Modern Vespa

Passed my MSF class!

My flight landed at Miami International and while the bags were being off loaded I headed outside for a cigarette. I was standing across from the terminal in the "smoking area" and was just about to read the driving instructions up to Lake Worth when a kid on a skateboard plowed into my back, sending me flying. I had my reading glasses in my left hand and was taking off my normal (getting around) glasses when he hit me. I went down full force on both hands and right knee. In my (failed) effort to protect my glasses, my right hand and shoulder took the bulk of the weight and immediately began to feel "weird". It was as though the muscles were contracting and I couldn't straighten my arm all the way. My knee was scuffed up but in better shape than my glasses which were pretty badly bent, both lenses were chipped and the surface scratched. They were toast! I brushed myself off, got my bag and hopped on the bus for the rental car pickup.

I have two pairs of glasses. One for driving, watching TV and general use and the other for reading. As soon as I got in the car, I realized that my "normal" glasses had also been damaged as they were on a string around my neck and must have scraped the pavement when I fell. This was NOT a good start to my trip!

I had to drive up to Lake Worth on I95 with scuffed up glasses. Coming from an island where our maximum speed is 40MPH ... driving on I95 with scuffed glasses wasn't a lot of fun. Of course, I got lost (unable to see any maps) and was running late at this point. I arrived at the school about 10 minutes late for the start of the class ... but couldn't see a soul anywhere! I walked all over the place and couldn't find the class I was supposed to be in. I tried ringing the office intercom, but of course, nobody answered. Long story short, I finally found it and was about 40 minutes late to the class. Sigh. The first night of class was a right off for me. I had no clue what they were doing and thought the workbook exercise was a rather silly way to learn.

For those who have not yet taken the MSF course ... this is what happened:

My course started on a Thursday night with the classroom session (5:00 to 8:00). Saturday afternoon (12:30 to 5:00) was spent out on the range learning to drive and Sunday, we spent the morning (8:30 to 11:30) in the classroom again with our range session in the afternoon from 12:30 to 5:00. (I saw an eye doctor on Friday and replaced both pairs of glasses.)

You are given a workbook which has a two page tear out worksheet in it. There were 5 or 6 groups of about 6 students, most of whom were taking the motorcycle course. Each group was assigned a block of questions on the worksheet and you were supposed to find the answer in your workbook, highlight them with felt markers, then note the corresponding page and paragraph where the answer appears on your worksheet. Later, your group is asked to read the question and answer aloud to the whole group.

I got nothing from the classroom sessions as I found it very difficult to hear some of the students and when I could hear them, many had such thick accents of varying types, that I had to strain to understand what they were saying. Further, I was distracted much of the time because we were supposed to follow along, underlining the answers to other groups questions and writing the page and paragraph numbers on our worksheet at the same time. For what purpose ... I am sure I don't know!

After getting my replacement glasses, I spent Friday night studying the booklet. I found it much easier to take in the information and I guess it worked because I got a perfect test score in the end. I think MSF would do well to mail out the booklets ahead of time and tell you to study it at home. They could then review the course material in the classroom with the instructors going over the finer and more important points. In my opinion, a question/answer/discussion period would have been much more helpful than listening to a bunch of students drone on, struggling to read aloud and madly scratching away at their notebooks with magic markers!

Anyway ... once out on the range, I learned a lot and much of what I read in the booklet began to make sense. Our instructor (Darrell) was great. He was patient, non-judgmental, and easy to talk to. A big plus was that the scoots we used were Vespa LX150's! Couldn't have been happier when I saw the scoots! I was really nervous the first day but quickly got the hang of it and quite enjoyed myself. The second day, my right hand went completely numb and I had a lot of trouble controlling the throttle and front brake for the first hour and a half. I had an operation for carpel tunnel syndrome about 18 years ago and was clearly experiencing the exact same symptoms ... probably brought on from the spill I took at the airport. It really threw me off and I really wondered if I was going to be able to complete the course! However, it did finally ease up and some of the feeling (thankfully) came back. Better able to concentrate on driving rather than trying to wake my hand up, my driving improved and I was able to successfully complete the skills test.

I liked the course for the most part, and the films they show in class are pretty good ... but I really think MSF needs to revamp the classroom sessions. The written test is very simple and extremely basic. They allow for a wide margin of error. In fact, I think you are allowed to get 10 out of 50 questions wrong and still pass! The range skills are pretty easy to manage if you listen to your instructor. The most difficult of the skills (for me) was the double U-turn inside the smallest box ... but I managed it in the end.

I came away knowing a lot more than when I went in and am feeling much more confident about setting out on the road. Of course, now I have to go and take our test in order to get my BVI license. The MSF course means nothing in the British Virgin Islands ... so I still have that hurdle to jump. Hopefully, I can schedule my exam for next week sometime, get the scoot licensed, get my insurance in order and FINALLY go riding! It has been killing me just looking at my scooter sitting on the porch and not being able to ride it!

Despite the deficiencies, the best thing you could do is take a MSF course. Yo have started in the right frame of mind, open to learning and oriented to acquiring skills and safe operation.

More people should take the time and trouble that you have/

Good for you, ride and enjoy.

Yup ... it only cost $250.00 for the course, $409.30 for the airline tickets, $583.40 for a rental car and $804.81 for the hotel ... plus an emergency eye exam $99.00 and two pairs of emergency replacement glasses @ $638.50.

So to take the MSF course (not including the gear I had to buy for it) the price tag was a mere $2,785.01!

Don't forget your latte at Starbucks.

But your life is worth a tad more than moneyso good on ya'

Thanks for relating your experiences. Too bad about being rear-ended on the sidewalk. I hope that irresponsible kid didn't just ride away. If it were me, he would no longer own his skateboard...or if he did, it would be broken in half. Glad you're relatively unscathed.

My experience in the classroom session was the same as yours. This was several weeks ago in California. An absolutely dumb way to teach. They need to come up with a better method. Almost exactly the same...split into groups of six, each group takes a block of questions, split up the questions in the group, find the answers, and recite question and answer to the whole class. Dumb! Took about fifteen seconds to discover that the questions and page numbers of the answers are in sequential order.

What I would like to know is how the Vespa did on the swerve/avoidance maneuver. Were you able to "throw the bike around" violently like we had to do with the motorcycles? That is one maneuver I'm reluctant to try on my scooter. Not only am I unsure if it would perform the maneuver, but I'd be afraid of dropping the bike, and thereby scuffing it up.

The swerve/avoidance maneuver was no problem at all. The Vespa LX150/125 is such a well balanced piece of machinery, I was amazed at how easily I was able to negotiate that particular maneuver ... and at a pretty good clip too! Though I have no point of reference, I would imagine other Vespa models are just as well balanced.

I don't know how your course was set up, but ours was pretty simple. We had about a 10' wide path, through which we were supposed to get up to about 18 to 20 mph, swerve to avoid 4 cones set up across our path about 10' feet ahead of the last cones in the straight path. The four cones were intended to represent the rear end of a car directly ahead of you.

One fellow in my class and myself both have a love of speed which apparently came out in class during that particular maneuver as well as the quick stop. We were trying to outdo one another to discover at what point we wouldn't be able to make the curve. We both pushed the scoots and ourselves to the limit until we eventually each hit the cones. Our instructor found this part rather amusing and although he didn't actually encouraged us, he was well aware of what we were doing and didn't stop us.

Go for it. This is a really good thing to practice to find your own limits. If you use cones (or something similar), there is no reason at all to dump your scoot. Just ride right over them. It is good to know at what point you really can't make that swerve and when it might be best to bail out before impacting with a car ahead of you!

Oh ... and about the kid. Neither he or his mother even bothered to ask if I was OK, she just yelled at him for riding his skateboard in such a busy place and they both walked away without a word in my direction. Some people eh?

^^^^^

Good info. Nice to know. Thanks for taking the time to write it up and post.

Trafficjammer --- sorry to hear of your incident. I think I would have called for security. You probably could have sued him in small claims court for the cost of your emergency exam, replacement glasses and any therapy for your hand (but you'd have to do it here in the States).

Glad to head that you passed the MSF! What is the test like for the BVI?

Hey Marcster,

It really wouldn't be worth the time and expense involved in coming back to the U.S. to sue the kid or his mother. Chalk it up to "one of those things". Life happens and I guess it could have been worse. He could have knocked me onto the road and under a bus instead of onto the sidewalk!

However, I just got back from the doctor's office as I was experiencing a lot of pain going up my right arm all the way to my shoulder. Seems I did do some damage after all and will have to have the carpal tunnel operation over again. What a pain! It takes several weeks to heal and in the meantime, you have very limited use of your hand. I live alone (since my divorce) and that makes things very tricky as I am right handed. Oh well, life goes on and we do what we have to do.

Our test here is very basic but not as easy as one might think. As I already have my driver's license, there is no written or road test involved. All you have to do is a figure "8" inside of an 18' box. 18' may sound a lot for some of you veterans, but when riding on a rented scooter you are unfamiliar with ... it's not so easy for a newbie like me. I can't get my scooter licensed until I pass the test ... so I am in a bit of a catch 22 situation.

The rental bike I will be using is a 2005 Yamaha "Maximo" from these folks: http://courtesybikesbvi.com/ which is very different from the Vespa LX125 and has enormous tires which are less than half the width of my vespa tires. The handlebar is very heavy in comparison and the scoot isn't nearly as well balanced. I find it quite difficult to balance at slow speeds in comparison to my LX125.

So I am going to practice nothing but figure 8's this Sunday and next Wednesday (when I take my test) ... I will hopefully pass. If not, I will have to wait another month before I can take the test again.

Wish me luck!