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MSF RiderCoaches

Ranger Jim

Ranger Jim

Sport Tourer
I know there are a few MSF RiderCoaches among the forum members (Steve Smith, Bob Pappalardo, Vic Salisbury, et. al.). How many are hiding out there anyway?  BTW, if you like to ride, you enjoy introducing people to motorcycling, you want to improve your riding and could use a little extra money sometimes; consider becoming a RiderCoach.  ;)
 
Sorry, It may be a noble effort that also makes you some spare cash. But I watch Steve lose too many riding weekends, because he has to teach!  :-\
 
I don't know how it is for Steve up there in the northlands but here I get to choose which weekends I coach and how many weekends per year I want to do.  Some folks "volunteer" for their kids schools, their churches, assorted charities, etc. I choose to give some time to helping folks learn to ride.  The extra bucks go to buy farkles or gas and is, to me anyway, a bonus.
 
Ranger Jim said:
I don't know how it is for Steve up there in the northlands but here I get to choose which weekends I coach and how many weekends per year I want to do.  Some folks "volunteer" for their kids schools, their churches, assorted charities, etc. I choose to give some time to helping folks learn to ride.  The extra bucks go to buy farkles or gas and is, to me anyway, a bonus.
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Being in the northeast our training season is 8 months instead of 12, and the classes do tend to take away weekends to ride.  We get to pick our own schedule here too.  I used to sign up for 20+ classes over a training season. Lately it's been 12-16.  This year I cut back again to 10-12 because I started grad school.  I teach a combination of BRC, IRC, ERC, ARC-ST courses. I am certified for the IME and SMARTrainer and have facilitated almost all the different seminar modules. I also work as a site trainer and run break out sessions at the annual update.

 
I taught 27 classes this year from April through October. A couple in the summer were midweek classes and I do get to choose my schedule.  Oregon will have a mandatory 40 and less year old training requirement in 2012 so I figure the demand will be increasing, but I still can choose some of the wheres and all of the whens.

Personally this is one of the best things I have ever been involved with. To me the rewards far outweigh the negatives.  If you love what you do then you are never really at work are you?
Amazingly 2012 wil be my fifth year teaching! Time flies!! 
 
2012 will be my 15th year of being a MSF coach here in the small (but great) state of Delaware. :)  We have 4 state training sites and about 45 coaches in the state.  On average each coach teaches  7 - 8 classes each season (8 months) but we have some that do more.  They let the site coordinators know how many they would like to be scheduled for and weeks they are not available.  All in all it works out well.

I agree that the benefits, for me, outweigh any of the negatives.  Helps that I am retired and can ride lots during the week but I get just as pumped up for a class now as I did when I started. Cudos to all of you that do this.  :beerchug:  The program could do more to help prepare new riders for the street but IMHO it's better than nothing, which is how many of us started.
 
If many state governments had not stopped helping fund the class, a lot more riders would be better educated. The military mandates that service members take the class, and they'll hold it on base at no cost to them. But the civilian folks around here that ride--they can't pony up the hundreds of dollars the class costs. I know GA used to take on about half the cost, but now they don't help at all. Therefore hardly any of the youngest, most at-risk new riders take it. I am saddened and sometimes horrified at the lack of skills that years-long, high-mileage riders in my area display. More than one of them has crusted-over, dried out hydraulic goop in the front brake master cylinder and has never noticed, because "I never use that brake anyway. I'm sitting toward the back so that's where I should brake. That front one is only for emergencies." And don't even get me started on the "had to lay 'er down" stories.

I know when I started riding, I would not have been able to afford the class. How was I to know that the MSF course would save my skin and my bike so very many times?

Seriously pursuing riding proficiency often begins with the attitudes learned in that first MSF class. Without it, many riders stand to spend their riding years in far more danger, far more fear, and having far less fun than they could if they'd only learned more key skills in the beginning. The states need to bring back funding for the class.

Good topic, Jim. I think I'd like to be an instructor, it's about time these days.  ;D 

 
I've been riding since the 70s but I never took an MSF course until 2002.  Sam was an old friend who wanted to take the course and wanted someone to take it with, so he and I went to the Hernando County Airport and took the Experienced Rider Course.  It was fascinating - they didn't teach me anything at all that I didn't already know, and I was kinda disappointed.

Then we rode home.  On the way I found myself thinking about the things they taught and realized that the real value was in getting me to actually THINK about what I was doing.  In that moment I was totally converted to the MSF courses - thanks to all you guys who work to provide them!

Incidentally, an MSF-approved course is required to obtain a new Motorcycle license or endorsement here in Florida.
 
ChipDoc said:
I've been riding since the 70s but I never took an MSF course until 2002.  Sam was an old friend who wanted to take the course and wanted someone to take it with, so he and I went to the Hernando County Airport and took the Experienced Rider Course.  It was fascinating - they didn't teach me anything at all that I didn't already know, and I was kinda disappointed.

Then we rode home.  On the way I found myself thinking about the things they taught and realized that the real value was in getting me to actually THINK about what I was doing.  In that moment I was totally converted to the MSF courses - thanks to all you guys who work to provide them!
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Ah! Thinking!  ;)
 
I like the idea of a Skills Day.  Wish I lived closer to North Carolina.  While I'm at it, I might as well wish I had some extra cash to pay for such things!

HERE is the info for the MSF-ERC
 
Thanks for the link ChipDoc, fyi, the ridesafe class is free. So if you ever head  this way, plan on a one day course.  :beerchug:

Cheers
Ron
 
That RideSafe class actually sounds like a great event around which to build a short vacation!  They even hold them in the middle of the week, which means I probably wouldn't have to take off work.  At first I thought that, since it's sponsored by the state of North Carolina, that there might be a residency requirement, but there seems not to be.

Can't make it next Wednesday though...
 
ChipDoc said:
At first I thought that, since it's sponsored by the state of North Carolina, that there might be a residency requirement, but there seems not to be.

Can't make it next Wednesday though...
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I don't think that you have to be residence, it think that question was asked in class.  But you can shoot them a e-mail.  Also about time. My class stated at 08:45 and ended at 17:30... long day.

Cheers
Ron
 
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