I wanted to poop my pants!

Now that I have your attention, let me talk about the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) course.  My goal with this post is to inform MSF virgins about what to expect with the course itself and to share my roller coaster of emotions during the experience.

My experience with it can be summed up in one word:  intense.  I would think of a word more intense than "intense" but it would explode.  It was intense physically but more so emotionally.  I challenged my body to foreign concepts (my hand asked me what the hell a "clutch" is).  I challenged my bravery to levels never explored before.  If you read my first post, I never really did adventurous anythings before.

Gah I was dreading the MSF course!!  I would dream (more like nightmare) that I would fall off my bike, it'd run over me, leaving my crushed skull in a pool of my mushed up bloody guts.  Nice image huh?  Okay maybe my daydreams weren't that graphic, but my anxiety about taking the course was so high, it might as well have been.  The loud engine, huge machine I was straddling, the speed, and vulnerability was a lot to handle.  (I got over it of course!)

The only experience I had with riding was in the back a handful of times and walk around while sitting on the bike, that's it.  Good thing that the course is designed for people who have never touched a bike before!

If you're looking for a group to learn from, I strongly recommend Bike Smart.  High reviews on Yelp and high reviews from Liezl =)  Instructors know how to tell you what you're doing wrong without shaming you.  They say things in a very positive and empowering way - the best kind of teachers out there!!

Here's a link that shows what kinds of exercises you'll be learning:
Intro to Bike Smart safety course

Don't want to overwhelm folks with too much info, so I'll post about the classroom part and riding part later.  See you soon!!

Posted 2/13/11