SuzukiSavage.com - MSF Experienced Rider Course report

Hard Corps

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MSF Experienced Rider Course report
09/20/09 at 13:59:48

So, just this past Friday I completed the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's ERC. The military pays for it, so I took advantage of it (The Marine Corps lost more guys on motorcycles last year than we did in Iraq/Afghanistan).

It was largely a repeat of the Basic Rider Course (BRC), with several minor changes. First of all, they assume you know how to start the bike, power-walk it and find the "friction-zone" with the clutch. So that part is omitted.

Secondly, it's only a one day course. The hours of classroom time spent identifying parts of a bike, and road fundamentals are also absent. It is, after all, for experienced riders.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that you use your own bike. Whether a GoldWing (like the one instructor used for demonstrations!) or a Ninja 250 (one of the students), you will be practicing on the bike you use every day, and not some tiny little Rebel/GZ250.

The emphasis is on practical application of BRC techniques and ramping it up just a bit with regards to speed and power when riding. The stopping distances seem shorter than I remember from the BRC and they encouraged us to speed up more throughout the course.

There is more student participation between exercises, and the students drive the comments while the instructors just gently guide the discussion.

For the military there is a required test of the skills practiced, along with a written test.

The Savage handled great for me, as usual: plenty of power and maneuverability second only to the smallest of the sport-bikes. I ended up with the best score in the class- 100% on both the riding and written tests. I owe this to my overabundance of caution and devotion to riding, fostered largely in part by my participation in this forum.

Hard to imagine a better place there could be than this forum: great people in love with a great bike. Maybe out riding with y'all...

Semper Fi.

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babyhog Serious Thumper Offline Find a Cure for Breast Cancer! NOW!! Posts: 3802 WV Gender:	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #1 - 09/20/09 at 18:13:11 Congrats on your 100% score! Great Job! ~
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runwyrlph Serious Thumper Offline Semper ubi sub ubi Posts: 846 pa Gender:	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #2 - 09/20/09 at 18:23:13 good job - i took my course this summer also - found it to be fun and helpful !
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Hard Corps

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Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report
Reply #3 - 09/20/09 at 18:43:47

The military will also pay for a sport-bike track course, which I think would be cool, but I'd have to have my own sport-bike. Don't think that's gonna happen. Grin

I do think I'll take this course annually as long as they pay for it. It gives some good refreshers and is always fun to get a day off work to go riding and practice fundamentals.

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Black 2003, Bare-bones, Somewhere along Route 66, Marine Corps Sergeant

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bill67 Serious Thumper Offline old tired Posts: 8517 genoa city wisconsin Gender:	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #4 - 09/20/09 at 19:35:16 I never took a course and never been down in 38 years.
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SavageDude Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Posts: 561 OC_California Gender:	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #5 - 09/20/09 at 20:38:37 bill67 wrote on 09/20/09 at 19:35:16: I never took a course and never been down in 38 years. Never say never. It's should be "I haven't been down yet!"
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verslagen1

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Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report
Reply #6 - 09/20/09 at 20:53:45

SavageDude wrote on 09/20/09 at 20:38:37:

bill67 wrote on 09/20/09 at 19:35:16:

I never took a course and never been down in 38 years.

Never say never. It's should be "I haven't been down yet!" Grin

Why don't you except that ol' bill has never been down?
He's never pushed his bike hard enough to get it over 140°F
so why wouldn't take every precaution known to man and pull over and hide behind a tree when ever a blue haired demon is within eyesight.

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Hard Corps Full Member Offline Freedom is worth facing your fears Posts: 236 Kansas City, Missouri Gender:	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #7 - 09/20/09 at 21:27:23 I gotta give Bill his due respect. He's been riding for longer than I've been alive. On the other hand, don't some states have laws that require annual driver's testing for people over a certain age...
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boofer Ex Member	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #8 - 09/20/09 at 22:16:50 "Down" doesn't count in the yard on wet grass or if nobody sees you. It's like football. I think your knee has to touch, also. Boofer
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PTRider

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Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report
Reply #9 - 09/21/09 at 07:45:33

I also passed the ERC this summer. The card was good for an insurance discount, and some of the slow speed instruction was valuable. Other than that, the way this course was taught by the instructors I had was very thin...they did what was in the MSF Rider Card booklets, and that's it. Mediocre instructors teaching minimal curriculum. Most of the attendees at my course were military active duty, military retirees, or contractors on military bases all needing the card for two-wheel base access. It is too bad the military is drinking the MSF koolaid.

Except for the supervised slow riding drills, I got much more from David L. Hough's More Proficient Motorcycling and Lee Parks' Total Control books. I hope to take Lee Parks' riding course next summer.

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bill67 Serious Thumper Offline old tired Posts: 8517 genoa city wisconsin Gender:	Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report Reply #10 - 09/21/09 at 07:52:42 Hard Corps wrote on 09/20/09 at 21:27:23: I gotta give Bill his due respect. He's been riding for longer than I've been alive. On the other hand, don't some states have laws that require annual driver's testing for people over a certain age... Its 115 in wisconsin hard corps
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verslagen1

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Re: MSF Experienced Rider Course report
Reply #11 - 09/21/09 at 09:08:09

bill67 wrote on 09/21/09 at 07:52:42:

Hard Corps wrote on 09/20/09 at 21:27:23:

I gotta give Bill his due respect. He's been riding for longer than I've been alive. On the other hand, don't some states have laws that require annual driver's testing for people over a certain age...

Its 115 in wisconsin hard corps

So now we know how they plan to control to reduce the population in Wisconson. Shocked

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