Take Safety Course....Or Not?

[Buce]

First post on this forum. A little background. I will be 39yo this year. First rode a motorcycle at the age of 12. Of course it was only an 80cc dirt bike and it was on off-road trails but i learned all the skills of riding at that young age. I continued to ride off-road for 4-5 more years after that, moving up to 185cc enduro bikes. Nine years ago for my 30th birthday, i gifted myself with a motorcycle license. I took the Safety Course at Humber College, passed with flying colours and had my M2. Two weeks later, i was laid off from work and purchasing a motorcycle became the last thing on my mind. I found another job soon after but by then it was close to winter and again a bike was not on the radar. Five years passed, never got a bike and my M2 expired because i never did the M2 Exit test. Now i got the riding bug again. Went and got my M1 four days ago and have started looking for a bike. I am looking for something like a Ducati 696 Monster or a Suzuki sv650, etc. I feel those are decent beginner bikes and don't want to go smaller given i have some past experience, albeit off-road. I feel i just need to get used to the heavier weight of a road bike in slow maneuvers and those bikes are in the 400lb range, which is not too bad. Now....
My dilemma. Should i redo a Safety Course and get M2 through them or just go to MTO with my own bike and do test there? I already took the course years ago and would rather not spend the $450 again but i have no idea what the MTO test is like. Is it more difficult than the test done through the Safety Course? Do they have stricter tests? The only thing i am concerned with is doing the test on a much larger machine. At the Safety Courses they use 125cc bikes that are light and easy to ride. If i go to MTO, i will probably be doing the test on a Ducati Monster or something similar(depending on what i buy) and i am concerned that some of the tests, like pylon slaloms, will be a little tricky. Benefit is it only costs $80, i can go anytime and if i fail, i can just redo the test. Any advice, input, experiences???

[Jampy00]

SV650 is a good choice ( I have one ) and is good on insurance.

Take the course, I found it to be very informative. Good luck and have fun !!

[Kibosh3]

welcome!

and yes, take the course.

it's nice to be able to practice things like emergency braking and braking through turns with a bike that isn't your own

[AF4iK]

It's never a bad idea to take the course and if you're worried about it maybe you should. But if I were you I'd just go straight to the MTO and take the test. Like you said, for $80 you can always try again if you fail. And again, and again if necessary and it'll still be cheaper than re-doing the course.

I don't know what it was like back in the day but I understand that the test they put you through at the end of the course is basically identical to the MTO's test.

[ViperZ]

I keep reading about the serpentine ride that they make you do on the M1 exit test at the MTO. It seems to be very difficult to do on a sports bike, especially without much experience. Humber didn't have this serpentine, but they had more real-life situations tested on the test. If you have the money, I'd do the course and refresh the safety and riding skills aspects.

[cknowles]

+1 on taking the course again. It's usually worth it on your insurance. For me (I'm 48 years old) the course was paid for by my insurance savings in the first year. In other words the course was essentially free and I learned some valuable techniques.

[l84toff]

Everytime anyone asks me about getting their M license, I always always always suggest taking the M1 exit course. I found it quite valuable and a must for anyone that has never ridden before. In your case, with some experience, it would really be up to you. Although the fact you're asking the question should be answer enough for you. Take the course! It's definitely not going to be detrimental if you do and will be so much easier to pass the test, especially if you're already worried about it.

At the same time, I can not recommend taking the M2 exit that gets you your full M. This IMHO was a waste of $. They do not teach you anything new, I talked to the instructor about this afterwards and he said that the only reason for the course is to get you to pass the test, nothing else. It would be better to simply go take the MTO test and even if you fail it a few times, you are still ahead $ wise. But that's just my opinion!