Customer Reviews

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Guide to Motorcycling Excellence: Skills, Knowledge, and Strategies for Riding Right

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've always advocated that there are two types of people on motorcycles: riders and accidents waiting to happen. If you are taking the time to look into proper rider education, I congratulate you on your decision to become one of the former. This book contains priceless information for riders. There really is no good substitute for knowledge and practice; and this book is an excellent source of knowledge. And take my word for it, this is the best book on the market. But, if you have not already done so, I'd STRONGLY recommend taking at least one of the MSF's courses as well. The second critical part of the equation I mentioned before is practice. And the supervised drills offered in the MSF courses are second to none for low speed practice. I've taken two myself in addition to owning this book. Having both the classes and the book for reference has been extremely helpful, to say the least.

To summarize, this is a book that belongs on every motorcyclist's bookshelf. I'd also recommend taking the classes. With those resources, you will find motorcycling more enjoyable as well as safer. It's saved my skin more then once, and I'd say that I've gotten at least a ten fold return for my time and money. And it's better then needing "First Aid for Bad Riders", "101 Ways to Fall Off Your Bike Gracefully" or "An Idiot's Guide to Compound Fractures" on your shelf. You will be an exponentially better rider if you buy this book, study its contents, and practice its techniques.

If you ride a motorcycle, you need this book. Period. Buy it now, get it, read it, and commit what it says to reflex-memory - it can literally save your life. It is not, however, a substitute for taking one of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's 3-day beginner motorcycling courses.

If you are concerned with becoming a better (safer) rider, I recommend you do the following: get this book and read it. Enroll and take the MSF course (they provide helmets and motorcycles and it's cheap). Re-read this book. Practice what you have learned in class and read in this book on an ongoing basis. If you do the above (and always wear a helmet), you will reduce the chances of accident and injury. Yes, motorcycling is more dangerous than riding in a "cage" (that's a car, for you non-motorcyclists). But, with proper training and safety equipment, you can improve your odds significantly.

Just do it.

After taking the MSF course I bought this book and others as a follow-up. My main disappointment with the MSF Guide to Motorcycling Excellence is that it little farther than the booklet that came with the course.

The information contained in the book is obviously valuable and correct (given that MSF are the subject matter experts on motorcycle safety) but there is not a lot of depth to the material in the book. It is written in a push button manner lacking sufficient exmplanations of the "why" of the techniques it describes.

If you are looking for a simple to read, basic guide to motorcycle safety this book is probably for you. If you know nothing about motorcycling then this is a good (if a bit expensive start).

If you want to learn more, are detailed oriented, or need to really understand something before you can apply it, I would recommend looking for one of the other books on motorcycling that are available.

Though this helped me to learn how to ride, I'm glad I bought "Proficient Motorcycling" by David L. Hough at the same time. (Thanks Amazon for recommending it!) It includes everything in this book and more. I found much of this book to waste too much time on theory that really didn't help you learn how to drive a motorcycle. The traction pie charts on the cover are an example--interesting, but how do apply it when I'm sitting on the bike! Just go with David Hough's book and save yourself a few bucks.

The first few chapters of the book are mostly common sense stuff. However it is setting you up for some intense reading about street strategies, traction and cornering a little later on. This book is very well written and reads more like a discussion about riding rather than a text book which I appreciated. The chapter tests were a little weak, but I liked the way each topic was broken down by chapter and discussed completely. I would recommend this book to novices and self-taught riders alike. It would teach them both a thing or two.

This is a good book to start with for the first time rider. The born-again rider will find that it is fairly lightweight. This book does not replace the MSF beginner course.

It would have been a better book if it had included more advanced topics. The Experienced Rider MSF course is not that easy to find and the book would have made that information readily available.

This book is great. I was planning on taking the advanced class again this spring, but alas, they are booked up through September in my area. So, I picked up this book; it's a great supplement to the class, and an excellent refresher-read for those who have taken the course in the past. The drawings that illustrate the techniques are excellent, and sound safe-rider advice is prevalant throughout. The text is clear and easy to understand, and the book is organized very well. The chapter on counter-steering is the best I've seen.

Not as good as taking the class, but valuable just the same.

First, take the MSF course, than read this book. Otherwise, you will never know about the critical safety information you need to safely ride a motorcycle unless you learn what you missed the hard way. It's worth every penny.

For new riders.... Take the MSF new rider course. No book will substitute for experience on a bike. Buy and read the book to gain greater depth of understanding in the theory and practice of competent bike riding.

I just started riding in February 2002. They say "nothing beats experience". This is true. If you learn it right! I bought this book and read it several times before taking my written test and safety course. I breezed through both with confidence. The knowledge this book has is invaluble! Buy it, read it, absorb it. Then practice the techniques over and over. You'll ride safer and with confidence.