Leah Kasper

Review of Learning Curves Motorcycle Tra...

I took the basic motorcycle course this week (with...

I took the basic motorcycle course this week (with one of my girlfriends, who also recently got a bike,) and was so excited to learn how to ride! It was a great location, we had beautiful weather, and it was mostly an enjoyable experience.

EXCEPT for my instructor Jon.

I think I had originally set him off as I was a couple minutes late (and I mean couldn't have been more than 3-5 minutes late) to the first class. (It was 8am and I had no idea traffic would be so bad across 94, and there was construction blocking the entrance to the Pettit center, so it took a second to navigate how to get in and park..) But I get it, being late is rude and I m not a huge fan of excuses, so I apologized profusely as I entered the classroom to sit by my buddy. I could tell he was irritated with me and made me move to another table (as he said he doesn't want friends sitting together.. I assume to kibosh any impending chatty-cathy situation.. I'm nearly 30 years old mind you..) So I move to another table, hoping we can move on from the stresses of the first 5 minutes of class.

Throughout class we were encouraged to ask questions, and I asked a couple during Day 2 while on the outdoor course, but it was difficult to get anything clarified without getting an answer in an annoyed, condescending tone.. so eventually I just quit asking, or would save any questions for Steve, (the assistant? instructor..whose answers were far more constructive.) So I mostly just tried to fly under the radar at this point with Jon because based on our dialogue I can tell he still isn't all that fond of me.

On Day 2 and 3, I watched two students drop their bikes, one was so discouraged she quit the class completely. If I had to rank my skill level on day 3 I d say I was one of the average riders (I stalled a few times throughout the couple days, but never dropped a bike).. so when the evaluation time came (and I thought I did fine), I was surprised to hear that I had failed.

They evaluated on 5 different skills/experiences- other riders who passed got multiple chances to improve their score when I was only given one, and the mistakes I made were minor but were docked as many points as possible.. It seemed pretty unfair.

I m no quitter! So I m bummed that I will have to wait an entire month to retest. (Hey, there s only so many months of awesome Wisconsin summer!) And did I mention another $40 fee to retest?

Long story short I d stay away from getting this instructor if possible. It is upsetting to spend so much money and time on a class, just to get scolded like a child and unfairly scored.

Sigh..