motorcycle course question and FAST riding school | GTAMotorcycle.com

motorcycle course question and FAST riding school

murdlem

murdlem

Well-known member
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I was shopping around for insurance today since state Farm changed their rates and I was asked if I had taken a motorcycle course. I know it is a stretch but I was wondering if I could claim FAST riding school as having taken a course?

33 year old male
5 years licensed
M2 (expires end of February have test booked)
No accidents/tickets
Have house and car I can bundle
Have not been insured in the past year
2007 GSXR 600

Quoted $2800 from Dalton Timms, $2500 from state Farm, $1083 from all state
 
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To clarify, Dalton Timms mentioned that if I took a riding course that it would change my status to a 3 star from a 1 star
 
murdlem said:
To clarify, Dalton Timms mentioned that if I took a riding course that it would change my status to a 3 star from a 1 star
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That All State rate doesn't seem too bad though. Did they (DT) say what the new rate would be? I doubt it would come down enough to compete.

Sent from a Samsung Galaxy far, far away using Tapatalk
 
No he did not say. All state wasn't too bad but they are a bit higher on my house and car than what I am paying at state Farm.

I was really just curious about the riding school I am sure they have a proper definition for it. Saying that I feel like the fast riding school teaches you far more about motorcycle control then one of the parking lot courses ever could.
 
To be recognized by the insurance company, a school has to follow the government prescribed guidelines for what they are supposed to teach and how. The various track-oriented schools do not.
 
State Farm has not one ****** to give about your motorcycle safety course FAST or otherwise, or so I was I told last summer.

41 years old,
DM2/Z
 
Teaching you how to race on a closed course isn't something that's good for insurance rates. In the UK you can get insurance breaks if you take a skills course like the police training ones but there are zero breaks for racing schools and rightly so.
 
theraymondguy said:
State Farm has not one ****** to give about your motorcycle safety course FAST or otherwise, or so I was I told last summer.

41 years old,
DM2/Z
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I was told this by a SF broker:

· We will not insure any operator of the motorcycle over the age of 25, with less than one (1) year of experience operating a motorcycle, unless an acceptable motorcycle training course has been successfully completed.

 
jc100 said:
Teaching you how to race on a closed course isn't something that's good for insurance rates. In the UK you can get insurance breaks if you take a skills course like the police training ones but there are zero breaks for racing schools and rightly so.
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I am not sure what you meant by your "... and rightly so" comment.

The most competent street riders that I know, all have extensive track riding experience.

BUT ... Track courses don't tell you about dealing with traffic, and rules of the road, etc.

Most racers don't care about showing off on the streets. Most have very good situational awareness, because you can't ride well on track without it. Errors such as riding straight off the road because they don't know how to take a corner pretty much don't happen. There are exceptions, of course. There are exceptions to everything.

I always recommend that people take BOTH an advanced street riding course AND a track riding course. They teach different things and you need to know how to do both. That the insurance company might cut you a break for doing the street riding course, if they do that, is a bonus.
 
I was told by a SF agent everything helps so the FAST and Racer5 certificates were submitted. Not sure how much they helped, but the 2016 renewals for zx6r and ex500 went down.
 
Brian P said:
I am not sure what you meant by your "... and rightly so" comment.

The most competent street riders that I know, all have extensive track riding experience.

BUT ... Track courses don't tell you about dealing with traffic, and rules of the road, etc.

Most racers don't care about showing off on the streets. Most have very good situational awareness, because you can't ride well on track without it. Errors such as riding straight off the road because they don't know how to take a corner pretty much don't happen. There are exceptions, of course. There are exceptions to everything.

I always recommend that people take BOTH an advanced street riding course AND a track riding course. They teach different things and you need to know how to do both. That the insurance company might cut you a break for doing the street riding course, if they do that, is a bonus.
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I agree. Training is training. The more you have of it the better you can/will be. Deal with a sticky situation at race speeds and when something happens at slower speeds (on the road) it will be second nature without a panic reaction.

Does any professional in any sport have 1 lesson and call it a day? They usually have hundreds of lessons with multiple coaches. (some for various reasons)

Does a basic drivers course teach you as much about actually controlling a car and the physics behind it as a skid school will? How many better drivers do you think we would have on the road today if everyone had to take a mandatory skid school.
 
Well, one set of training emphasises the "race" aspect, while one set of training emphasises only street situations at legal speeds. I can see why the UK doesn't accept any racing courses for insurance breaks, it seems pretty obvious to me. I do think insurance companies here should offer rate breaks for successful street skills course training though just as they do in the UK.
 
jc100 said:
Well, one set of training emphasises the "race" aspect, while one set of training emphasises only street situations at legal speeds. I can see why the UK doesn't accept any racing courses for insurance breaks, it seems pretty obvious to me. I do think insurance companies here should offer rate breaks for successful street skills course training though just as they do in the UK.
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I see your point on that. I don't think it is as cut and dry as you put it though. Riders who do the FAST course are not always racers, and i wouldn't say it focuses strictly on racing aspects. It focuses on solid fundamentals and improving your skills to become a more advanced rider.
From an isurance perspective i would rather a rider who has great control of their bike at all time then a rider who may not.
I agree that it does not teach you shoulder checks and street signs but there has to be some truth as to why every rider who has gone on a track racing or not says that you cal learn more in 1 day than you can in several years of street riding.
 
CrashChris said:
I see your point on that. I don't think it is as cut and dry as you put it though. Riders who do the FAST course are not always racers, and i wouldn't say it focuses strictly on racing aspects. It focuses on solid fundamentals and improving your skills to become a more advanced rider.
From an isurance perspective i would rather a rider who has great control of their bike at all time then a rider who may not.
I agree that it does not teach you shoulder checks and street signs but there has to be some truth as to why every rider who has gone on a track racing or not says that you cal learn more in 1 day than you can in several years of street riding.
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Every rider who does the total control skills course also says it's a good course to take and I think that's a better way of approaching things from an insurance break perspective. I'd argue that with the state of our roads, an offroad course should also be something that counts towards insurance breaks.

Not every street rider wants to race, but every insured street rider will necessarily have to ride on the street and skills that help that...not a closed course, with no opposing traffic, no potholes, no sand, no obstacles and emphasis on race lines etc...should be rewarded with a tax break IMO.
 
CrashChris said:
I see your point on that. I don't think it is as cut and dry as you put it though. Riders who do the FAST course are not always racers, and i wouldn't say it focuses strictly on racing aspects. It focuses on solid fundamentals and improving your skills to become a more advanced rider.
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That may well be the intent but insurance companies aren't naive: They know that at least some folks coming out of courses like that are more likely to use that new-found confidence to try to drag knees and carry more speed into corners, brake later etc. After all, that's the sort of thing FAST teaches, no?

After all, this is right on FAST's page:

btmPic.jpg


:)
 
Blackfin said:
some folks coming out of courses like that are more likely to use that new-found confidence to try to drag knees and carry more speed into corners, brake later etc. After all, that's the sort of thing FAST teaches, no?
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Fast, and similar performance riding schools teach the fundamentals of motorcycle control, balance, traction management, acceleration, braking, and cornering. All very useful skills that translate to street riding also, and become second nature when you have some track experience.

Track experience teaches riders to explore and learn the limits of modern motorcycles- so you'll know that you will give up far before your tires will fail you- rather than running off the road on a blind off-camber turn, you'll know you can lean further and safely navigate the corner.

All of the above naturally assumes you're not a complete f*cktard, with hopeless throttle control, trying to drag a knee on the street.
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