Most of us have taken the MSF Rider course at some time. If you haven’t, you should. It’s the best 50 bucks you’ll spend on your bike. Besides, HOG members get that back as HOG Bucks when they complete the course.

If you’ve recently taken the beginner’s course, ride for at least one season then plan on taking the Experienced Rider Course. This one is just one day, and besides sharpening the skills you already have, you’ll be learning some new riding skills. It’s a fun course and you’ll have a great time.

As a former instructor, I can tell you that even the ‘old pro’s’ learned something new even in the beginners course. It was after taking the ERC that I decided to become an instructor. My instructors looked like they were having a great time.

It’s not a bad idea to take a rider course every four or five years even if you’ve been riding a while. It’s a good memory refresher, and you get your HOG bucks every time you take one of these courses.

I saw many experienced riders come through my classes that had gotten into some bad habits. Many told me that taking the class again showed them the errors of their ways and made them better riders. One student (been riding 25 years before taking a class) actually told me he finds riding a lot easier and more enjoyable now that he knows the right way to do things. He was self taught. Sometimes you need something like that to break the old habits you don’t even know you have.

Each month (or two or three or six or 20, as time permits) I would like to pass on some of the lessons taught in the rider course. While I’ll try to explain things as best I can in print, nothing will replace experience. You need to get out and ride and practice the lessons you’ve learned.

Reading about something tells you how it’s done, but actually doing it gets the message through, and practice burns it into your memory till it becomes second nature. I don’t mean that you should spend the summer riding around in a parking lot doing maneuvers. Get comfortable with them, then use them in everyday riding. While you’re enjoying the ride, think about these things. Soon they will become second nature.

This month’s tip is "look where you’re going"

There is an old adage in biking that says;

"look where you’re going because you’re going where you look".

How true this is. One of the most common things I see people doing wrong is not looking where they are going and not looking through the turns. I see many people looking down as they try to make a turn. A lot of the times these people actually go down. They went where they looked.

Looking through the turn is one of the major steps to learning to ride right. It is nearly impossible to make a proper turn while looking down (or anywhere else). It’s like most everything else in life. You have to watch what you’re doing. If you play baseball, you can’t hit the ball if you aren’t watching it. Same is true in Golf. Try turning your car into your driveway while looking the other way. Sooner or later (usually sooner) you’re going to hit something.

You have to look where you’re going.

In the beginner’s rider course we all learned about slow, look, lean and roll (We’ll talk about the rest of these in a later article). Turn your head and look through the turn. When you look through the turn the bike will naturally try to go there. It’s as simple as that.

That’s it for this month. If you want to get into a rider course, either beginner or experienced, call the Maryland rider course office. The number is 1-800-638-1722. If you want to get into an experienced rider course this fall, check with our safety officer, George B. Rumor has it he is putting another course together.

Live to ride, ride to live

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