Got my M1, now deciding on a course

S

shiftee

New member
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Hi all,

I just got my M1 a couple of days ago and I'm looking into taking a training course. I've narrowed it down to 2:

- Humber College (North)
- Learning Curves (Richmond Hill @ Honda Canada building)

The biggest difference between the 2 would be the price. Does anyone know of any other differences or if they prefer one to the other?

Do they offer 1 bike per person or do you have to share bikes with someone? Do they offer different types of bikes or are they mostly sport bikes?

From what I've read on these forums, there are a lot more people that are partial to Learning Curves, although nobody has mentioned anything about the course at the Honda Canada building. I assume that's because that location is still pretty new. Searching through google though, I do see a lot of people vouching for the Humber course.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Look around on the forums if price point is your thing. As a member of GTAM, you get 25 bucks off. Look in the sub-forums and do your research before starting new threads.

Welcome and enjoy :)
 
I did learning curves at the same place and loved it. When I did it they had a bike for everyone and there was like 5 instructors and like 20 people in the class. Some of the instructors are even on this forum lol. I did mine in April however. High of 4 degrees those days but still made it enjoyable.
 
did mine at Humber(north campus), they just got new bikes not to long ago (CBR 125R) great staff, great instructors. my overall experience was 10/10 at Humber college north campus. they really watch for your weaknesses and work on that, they can see your strengths pretty quick. price was 500$
 
I've known a few people who did learning curves and they had nothing but good to say about it. There's also rti even though it's not one of your two.
 
+1 for Humber North.
Their senior instructor Sacha is worth going for alone :D
 
I did learning curves and I know many of the teachers there. They're great. I highly recommend them. You get your own bike and there are different types too, not just sport bikes.
 
I did mine at Learning Curves - the Honda Campus (Woodbine Bypass location). As a pp said, it is about 5 instructors to 20 students (pretty good compared to a friend of mine who did his with 50 other people).
There is 1 bike per person (but no one has a bike to themselves. i.e. after a lesson, everyone grabs the bike closest to them). I had mine lowered though for the course so the one that was lowered was always mine (that was nice).

I can't compare the course to others but here are my pros and cons about Learning Curves.

PROs:
- small instructor/student ratio
- useful in-class (talking about blocking and insurance etc. no videos of motorcyclists getting hit/run over to scare you)
- scaffolded lessons (each lesson builds on the one before)
- plenty of practice time
- lots of room
- if you are having trouble, instructors will take you to the side to help you build/train a particular skill
- fair price

CONs:
- would've like to have more practice time on "straight aways" to get a hang of shifting gears (for those who have never driven standard)
- max speed you reach is maybe 40kph
- a great deal of low speed skill building (which is good) but I felt like I didn't get enough "real scenario" practice/lessons

I would definitely recommend LC and what I did to work on the CONs was to practice myself after the course. I bought my own bike, practiced on a dead end street (to get used to the handling), then when outside to the city to county roads to get up to speed and practice shifting. Then when back to parking lots to work on low speed stuff (like low speed turns and push steering etc).
Hope that helps!
 
Regardless of the course you do, you still need to practice on your "own" bike so you get a feel of how your bike handles. Practice makes perfect. After several years of riding, I still find an empty parking lot at the start of every season as well as whenever I get a new bike.
 
stiletto said:
PROs:
- small instructor/student ratio
- useful in-class (talking about blocking and insurance etc. no videos of motorcyclists getting hit/run over to scare you)
- scaffolded lessons (each lesson builds on the one before)
- plenty of practice time
- lots of room
- if you are having trouble, instructors will take you to the side to help you build/train a particular skill
- fair price

CONs:
- would've like to have more practice time on "straight aways" to get a hang of shifting gears (for those who have never driven standard)
- max speed you reach is maybe 40kph
- a great deal of low speed skill building (which is good) but I felt like I didn't get enough "real scenario" practice/lessons
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Learning Curves has the 1 teacher to 5 student ratio. There are usually 3 teachers so the class would have 15 students. They do that so they don't over crowd the class and are able to spend time with students who need it. You said both that a pro and con was practice time. I think they're all relatively the same. Regarding your con for only being able to go 40km/h .. I don't think I'd want someone who has never ridden a bike before and doesn't understand how a clutch works going faster than that!! Also, it's good to learn how to manouvre a bike in low speed. It is much more difficult to do that than it is going faster.
 
sykobish said:
Learning Curves has the 1 teacher to 5 student ratio. There are usually 3 teachers so the class would have 15 students. They do that so they don't over crowd the class and are able to spend time with students who need it. You said both that a pro and con was practice time. I think they're all relatively the same. Regarding your con for only being able to go 40km/h .. I don't think I'd want someone who has never ridden a bike before and doesn't understand how a clutch works going faster than that!! Also, it's good to learn how to manovre a bike in low speed. It is much more difficult to do that than it is going faster.
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My concern is mostly for someone who has never driven standard to practice shifting. 40km/h in a small parking lot is a very short period of time to accelerate and shift up to second and back down before having to turn (for a beginner anyway). Low speed manouvres are very important but I felt that the course was pretty much 95% low speed maneuvers and 5% higher speed opportunities. In hindsight, I think a few more chances to practice on straight aways and natural road curves would have helped transition a newbie into real life riding. Of course low speed skills are harder to master, but I think it would've been beneficial to also have higher speed lessons to reinforce riders in preparation for real roads.
 
stiletto said:
My concern is mostly for someone who has never driven standard to practice shifting. 40km/h in a small parking lot is a very short period of time to accelerate and shift up to second and back down before having to turn (for a beginner anyway). Low speed manouvres are very important but I felt that the course was pretty much 95% low speed maneuvers and 5% higher speed opportunities. In hindsight, I think a few more chances to practice on straight aways and natural road curves would have helped transition a newbie into real life riding. Of course low speed skills are harder to master, but I think it would've been beneficial to also have higher speed lessons to reinforce riders in preparation for real roads.
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Well, first, if you are doing 40km in a parking lot and you're having a hard time getting into second on a 125 at that speed, that's quite concerning. You should be in second way before you reach that speed. Practice straight aways? Why? Going straight is easy. The hard(er) part is turning which is what you are constantly doing in the course at slow speeds, which again is hard(er) to do. Natural road curves? I don't think I quite understand that statement. As opposed to unnatural? I don't think I would feel very comfortable teaching a bunch of new riders who have never used a clutch before while they are riding around at higher speeds. But that's just me...
 
sykobish said:
Well, first, if you are doing 40km in a parking lot and you're having a hard time getting into second on a 125 at that speed, that's quite concerning. You should be in second way before you reach that speed. Practice straight aways? Why? Going straight is easy. The hard(er) part is turning which is what you are constantly doing in the course at slow speeds, which again is hard(er) to do. Natural road curves? I don't think I quite understand that statement. As opposed to unnatural? I don't think I would feel very comfortable teaching a bunch of new riders who have never used a clutch before while they are riding around at higher speeds. But that's just me...
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Essentially the course is great at teaching necessary skills but I believe it could be even more benefical to include longer stretches of pavement to teach students without background knowledge of gear shifting. YOU don't have to agree with me. Now being able to do it with my own bike and practising on straight dead end or residential streets, I certainly feel that riding schools could improve by adding that step into their programs. No course is perfect, and this is my feedback, you do not need to become defensive or condescending.
 
stiletto said:
Essentially the course is great at teaching necessary skills but I believe it could be even more benefical to include longer stretches of pavement to teach students without background knowledge of gear shifting. YOU don't have to agree with me. Now being able to do it with my own bike and practising on straight dead end or residential streets, I certainly feel that riding schools could improve by adding that step into their programs. No course is perfect, and this is my feedback, you do not need to become defensive or condescending.
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You need to not take everything so personally. Considering you are new, you sure have a lot of opinions about what schools should do. Maybe you should write them and tell them to include a section of landing strip so everyone knows how to go straight. Good luck with your riding.
 
stiletto said:
My concern is mostly for someone who has never driven standard to practice shifting. 40km/h in a small parking lot is a very short period of time to accelerate and shift up to second and back down before having to turn (for a beginner anyway). Low speed manouvres are very important but I felt that the course was pretty much 95% low speed maneuvers and 5% higher speed opportunities. In hindsight, I think a few more chances to practice on straight aways and natural road curves would have helped transition a newbie into real life riding. Of course low speed skills are harder to master, but I think it would've been beneficial to also have higher speed lessons to reinforce riders in preparation for real roads.
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I can understand your desire to have more true to life road experience in the training course, but the truth is that it's just not economically possible. The costs associated with renting a lot big enough to even hold a course, plus the insurance required are just too high. As instructors we would love to be able to provide you with a way to practice as many different scenarios as possible, but we have to work with what we have. Also, all of the schools are required by the MTO to teach essentially the same curriculum, and administer the same test. We are also required to maintain a 5 students to 1 instructor ratio.
 
Lunatic said:
I can understand your desire to have more true to life road experience in the training course, but the truth is that it's just not economically possible. The costs associated with renting a lot big enough to even hold a course, plus the insurance required are just too high. As instructors we would love to be able to provide you with a way to practice as many different scenarios as possible, but we have to work with what we have. Also, all of the schools are required by the MTO to teach essentially the same curriculum, and administer the same test. We are also required to maintain a 5 students to 1 instructor ratio.
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That makes a lot of sense, the financial limitations. Unfortunately a lot of the real road stuff has to be learned first hand. In which case if a riding school's campus cannot accomodate real road scenarios, I suppose the best route is to practice on residential roads with a friend like I did. It is also unfortunate that many riders think arrogantly high of themselves on these forums and cannot accept a differing opinion. I still recommend Learning Curves because I had a great experience, however there are no perfect systems, so there should always be feedback for improvement.
 
highly recommend humber!
YZFer said:
did mine at Humber(north campus), they just got new bikes not to long ago (CBR 125R) great staff, great instructors. my overall experience was 10/10 at Humber college north campus. they really watch for your weaknesses and work on that, they can see your strengths pretty quick. price was 500$
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stiletto said:
That makes a lot of sense, the financial limitations. Unfortunately a lot of the real road stuff has to be learned first hand. In which case if a riding school's campus cannot accomodate real road scenarios, I suppose the best route is to practice on residential roads with a friend like I did. It is also unfortunate that many riders think arrogantly high of themselves on these forums and cannot accept a differing opinion. I still recommend Learning Curves because I had a great experience, however there are no perfect systems, so there should always be feedback for improvement.
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Now I'm arrogant because I didn't agree with you? I was trying to help. Take it or leave it and to be honest, I'm glad you're leaving it. I was only attempting to correct you where you were wrong but I see from your ignorance that you refuse any differentiating opinion. Good luck with your riding.
 
sykobish said:
Now I'm arrogant because I didn't agree with you? I was trying to help. Take it or leave it and to be honest, I'm glad you're leaving it. I was only attempting to correct you where you were wrong but I see from your ignorance that you refuse any differentiating opinion. Good luck with your riding.
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I'm sorry, are you hearing yourself? You are trying to correct my opinion? LOL please stop hijacking the thread, you are doing enough nasty work in private messages. Move on.
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