Ticket to ride

Last night I attended the classroom portion of the three-day class that will result, if all goes well, in me having a motorcycle license within about a week.

The class was 4 1/2 hours long and felt every minute of it. The agenda consisted of watching short video clips, then working with our tables to answer blindingly obvious questions, then sharing our newfound insights with the whole group, then doing it all over again.

There were about 10 video clips, so probably about 40 minutes of video, yet by my count there were only about seven different stock clips used, just played over and over with different voiceover each time, sometimes several times within the same four-minute clip. It made me start to think I was losing my mind, which is just as well since I think that might actually be a requirement for riding a motorcycle.

"When turning while carrying a passenger," the video explained in the Passengers and Cargo clip, "the passenger should look over your shoulder to the inside of the turn, just as if you were on a bobsled."

I looked around the room; yes, this was not a group that would find bobsledding references to be particularly meaningful.

The riding portion of the class takes place this Saturday and Sunday for five hours each day. I've got a helmet and gloves but I still need to get some motorcycle boots. And then I'll be getting my full body riding suit. It might look something like this.