises went smoothly; the swerves came more easily today than yesterday. Except for one exercise that stumped me – a little rectangular box where you have to do 2 U-turns (a complete S) – the second try I almost did it and then it went downhill from there. I need to turn my head more and keep it turned. Counterweight more, especially the right-hand curve. Finesse the brake with the throttle partly on. I felt like a failure.
The temperature climbed to 38F for most of the day with a spike of 46F when the clouds opened for an hour, and was just going below freezing when we were taking our test. The wind kicked up to a constant +10mph for an hour or so. It was not dangerous and gave us some practice with dealing with gusts. My ears equalized by lunchtime.
Later in the day we practiced the box one more time. The other scooterist did yet another big box without touching down. I asked her about her approach and she was like ‘f**k the box, I’ll do what I can”. Wow. Its refreshing to get an alternate perspective so I tried that approach and I decided that if I did a bigger box I was OK.
My body ached all over, my back, my hands and wrists, my hips; the temperatures and wind sapped my body of energy and I was stiff by the test, so as I did the S-shaped U-turns for the box, I did my best and yes, I went outside of the lines. Twice! Lightning didn’t strike; a horde of shrieking Valkyries didn’t descend from the heavens to smote me; I didn’t turn into a slime-mold; and I still passed the final riding test… which in Colorado means I get my motorcycle endorsement!
One person had a perfect 0 – our instructor still warned him to keep practicing… our rides had all been below 15mph so there’s a lot more to learn. He gave each of us specific areas that we needed to work on. Me, I need to work on riding slowly in tight circles with my weight counter-balancing the lean of the bike. I felt this proper balance once or twice during the day… something to keep working on.
As I drove home I was elated to have come so far - we had ridden about 15 hours in two days, most of it on Sunday – I had gone from feeling like I didn’t know what I was doing to feeling good that I have some specific techniques I can use while riding to keep myself safe.... I’ve heard the term “ride safe” and wondered “well, of course, I going to ride safely”; now, Ride Safe really means something and it is more than a cerebral understanding. My body knows what it means too.
Now if it would just stop snowing so I could go to a parking lot and ride…
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