[Dragon-88]

Originally Posted by DKaz

I went to 1st Gear Motorcycle School in Richmond. Great group of instructors, highly recommended. Their schedule also worked better than PRS, consisting of theory on Thursday at 7:30PM til 10:30PM, parking lot then theory Saturday 9AM til 4:30PM, then more theory, parking lot, and MSA Sunday 9AM til 4:30PM. You can then do two practice road rides at your own convenience, just give them a heads up a day in advance and they'll fit you in if there's room.

As I said before, the instructors were great. They hammer knowledge and technique into you. They don't make it easy but they provide lots of support. At the end of the day, they want you to become a safe rider. On Sunday at about 2:30PM they let people practice for and do their MSA. At their advice, I did mine before 3PM as if you fail the first time, they can retest you again an hour later. I did fail my first MSA after stupidly leaving my bike in 2nd gear before my 2nd high (25 km/h) speed test and stalling twice, but retested an hour later and passed with a big fat zero demerits.

One big pro of 1st Gear over the others is that 1st Gear has five types of bikes: CBR 125R sport, Rebel 250 cruiser, Nighthawk 250 standard, Yamaha XT225 dual sport, and brand new to their fleet as soon as they get it insured, a Grom monkeybike. They encourage you to ride all of them to figure out which bike you like best. Like PRS, they supply all the riding gear for the MSA course except boots, bring your own boots.

1st Gear is a spin off from Pro Ride in North Vancouver, there's also PRS which everyone mentions and is a great school. I think at the end of the day, you pick your school based on location and schedule. 1st Gear is in Richmond which may be super convenient to a lot of you. I live in Surrey and chose 1st Gear over PRS simply due to scheduling, and I do not regret it one bit. 1st Gear costs $699 + tax. They have an option where you can put down $300 at first and then pay the rest the week before class.

Nice, Great to hear more people like it.. Grumbles was my favorite bike..