Modern Vespa

"The Experienced Course (ERC)
"Even if you've been riding for some time, there's always something new to learn. Increasing numbers of seasoned riders are attending Experienced Courses to hone their skills and fine-tune the mental skills needed for survival in traffic. The Experienced Course is a one-day workshop designed to improve your skills in braking, evasive maneuvers and turning. It provides the experienced motorcyclist with "street strategies" necessary for survival. And you do it on your motorcycle. Click on Course Information for more details."

In Georgia there is a very simple refund program for the course. There are no refunds. Make sure you understand the rules on the web site when signing up. Seven people registered, paid and showed up on time, but only four of us got to take the course. Two failed the safety inspection. One had a bald tire and the other a loud pipe (straight with no muffler). A third was a kid showing up with his parents wanting to get a license. This was not a license waver course and there was no test at the end.

Only 4 people in class made for a much better day and an early finish. The majority of the day was ride time with little waiting your turn. A full class of 12 would have slowed things down. In the class size I was lucky.

The other 3 all had Harleys. One was a very experienced long term rider who needed the class to get on the military base where he works. Even he admitted the class was helpful. One had been riding a year and the third recently got back into riding.

One of the instructors turned out to be from the town I live near. He commented that I generate lots of discussion around town about the bike with 2 wheels in front. He has seen me a number of times. The other instructor was also an instructor at my basic course last year. He is retired military and instructs almost every weekend. He does not have another day job. He does not own a cage and pretty much lives for motorcycling. Both instructors are great guys.

The MP3 can eat up the course. The experienced rider came close to keeping up with me, but made a ton of scrapping noise in the process. Takes away any interest I might have had in a Harley seeing how little they can lean without scrapping something. The lean is a huge piece of what makes the ride fun and having one that doesn't lean much is not attractive to me.

The day consisted of drills which were the same as the basic rider course. This was good exercise being able to do them quicker and receive a few pointers from the instructor that do help. It is good to regularly practice in a parking lot but having an instructor watch and give pointers is the only way to verify no errors in the technique. I can be proud that there were very few pointers given to me but at the same time the few I received will help me going forward. In between the drills were discussion of safety topics. These were all covered in the basic course and "Proficient Motorcycling" and I can't say I picked up much in these discussions any different than sitting with a group of other riders and having a riding discussion. Maybe less as the only beverage was water. The instructors were impressed with how the MP3 handled the course and the box was no problem keeping all three wheels in .

My disappointment was that I expected something new. I was specifically interested in the "street strategies". I don't know what "new" I expected but thought from the description there would be some.

Bottom line the course is good, just different than what I expected. I do think it is a good thing for all riders to do on occasion and I will probably do again at some point in the future.

I would like to hear from MSF instructors here on their perspective in this course.

Thanks for the write up. I figure I'll take the experienced course next spring. By then I'll have a year of riding and about 12,000 miles under my belt. Even redoing the basic course exercises under the watch of an instructor would be a good refresher.

when I was an instructor (4 yrs) every class I taught I learned something. I routinely asked the question at the end to all riders, did you take something from the course new or that you forgot about that will make your riding more enjoyable and safer? I never got a no response and most of the time the more experienced riders were the most enthusiastic with the reponses.

We took a group of scooterists to the advanced class, and it was a good refresher. I too thought they might go over some techniques not covered in the BRC, but drilling on the basics is always helpful.

I believe they are working on a revamp of the ERC, which I would take again if this is true. There are also some other advanced day courses that are not part of the MSF. Here's one I'm interested in:

http://www.totalcontroltraining.net/HTML/Instructors.html

Anyone taken that course before?

I as well took the ERC course. This was about a month and a half ago in TX.

At the end of it I felt it was EXACTLY the same course as the BRC (Basic Rider Course), only with more attention given to the exercises and more one on one feedback from the instructor.

I felt it was definitely worth it, but like Fuzzy for some reason I was expecting something a little more....I don't know...something.

I would do it again and enjoy it, but it would be nice to see the course develop on a slightly different trajectory than the BRC.

chris

I had the exact same thoughts on the course as everyone above (I'm sure I posted them on here a few months back?). The problem is going in thinking you are going to be taken to the next level. IMO the course does not attempt that. It is a essentially a repeat of the BRC. This is still very worthwhile as it is good to catch any bad habits you may have now you are actually a rider and not just a wannabe rider.

I believe the course has been renamed from Experienced RC to Intermediate RC which is probably more appropriate. There is now also an ARC (Advanced?) which is the next level up. That does teach new techniques but I am not sure how more advanced it is. I am fortunate in that there are plenty of training opportunities around Seattle and I may go for one of the other options, such as Lee Parks. Everything I have read about them implies they are more intense than MSF courses and you learn more.

As someone who intends to continue taking training classes I don't know if I will ever take another ERC. I know very experienced riders keep saying they retake it and learn something new but I don't know if it's for me. I am far from being an experienced rider but I think I will get more benefit from other courses. The MSF Dirtbike class is definitely on my calendar at some point though.

Thanks for the info, Fuzzy. I was afraid it was more of the same. I don't see how it could be of any value unless it was a very small class with few instructors. Lately I've been doing a little "practicing" of the slow turns on my own, trying to improve maneuverability, but I don't think a course would do me much good unless it was almost one-on-one. Maybe I'll buy the book. I think I'd get as much from that - and, or course, a few more 2,000 mile trips.

they'd let you take Total Control on an MP3?!

Why not? The Total Control course is all about cornering so it would be applicable to an MP3 as much as anything else that leans in corners.