Training Course - Final Day

Today was the the 3rd and final day of my motorcycle training course. I passed with a pretty low final score. We did another 5 hours of riding and learning all kinds of different skills and techniques to deal with situations that will come up out on the road. As I typed the word skills just now my mind immediately went to Napoleon Dynamite. Anyway, I learned a lot more motorcycle handling skills today. The first thing today the instructors told us that we were going to be stepping things up a noch or two, and the evaluations were going to begin. We were given points for mistakes and if you got so many points then you wouldn't pass. The first thing we did was the emergency stopping procedure that I was having some trouble with at the end of class yesterday. We were given one practice run then the next one was scored. There were cones marking where to begin the stop, and painted marks 6" apart that were used for measuring. They looked at the approach speed, did we start the braking at the cones, did we shift back down to 1st gear, did the tires lock up, and how far down the hash marks we ended up. Both instructors took down notes or whatever on the clipboards and that was it. It was the next persons turn, there was no feedback as to how we did like yesterday. I felt good though. It was the beginning of the day and I was feeling fresh and excited and ready to get it on. All throughout the day they were evaluating us. Sometimes they would tell us that for this particular maneuver we would be scored, and other times we would be running through the exercise then all of the sudden you see them with the clipboards and they'd be writing something as you passed by. We did some things that were kind of difficult for a beginner rider but the only way I would learn it on my own would be learning it the hard way. They kept telling us that someone was going to drop a bike and maybe even have a bit of a spill. They expect it and rarely go a weekend session without it happening at least once. We heard that someone from the morning class fell twice on the first day. Today a girl did have a little wreck and it damaged the bike. She was mostly embarrassed and felt bad about the bike. They were really cool about it and kept saying that we needed to test ourselves here, and make the mistakes here, not on our own, with our own bikes. My favorite part I think was the cone weaves. At one point we had to be in 2nd or 3rd gear and all 10 riders just kept going round and round the course doing these weaves. It was so fun to have the speed up and to feel the lean as you go through the weaves. I took a quick picture of the bikes all lined up before the class began but I didn't get any other pics. I wanted one with me on the bike wearing my helmet and gloves, but I felt too funny asking someone to take it for me.