Third Time's the Charm

This weekend, I'm taking the Basic Rider Course for my third (and final!) time.

The reason I say "final" is one of the following:

1. I believe I'm gonna pass this time.
2. I'm psyching myself into success.
3. Can't take it anymore!
4. All of the above.

First time I took the class, in April, I was so excited I told everybody. And yet I knew I was shaky on that bike and might not make it. After failing that first miserable attempt, I lacked confidence to make a big deal of my second try, in May. But the second time out -- even though I didn't pass the second, crucial road test -- I did feel confident on that bike by test time.

It began to feel natural. So natural that driving home that day I had the instinct to pull in the clutch on my car when I stopped at a red light. "The engine will stall if I don't!" was my brief thought. Silly me. My car's automatic.

In the two months since that last course, I've practiced my figure eights and clutch/rear brake control for slow-speed driving. I've now ridden more than 1,300 miles on my Honda Shadow Aero 750, and I feel so much better in turns and slow-speed maneuvers.

One thing I haven't done on my Shadow is practice the cone weave on a range. In the test, I scored points on my cone weave -- points are BAD -- missing one cone and hitting another. This nagged at me, so I looked it up online. There's a cool site I found with tips and advice for motorcyclists, the Motorcycle Assistant, with videos and detailed instructions. I watched the video demonstration for the offset cone-weave to see where my mistakes were.



In May, I spent the night before the test in meditation, practicing the U-turn in my head. Come test time next day, I nailed it. Visualizing and really feeling the turn in my mind helped tremendously. Believing I can do it made the difference.

So this time I will focus on intently on those cones. I'm going into class to listen, watch and practice with humbleness, keeping open my eyes and ears.

This time, I'm not worried. I will do it, as I did my once-impossible U-turn: Head up, eyes focused on where I want to go, clutch in the friction zone, keep on the throttle, rear brake as needed for stability, turn the wheel and let the bike lean. Nothing to it.

I'm not afraid anymore.