Third Day Of Rider’s Edge Course Done

With the rain that we had yesterday, the temperature was was great. Today, on the other hand, was uncomfortably hot. Definitely a day to be playing in the sprinklers, or staying indoors, or doing anything but finishing the last day of the Rider's Edge motorcycle safety course.

Everyone was a bit anxious, including me. From what I heard, some people didn't sleep much the night before, worrying about the written test that we were going to take today, or worrying about the riding skills test.

I wasn't really worried, but kind of a little...on edge. It was hot and I hadn't slept between 2 in the morning and 4 in the morning because I had some great idea that absolutely had to be worked on right then and there instead of waiting for the morning.

We'd all done the motorcycle scenarios, learned the techniques, ridden around a bit and gotten more or less comfortable with the bikes. Still, some people were still having problems with starting out and easing out on the clutch. They were stalling and having to restart the bikes, which threw some people off their game.

We did an exercise where we rode around in a circle, crossing 2x4's using the proper technique. Nobody had any problems. We did a few other exercises without any problems. Everyone was doing well.

The class started the organized practice run for the actual test after a short break. The test was going to consist of doing a figure 8 at low speed in a small box, then going up to 2nd gear and swerving to avoid an obstacle while coming to a stop and braking correctly. After that, we were going to do a braking test where you had to stop in the shortest distance possible after your front wheel passed two cones. After that, we were going to do a turning test where we had to stay in the lines of a wide turn while in 2nd gear and then coming to a stop on a line.

Not especially difficult stuff. We'd all done it before. The problem was that this time, it counted. You could lose points for putting your foot down, or missing a line, or not going fast enough, or anticipating the stop, or stopping late, or taking too long to stop. You'd automatically fail if you dropped the bike, or did something else that was unsafe.

I went first and evidently passed the first evaluation with flying colors. I thought I hit a line during the figure 8, but I guess the instructors didn't see it.

The second person went and passed, then the third, then the fourth.

Then, at some point, one of the girls taking the course used her front brake while turning through the figure 8 and went down hard.

Since she'd dropped the bike, she was done. And, since she was done, we were all left thinking about how easy it would be for us to screw up and end up having gone through these three days for nothing. So I think I speak for everyone else when I say that we were all biting our nails while we finished the rest of the tests.

Nobody else failed.

So we took a quick lunch break and came back to take the written test, which wasn't hard at all. Everyone passed that too, which was a relief to all of us.

Our Group Tour Of Dillon Brothers Harley Davidson

After we were notified that we'd passed, it was time for our tour.

Regularly, Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson General Manager Mike Bischof is the guy who gives the Rider's Edge classes their tours of the dealership. He was busy that day, however, and sent his substitute:

Jason Davis. My sales guy.

Jason walked us all around the dealership, answering question after question and being patient with new riders.

I've been around the dealership before, but this was a good little tour. We went into the service department where I saw...my bike, being brought out to be worked on.

Yes, I've finalized my deal with Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson and Jason Davis. We came to some numbers I could live with, added a whole slew of parts (that will probably be followed up with by a whole lot more) and set the delivery date.

I get my bike on Friday. At noon.

Sharp.

Yeah, I'm a little excited.

The tour finished up on the Dillon Harley sales floor, where Jason Davis went through all the bikes, explaining what they were all about and the differences between them.

I learned that the bike that Dillon Harley sells the most of is the Ultra Classic, followed by the Heritage Softail Classic.

I learned about Buell bikes, which Jason happens to ride. He's a big proponent of Buell motorcycles, and after hearing his spiel on why they rock, I'm inclined to agree - Buell bikes are pretty damn well-thought-out. And their most expensive model is something like $10,000 or so. Not too expensive.

Jason showed us the VSRC - the V-Rod. I actually didn't like that bike before for some reason, but after Jason showed it to me and went over it somewhat, I started having second thoughts about it. Maybe as a second bike. Who knows?

Once the tour was done, we all went back upstairs to have cake, get our certificates and some other goodies. We each received a $25 gift certificate to Dillon Brothers, which will be gone very quickly in my case. We also received a bike coaster, to keep the kickstand on a motorcycle from sinking into hot asphalt.

That done, I left, drove over to the DMV and had them put the M in the endorsement section of my driver's license. That cost $5 and...I was done.

I am now an authorized rider of motorcycles in the state of Nebraska.

Just Starting The Work On My Motorcycle

Second Day Of Rider’s Edge Course Done

The two people who I mentioned before that had problems controlling their motorcycles yesterday didn't show up today. I was not particularly surprised.

I was looking forward to today's class, because, according to the instructors, we were going to spend a lot more time on the motorcycles and less time in the classroom.

From 7:30 in the morning until about 1 in the afternoon, we were on the bikes and riding. The class went through about 10 exercises, some more difficult than the others. The little Buell Blasts made it all pretty easy, however. I'd hate to have to do some of the low-speed stuff on a full dresser.

One lady dropped her bike twice on her foot. Once after she came to a stop and (I guess) forgot to put her feet down, and once after she forgot to put her kickstand down. Some people learn the hard way.

All the little exercises were fun, and I could definitely tell that I was better at controlling the bike by the end of the day than I was at the beginning.

We had a bit of rain while we were riding, which was sometimes coming down pretty hard. I didn't experience any wheel slip, which was my biggest worry.

Tomorrow, we're going to be on the track the first thing again to practice a bit and take the final riding test. After that, we're going to head into the classroom on the top floor of Dillon Brothers Harley Davidson and take the final written exam. Presumably, after that's done, I can go pick up my motorcycle endorsement and shop for motorcycle insurance.

I pick up my new motorcycle on Friday at 9 in the morning. Can't wait.

First Day Of Rider’s Edge Course Done

As I mentioned before, I managed to get into an earlier date for the Rider's Edge motorcycle safety course offered at Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson here in Omaha, Nebraska.

After waking up, I gathered all the equipment I'd need for the class - one of my helmets, my sunglasses and my gloves - and headed over to Dillon Harley, showing up there at 7:30 in the morning. It was already warm and muggy.

The door to the service entrance was open, and after walking in I was directed upstairs to where the class was going to be held.

A few other people who had signed up to take the class were already in the classroom, watching an introductory video. I was very surprised to see that there were 5 men, the oldest of which was 75, and 5 women, the youngest of which was 19 or so. Most of the other people in the class seemed very interested in buying and riding a Harley-Davidson bike of some kind.

It looks like Harley-Davidson's marketing to women might be paying off?

The instructors were great, they really made everyone feel at home and welcome. They did remind everyone that in order to get on a bike later on that day, we'd have to be fully equipped to ride. Helmet, eye protection, long sleeves, long pants, boots and gloves were all necessary. Because of the heat, I would have preferred to be able to wear some long shorts instead of jeans, but that idea was nixed during an earlier phone call I'd gotten from the safety course instructors.

Did I mention it was already hot at 7:30 in the morning? Did I mention that the temperature was supposed to get up to about 100 degrees? Did I mention how humid it was?

Still, I was excited that I was finally in the class that'd result in me getting my motorcycle license, so I figured I'd suck it up for a few days. The result would be worth it.

After a few "get-to-know-everyone" exercises, we started to go over the Motorcycle Safety Foundation manuals that we'd gotten mailed to us the weeks prior to the class. A lot of the information was review to me, but there were people there who obviously hadn't ridden a motorcycle before so they were getting some valuable info.

Breaks were frequent, but not excessive.

The information presented was useful, and refreshed a lot of what I had known previously but forgotten.

Lunch was at 11:30 and lasted for an hour. Since Dillon Harley is about 5 minutes from my house, I just went back home and ate lunch there. Other people who were taking the course and who didn't live so close to the Dillon Brothers Harley dealership had a good selection of places that they could pick up either fast-food or not-so-fast-food.

After lunch we did some quick review over the common controls of a motorcycle and then headed over to the range, which was right next to the new Dillon Brothers Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki dealership that was being built right next to the Dillon Brothers Harley dealership. One-stop shopping for just about every motorcycle brand that could interest you. Not bad.

It was about 1:30 or so when we stepped foot on the range, and it was hot - at least 100 degrees hot. And it was humid. I started sweating immediately. Fortunately, I had brought a cooler filled with 4 water bottles, some coke and ice - which I went back to whenever we had a break. By the time we were done, all my drinks were gone.

We each picked out a bike. The motorcycles we were going to learn on were Buell Blasts. A Buell Blast is a smaller sports bike - only 500cc. The bikes had seen better days, which I kind of expected. These are the motorcycles that people train on, after all. They're going to get dropped, and they're not going to be pristine.

The class ran through some directed exercises which looked like motorcycle aerobics. We got on, we got off, we turned the bikes on, we turned the bikes off. From there, we graduated to walking the motorcycles back and forth, learning how they felt. Then we moved to turning them on and finding the clutch friction zone, rocking back and forth.

Fun stuff.

It was a little slow for me, but I could tell that some people were having difficulty with it. Others just needed a little practice and picked it right up.

Eventually we got to go from one end of the course to the other, after which we'd go back to neutral, turn around and do it again. My group was slowed down by two of the people in it, but what are you going to do? Because I was being slowed down a bit, I kind of got a little frustrated with the speed of the class and started to "forget" to shift down to neutral while turning. It all came back to me and I did quite well. I would, at this point, have no problem hitting the street on this little bike.

One of the older gentlemen in the group seemed to have a very hard time controlling his motorcycle. He didn't drop it, but didn't manage to figure out how to get to the point where his feet were up. He also looked like he was having a very tough time turning the thing while he walked. I don't think we'll see him back tomorrow.

Another lady seemed to sort of grasp the concept of letting the bike do the work, but she also seemed to have problems controlling things. It was the whole "slowly let out the clutch and roll the throttle" concept which she struggled with - which is understandable if you've never driven a standard shift. She managed along while we were out there, but when it came time to finish up, she neglected to put the kickstand down while getting off the bike and it fell on her.

I'm not sure we'll see her tomorrow either. We'll see.

Tomorrow, we are going to be out on the course the first thing in the morning, which should help a bit with the heat. We'll have a whole slew of exercises to go through, so I'm hoping to learn something.

At this point, I'm chomping at the bit to get my own motorcycle.

Jason Davis at Dillon Brothers Harley-Davidson is in the process of helping me out with that, and I'll give you more info on that later.