*** Review for 3-day beginner motorcycle permit course ***…read more Let me begin by saying that Sherry Jennings and Sean Grimm are absolutely excellent instructors; you can really tell they care about keeping you safe. Sherry's enthusiasm and passion for motorcycling and teaching were amazing. She has a very vibrant way of teaching that easily holds your attention. Both Sherry and Sean were super helpful, knowledgeable, and kind. They WANT you to succeed and they're beyond great at what they do. That being said, it would be nice if the class sizes could be smaller. Our class was 16 riders. On the range, we had both instructors present, but I felt like if there had been fewer riders, there would have been more room for individualized help and feedback. I want to be very clear that this is a critique of the WMST class itself and NOT a fault of the instructors in any way--the instructors truly did their absolute best to help everyone and spent extra time with the people who needed it most while still being attentive to everyone. Having more time on the range would also be helpful for nailing skills down. The bikes seemed to be well-maintained (take with a grain of salt since I only rode two). I liked that we got to pick what style of bike we wanted to ride. I felt extremely lucky with my classmates; everyone was super kind and supportive of each other, which was awesome! Honestly, a big highlight of this experience for me was the other wonderful people taking the course alongside me--to say they were great would be an understatement. *** End of review, advice below *** I have literally zero experience with motorcycles and was lucky enough to pass my permit exams first try. FOR ALL MY FELLOW COMPLETE BEGINNERS, PLEASE TAKE MY ADVICE!! This is a whole new skill you're learning and you absolutely need to set yourself up for success! *Your course includes the Champ U NEW RIDER online course, at the BARE MINIMUM you need to complete the portions outlined in the email. But don't stop there. COMPLETE THE WHOLE ENTIRE ONLINE COURSE **BEFORE** YOUR IN-PERSON COURSE! You really need to set yourself up for success with the book learning, especially if you don't have access to practice with a motorcycle. Even if you have previous experience, I would still recommend completing the entire online course because you want any misconceptions corrected before they possibly hurt you. The online course covers a lot of great stuff, there's really no reason not to do it (it's free!). Plan ahead and start it early because it takes a while to get through everything, but this is a lifelong skill and I promise you it's totally worth it! *ENGAGE IN CLASSROOM DISCUSSIONS!!! PAY ATTENTION DURING CLASSROOM PORTIONS! Show the instructors that you are listening by engaging with the discussions! IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, ASK! The instructors are super friendly and are more than happy to explain anything you're wondering about. *Watch videos of the permit test on YouTube so you know what to expect *Take deep breaths and try to relax! Watch what everyone else is doing and see how everybody is making mistakes. IT'S OK! That's part of learning! It helps your confidence when you realize that pretty much everyone else is struggling and learning too! If you don't pass the first time, don't beat yourself up. This is difficult and there's a LOT to process. You can know what you need to do and still panic under the pressure of a test. Just do your best and don't give up. Stay safe!

A friend wanted to get his motorcycle license so I decided to take the class with him. We took the…read more3 day "Learn to Ride" class with WMST in Auburn. This class is the first of two classes to get the motorcycle endorsement. Passing the Learn to Ride class gives you the permit, allowing you to legally ride and practice riding for six months but with some restrictions (not riding with other passengers or at night among other things). Passing the returning rider course gives you the actual endorsement that does not have any restrictions. The Auburn classroom location is next to the Johnny Rocket's and across the Dave & Buster's at the Outlet Collection Mall. Day 1 was on Friday evening and consisted of a couple of hours of learning safety rules, myths vs facts, tips, and laws of riding motorcycles in the classroom. Day 2 started off on the range where we rode the motorcycles provided by the class and learned the basics of riding. In the afternoon, we went back to the classroom to learn the rest of the material and then took the written test. Day 3 was on the range where we continued practicing our riding abilities and then ended with the riding exam. The written exam consisted of 50 multiple choice questions (mostly common sense questions) and you need an 80% to pass. The riding exam consisted of 5 riding exercises to test basic riding abilities. Now onto the class itself: it is meant for beginners and those with no motorcycle riding experience, but the instructors moved quickly and skipped a couple of things that I thought would've been important to tell students in case they have no knowledge about motorcycles. Extremely simple things like how to know if a bike is too big for you, how to shift gears, and how to properly hold the handles without getting wrist pain. I learned a good amount of the basics from asking other riders because our instructors didn't teach us for whatever reason. It's a class where they let you go and figure things out on your own and they jump in when you need it. I like that but I'd also appreciate knowing how to do some things to help accelerate our learning. At some points the instructor was more interested in telling jokes than actually teaching the class which wasn't ideal. I never planned on buying a motorcycle or riding one on the road, but I wanted to try something new and this was an educational class that got me out of my comfort zone. I passed both exams which I'm happy about but the class itself wasn't the best experience. The instructors were interesting characters but not the best educators. Some other things I wish I would've known: - You can use hiking boots as your riding boots. This would've prevented me from buying motorcycle boots just for the course that I won't use again. - They have helmets that you can borrow if you don't have one. Again, I bought a helmet just for the course. - Read the motorcycle operating manual before the class so terminology is not new to you if you're not familiar with riding.