People interested in learning to ride should consider getting some experience on a dirt bike before moving on to a street bike. It's a great way to learn on a lighter bike that can take a whole lot more abuse. It's also a lot easier to learn how to take a spill riding around on sandy trails and how to recover when the bike gets squirrelly.
I took
this course after riding a CBR600RR (first bike) for about 2 years. It was a great class and I recommend it to anybody that can get to the Charlotte, NC area for a long weekend. As a then still novice (for all practical purposes) rider I took away much more than I could have ever hoped to. This came in handy the next summer.
I was making a left turn through an intersection and went right through some sort of fluid on the pavement. I was travelling maybe 15MPH with just slight throttle on to maintain constant speed through the turn (Just enough to keep the top of the chain tight). The light was already green when I approached and it was a wide intersection that could have been taken much faster, so I was not going too fast for it. The rear tire spun like hell but I was able to adjust my peg weighting and use the slightest opposite steering on the bars and somehow gathered it up while managing not to piss myself. I attribute not dumping the bike that day to the training I received at
Cornerspin.
//End shameless plug for a business which I have no vested interest in.
