Jonathan Block

I decide to sign up for a motorcycles training course. I find one in South San Francisco that teaches all of the skills, required by the State of California, in order to be qualified for a motorcycle license. It’s a 15 hour course. 5 hours of classroom, and 10 hours of riding “on the range.”

Thursday, I jump out of work a little early around 4:30PM to get into South San Francisco for the 5 hour class which starts at 5:30 sharp. I roll up to an old campus with a building that has a sign on it which reads “South San Francisco Adult Education.” This could be one of the most deserted loneliest looking educational campuses I’ve ever seen. I hope it doesn’t always look so empty - like a ghost town. I’m looking for room #48.

When I go through the door, I see about 8 rows of chairs each with a simple table in front of them all facing a man who sits at the head of the classroom facing the students. I sign in and choose a partner at his direction. We are handed our reading material and the class begins. I snap a quick photo looking straight ahead when nobody is looking. The format is one in which each group is given a few questions from a chapter and after the questions are assigned, you and your parter must answer them within a few minutes. After a few minutes, we go through each of the questions and each pair of students reads their answer aloud from the reading materials. After that, we go to a DVD segment in which professional motorcycle instructors review the questions from that chapter by showing us how something works such as motorcycle controls or traffic rules. After 5 hours of classroom and 4 breaks, we’re dismissed and told not to be late for Saturday’s range training.

Saturday, the course beings at 12:45. I arrive at the range exactly on time to sign in. I sign in with the range instructors and choose a helmet to borrow from the ones that are available. Eventually, we are asked to each pick a motorcycle. There are a dozen to choose from. Most are black. I pick the only red motorcycle from the bunch and use a dry erase marker to write my name on a white white board attached to the front so the instructors may call us by name while riding. We start with the absolute basics. We cover an array of concepts including basic operation, getting into gear, shifting, braking, turning, swerving, u-turning, and more. By the end of the first day, I’m exhausted. The weather is cold and the winds are at least 30 MPH which means even if I’m standing on my feet, I’m tripping over myself.

Sunday, I’m there on time again and we begin more advanced concepts. We cover stuff like riding over obstacles such as speed bumps and debris, advanced cornering, coming to a controlled stop in a hurry, changing lanes and more. After another 5 hours, we are finally at the conclusion of the training. Then we go into the final test. We must show we’ve mastered each of 4 basic skills in order to get our certificate of completion. I score flawlessly in my tight u-turn, and flawlessly in my 15 MPH right swerve. I do okay in my emergency breaking test, and okay in my cornering test.

In the end, I pass the test and am awarded a certificate of completion. I may now use this card at the California Registry of Motor Vehicles in order to upgrade my license to include motorcycle operation. When I go, I will not need to take a driving test. I will only need to pass the written test. I think I’ll do it during lunch this week in Redwood City!