MSF: Stare at cones and ride over them. Questions and concerns.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > MSF: Stare at cones and ride over them. Questions and concerns.

xanif: Nov 3, 2010; Beer: Who was your first kill, not counting old men?
Eonwe: One of the outlaws in the Brotherhood.
Seraph84: I was there that day. You were only a squire, sixteen years old.
Eonwe: You killed Friendly Tumour with a counter-post. Best move I ever saw.; Oven Wrangler

Safety Dance posted:

Low displacement dual sports are easy mode for the MSF. Not to downplay your having passed, but they're really forgiving.

No argument here. Just completed the MSF this weekend and got my license. I picked a dual sport because I am 6' 5" and it had the highest frame and I didn't know anything because I hadn't ridden at all up until that point. Went home and put the plate on the SV650 I bought during the winter and hopped on. Immediately stalled, started it back up, let the clutch out too fast and stalled again, started it back up and tried to do a u-turn and dropped the bike (I didn't drop the bike during the MSF course at all).

I've been practicing counterweighting in parking lots since them and have dropped my bike two additional times which isn't particularly surprising since I went out of the box during the test. At least I didn't drop it and fail during the test and there is only cosmetic damage to my bike at the moment.

Still, the box and the rapid stop were horrible for me (I locked up my rear wheel during the rapid stop). Nailed the turn though and did decent on the swerve so that's something.

# ¿ May 27, 2015 20:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 14, 2024 03:55

xanif: Nov 3, 2010; Beer: Who was your first kill, not counting old men?
Eonwe: One of the outlaws in the Brotherhood.
Seraph84: I was there that day. You were only a squire, sixteen years old.
Eonwe: You killed Friendly Tumour with a counter-post. Best move I ever saw.; Oven Wrangler

Lynza posted:

When I took the MSF the first time, I failed. The box and the cone weave killed me. I never dropped the bike, though.

Here's the key:

Going slow and learning slow is awesome, but the problem when you're new is that the balance is wonky as hell if you're not accustomed to it. Don't try to ride it yet. Just do those little boring starter things they did in the MSF. Do the clutch/friction point practice on a flat place, if you have one. Just duck walk it for a bit until it feels reasonably comfortable.

Then work on going in a straight line and big, wide corners. Don't try to do The Box right off the bat. I tried, and I dropped my bike twice. Don't be like me!

Pretend you're doing the MSF as much as possible. They get you comfortable with the weight and balance of the bike well before you ever put both feet on the pegs. Do that for your SV and you'll have a much easier time of it. You're fresh out of the MSF, too, so that's totally in your favor. Go slow, don't try to do stuff that was hard on a smaller bike. Just get comfortable doing slow, wide corners and turns, and get up to 15-20 mph and practice your swerves, gently.

That'll help you some with the counterbalancing you need to not drop it when you do start working on The Box.

Yea I've gone back and I'm practicing the slow stuff in parking lots. Once I adjusted to the friction zone on my bike (and the significantly more power/weight characteristics) I haven't had any problems on the road. My strongest areas on the test were the 135 degree turn and the swerve though the swerve could definitely use work. PA doesn't test on the weave though it teaches it. Just tests on the box, quick stop, 135 turn, and swerve. I've driven around on back roads for a couple hours a day the last few days to get over the whole "There's no metal cage around me!" fear and I love riding on the roads. I just need to keep working on counterweighting at low speeds which I will start trying again once I get a better feel. Getting there but still a long way to go.

I'm loving riding so far and I have a friend with years of experience under his belt that is helping me in my weak areas now that I have passed the basic MSF training and got my license. He went riding with me on some empty residential streets (<25 mph) and some parking lot exercises and gave tips until I learned the very basic feel of the SV. He noted I need to work on my emergency stop and counterweighting which isn't all that shocking since those are the areas I got points on during the test.

But, yea, I'm going to lay off the box exercises for a bit until I get a better feel for it all. I couldn't ask for a better location to learn, though. Within 15 minutes of my apartment I have a long and straight 4 lane highway (45 mph speed limit), a bunch of S curves in sequence, a section of interstate with the most forgiving on ramp and only a mile to the next exit (just to get a quick feel for interstate riding), and tons of office complexes with massive parking lots.

Just got back from inspecting the damage from dropping it last night. Broke the very end off the front brake lever but it's only cosmetic damage as it still works fine. Suddenly I understand why the bikes at the MSF course have metal bars around the clutch and brake handles.

How long were you riding for before you tried any real interstate riding? I'm hoping to commute to work in the near future but it's all I-476/95.

# ¿ May 28, 2015 01:45

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > MSF: Stare at cones and ride over them. Questions and concerns.