Northwest Motorcycle School

[submax]

Just finished a 4-day motorcycle training course that is offered here in Oregon and it was AWESOME. The school was started quite a few years ago by a couple of retired motorcycle cops from Seattle who based it on the training that they give to officers in King County. Intense class. They provide the motorcycles (retired KZ1000 cop bikes with big crash bars) so there is no fear of dropping your own bike. The class goes 10 hours a day for a total of 40 hours in 4 days. Lots of low speed maneuvering through intricate cone arrangements. Emergency braking from 40 mph. Emergency weave maneuvers at 30 mph. Lots of practice maneuvering the bikes it tight areas around concrete barriers, gravel, curbs, etc. On the last day you get to see if you can meet the benchmarks that are required of the King County cops. There were 8 of us in the class (3 from Oregon, 1 near Seattle, 1 Vancouver BC, 1 Pittsburgh, 1 AZ, 1 San Francisco) and we became good friends during those 4 days. Everyone was helping each other out, everyone left their egos at home, and everyone was humbled by how challenging the skills were to master with everyone dropping a bike at least once at some point. The instructor, Curt Erickson, was a really great guy who genuinely loves to help people develop their skills. If you ever get a chance to take this course, I'd highly recommend it! It was expensive ($1300), but worth every penny in my opinion.

http://www.ridelikeacop.com/

 

[Chicknstripn]

I think this is one thing A LOT of us need more of; TRAINING!
Great info!
Does this course give the rider any insurance perks/discounts such as a MSF course?
Thanks for posting your experience

 

[Cooter]

Wow, I didn't even know that type of class existed! Sounds like a ball!! More practical for street riding than track days and sounds just as fun. You can't have too much training. Do they let you fire a Glock while riding??

 

[BuellyBagger]

. Do they let you fire a Glock while riding??

No that's in the SOA training course.

 

[submax]

Someone asked the insurance question in class. Basically, you would need to contact your individual insurance company and ask. They do give a certificate of completion at the end that you could show the insurance folks. I plan to call my agent soon to find out. I'll let you know what happens.

There are some other companies around the country that do some similar training (such as Ride Like a Pro). And, I believe that any training we can get as motorcyclists is good. But, few if any of them provide the motorcycles and go into as many different skills for so many hours of training. In fact, one of my classmates was trying to start his own Ride Like a Pro franchise and they sent him to the Northwest Motorcycle School to get training before he could move forward.

Probably the only thing they could do to improve the class would be to add some on the bike target shooting.

 

[Cooter]

I think we're on to something. All we need is Trinity from the Matrix and Olympics here we come!!