Went to local College where they hold MSF (it's called MSS in NYC area for some reason), and so glad I did. I really enjoyed it. Definitely worth it. It ended up being just two of us in the class (was supposed to be 6) so we got a LOT of ride time in. My bike was hard to do some of those drills with though being it's a big ass cruiser lol. He even said I should use one of his bikes instead, but I told him the whole purpose of me taking this course is to get confident with MY bike, so I stuck with mine. I was doing good until I dropped my bike on one of the exercises lol (on the right side). Got the first drop on the new bike out of the way at least. Glad I had crash bars installed (which I don't like the look of). BUT it saved damage to the body, engine, lever, mirror, pedal, and made it easier to lift! OH! I picked up the bike all by myself too!! Now I know I can! lol I used the handlebar method and it lifted so much easier than I expected! Not that it was "light" but I did it with not as much effort as I expected! I DID forget to put the kickstand out before lifting it (eek)... luckily the instructor got there just as I got it upright and he did it for me. But I highly recommend it. Especially if you have a new (or new-to-you) bike, or if it's been a while since you rode. The Advanced course recommends you should have at least 1000 miles under your belt before taking it but the guy in the class with me had like no miles since taking his waiver course in March of this year and he did great. I made sure to tell him about DDTF too of course. lol My next thing is to attend a Lock and Lean course (or similar). I think they have one "kinda" near me in NJ but I just missed last months class when I checked which is why I signed up for MSS/F. :(

We rode around our county, beautiful day but humid AF. You could feel whenever you rode over an area that was a bit wet from recent rain, you could chew that air lol. @Arlene Baratta i got the Cardo and camera connected but it was bad. Only my voice, no motorcycle sounds or our conversation just my voice, yuck! So the video is not worth using. Operator error meant my camera shut down 15 min into the ride, I failed to recharge before leaving and my sub port is too weak to maintain either camera or phone much less both. I ordered a 6.4 because apparently husband ordered a 2.1 for two devices 🫠. This is why I’m the one who deals with all electronics here 😂 It’s a shame because we had a deer encounter. I actually said “oh deer” at the same time little Dan on my shoulder said it. Two ran to the right, one to the left so I warned my husband to watch for that one because she’ll want to join the other two and sure enough she jumped back in front of him, no issues because we had slowed down so she went along and so did we. Thanks @Daniel Tolomei for sitting on my shoulder through our rides 😂 Anyway this is the second time I try to post this, let’s see if it actually posts or not.

Took my first ride around my community. Beforehand, I was nervous. Was I going to make those turns? Am I going to stall out at the light? It turned out BEAUTIFUL. The crisp air hitting my face while I was riding. I felt Amazing! This week, I’ll be riding to work for the first time.

I usually greet (two fingers down in general, but it's not a religion). and i seem to notice patterns sometimes. Like vespa riders and electric bikes, i'm not always sure if they know what i mean because i bet most riders don't greet them. Yesterday i put my fingers out, and this delivery guy was just puzzled. He was wearing a full face helmet. But his eyes, and shoulders and head movement said everything. I could literally see a speech bubble saying "Why does everybody keep pointing at the road in front of me?"

40yo new rider from luxembourg. Upgraded from 125cc to 400cc and crashed the bike and my knee within a month. Back on the 125cc and calmly accepting this is maybe good enough for now