WetLeather Motorcycle Rider Information

In 11 years of motorcycle safety instruction, I've never before had a student arrive at the range reeking of alcohol. I don't think he was actually intoxicated but a long history of abuse had left him with that smell. It had also destroyed a lot of brain cells, his strength, and his balance. I dismissed him from class very early in the range day with the admonition that motorcycling was not for him.

The rest of the weekend more than made up for that event. I taught in Astoria and we hold the range sessions there at one end of an unused runway at the airport. It's quiet (except for the Coast Guard helicopters coming and going), it's open, and there is a lot of avian wildlife. I had an adult Bald Eagle circling overhead for a long time and a juvenile Golden Eagle swooping the perimeter of the range at hedge level for most of the day.

With only eight strong students remaining after the early dismissal, we ended up with 37 miles on the training bike trip odometers at the end of the class; 17 on day one, 20 on day two. That rocked.