Motorcycle Safety Class

In case the opportunity arises to rent motorcycles, we decided that we should learn to ride them and to be safe. In the state of Washington, the motorcycle safety course is subsidized, and for just $100, you can take a 3 day course on how to ride and be safe on a motorcycle. This experience turned out to be very different for Robin and Kevin. Robin thought that riding a bike with a motor couldn't be that much harder than riding a bicycle and perhaps the class was a little overkill. Kevin thought that riding a motorbike would be very challenging.... both of us were wrong! Robin nearly dropped the bike the first time she sat down, and Kevin found that riding the bike was really not that hard.
Over the course of three days, we both managed to hone in our motorcycling skills and passed with 99 and 100 percent on the driving evaluation, and we both got 100s on our written tests. Robin was amazed at how challenging it was to maneuver a 300 pound bike, especially at slow speeds. Hence, everything is easier with more speed. In fact, motorcycling is very much like mountain biking... don't look where you don't want to go, and momentum and speed are your best friend.

Our instructor at the Evergreen Safety Council (Jim Sullivan) was one of the best. He really made the class fun, and informative. Two funny quotes during the same class came out of stories about being safe on the bike, really!

1. Jim teaching us about 'get your head in the ride or put the bike aside' told us a story about how his dog was giving birth to puppies all night long so he was too tired to ride in the rain the next day: "So my bitch was popping one out ever hour"
2. After talking about riding over train tracks at a right angle, robin gave the example of how hard it is to do that in Westlake where the South Lake Union Trolley Runs parallel to cars (and bikes): "I was being chased by a S.L.U.T. the other day"

All in all the class was well worth the money and we both are now legal to drive motorcycles in the State of Washington, which scares us a little too cause neither of us are prepared to ride on a busy street, much less the highway. But if the chance arises on a farm say in New Zealand, I think we will both jump on the opportunity.