In short, I passed!

Today’s course was another range session for about 4 hours straight on the bikes to compliment our work on Saturday, followed by a written test and a DMV structured bike test.

As you can see from the above photo, all of us took advantage of the $20 rain suits on offer at the beginning of today’s course. Given we went from light drizzle to bright sunshine on Saturday, today we got a chance to enjoy another aspect of all-weather riding.

I arrived way too early, haven given myself 2 and a half hours to get to the Bronx from Sunset Park and spend an hour wandering around in the rain in the South Bronx trying to find somewhere to grab a coffee. I’d purchased a rain jacket at Paragon (bright green for visibility on the scoot) a couple of days prior but couldn’t find rain pants for love nor money. Rain was forecast, and sure enough the rain came.

Thanks to Jerry who spotted me in the street and let me shelter in his truck for 20 minutes to dry out somewhat before the class started at 7.30am. I donned the $20 rain pants and spent the remainder of the day damp to say the least.

The morning was spent on the range covering more cornering, particularly in tight spots, emergency breaking, tackling obstacles and swerving The final hour or so was dedicated to taking a DMV approved bike test.

Again everyone passed, and again MSS did a great job structuring the course so that you are very prepared for the DMV test which consisted of an emergency stop, swerving, and low-speed and high-speed cornering. There was nothing in the test that we hadn’t thoroughly covered on the range, and the last exercise prior to the DMV test was an almost exact replica of the test so we were in good shape.

So that’s it – tests passed, I can now ride a bike. Well … no. The way it works is that MSS now file the papers with the DMV in Albany demonstrating that we have waived the need for a DMV test (having essentially taken one) and now we wait.

In “4 to 5 weeks, but usually sooner” we’ll get a piece of paper from the NY State DMV in Albany we can take to our local DMV office to have a full-license issued on the spot. At that point I am legally licensed.

I had hoped to hop on a scooter practically that day, but given that cops would spot me as a rookie on a new bike in new gear from a thousand paces, it’s not worth risking riding until I’m fully licensed.

Theoretically I could purchase a bike right now and roll it off the lot but it’s a crap shoot. I’ve heard plenty of stories of cops stopping bikers just to check licenses. This is going to be an agonizing wait.

One last note, Monica one of our instructors mentioned that a good book to read while we wait out the next few weeks is Proficient Motorcycling. Another one checked off my list.

A huge thanks to Ray, Tony, Steve, Monica and everyone at MSS for making the weekend a fun but exhausting experience. Now after two days of getting up before nature I have some sleep to catch up on…

Related posts:

1. Taking the MSS 3 day Basic Rider Course Well folks, I finally made it to the MSS Basic...
2. Basic Rider Course test waiver delays. If you've been following our learning to ride section you'll...
3. Doing the research The wonderful thing about dreaming about riding for years, is...
4. Motorcycle Safety School season begins March 1st We've just gotten word from the folks at New York's...
5. Getting my permit If there’s one useful thing I learned from the New...