May, 2008 - Still Not A Scooterist!

Having bought my scooter in late summer of 2007, I had intentions of taking my written test for my motorcycle endorsement in WA state, then practicing on the scooter, then taking my road test sometime thereafter, hopefully in early 2008. Well, it is now May 2008, and I haven't done any of the above. So, after talking with a colleague of mine who completed the Motorcycle Training Safety Course (MTSC) , I went ahead and signed up for the class. The Evergreen Safety Council (the organization that puts on the MTSC) recently started offering "scooter only" classes - you get the same Motorcycle Endorsement, but you get to ride on scooters to take the class, which made a lot of sense to me. The class involved about 7 hours of class instruction, and about 15 hours of "range" exercises at one of the Boeing parking lots. It was a great class, with excellent teachers who really wanted you to succeed at riding. You start out just straddling the scooter, then walking with the scooter without power, then walking under power, and pretty soon you are riding around cones, going over obstacles, practicing emergency stops and slow speed tight maneuvers. You take a written test on the rules of the road, and on the last day you take the skills test, and you need to get at least an 80% on both tests to pass. While I did extremely well on the written test, I had a few problems with the skills test, but I passed both. What a relief! Now, I was an official scooterist. However, it would be a couple of more weeks before I could ride my scooter.