I know I wanted to learn as much as possible about taking the MSF course before I started. Watching YouTube videos showed me what was in the test and I learned what I could, but there were several things I learned while taking the MSF Learn to Ride class that I wanted to share.
I am a new motorcycle rider and took a course through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation or MSF to learn and take the test to get my motorcycle endorsement. I did a fair amount of research to know what I would be tested on. This post isn’t about what skills you will learn, but the useful things that no one told me.
First of all – this is my experience. How it went for me may not be completely universal – a lot depends on who your instructors are and where you take the class.
Taking the MSF course at my local Harley Davidson
My class was at my local Harley Dealership – Hot Rod Harley Davidson in Muskegon, MI. We learned on Harleys and they were good bikes. I’ve heard horror stories about people taking courses with bikes that had all kinds of issues – that was not my experience.
Watch the video
The 5 things I learned about the MSF class:
1. Instructors
First thing I learned is that the instructors are very committed. We had 2 “coaches” as they called them, and both had been motorcycle riders for a long time. When you ride for a long time, you learn a lot about the things that can go wrong. The coaches I had were very committed to making sure we learned as much as possible to help us be safe riders.
2. Students taking a Learn to Ride class
The class I was in had a big range of age and experience. We were almost evenly split between men and women (actually one more woman than men), and ages were all over the place. There were people in their 20’s all the way up to a man in his 70’s. There were also other women around my age. There’s a wide variety of people interested in learning to ride a motorcycle.
3. Classroom work for the MSF course
Before I started the class, I couldn’t find much of anything about the classroom work involved. It turns out that’s most likely because the classroom work wasn’t really a big deal. The instructors explained things and shared stories, pointing out anything especially important.
Before the written test we practiced with flash cards and it seemed like everyone knew the answers – it had been easy to learn them in the hours of classroom work. There wasn’t really any studying necessary. Just pay attention, especially to things the instructors point out as being important to know.
4. MSF skills learned
The skills you practice on the range are more difficult than what you will do in the final test. There are more turns, swerves, and complicated patterns. The final evaluation is much more basic.
We had to drive over a 2’x4′ for practice, which does not happen in the test. This was great because I would have been terrified of a 2’x4′ in the road. I’s good to know that if you see something like that in the road and trying to avoid it will put you at risk, you can ride over it – it’s a great confidence builder to know that the bike is capable of doing it – and you are too.
While all of the skills you learn are important, pay special attention to the hard braking and swerving. If you ever need to do either of these things, it needs to be automatic, so make sure you master them.
5. MSF course road test
If you were starting to feel comfortable with learning the skills – knowing that what you’re practicing is more difficult than the test – prepare for all that to go away when it’s time for the evaluation. At least it did for me. As soon as the evaluation started, I couldn’t do even the most basic things – I struggled to pick my feet up when I got going. I didn’t realize how nervous I was until I started falling apart.
This is where it helped that you did practice skills more difficult than the actual test. Because test anxiety is real! And you are allowed some mistakes. I got some points for going outside of the box during a U-turn and for taking too long to stop on the hard braking. But I was still well within the range to pass. You don’t have to be perfect. I know some people beat themselves up over that, but all you have to do is pass.
Good luck taking the MSF Learn to Ride course!
Those are the 5 things I learned taking the MSF class. I hope they help you better understand what’s it like to prepare you for taking the Learn to Ride class!
Want more motorcycle stories?
Read how I bought my first motorcycle at 54 years old, then learned to ride: Am I too old for new adventures?