Humper, I just passed the MSF course about two months ago and my first bike is a 04 America. I am 6’1†and I am at 225 pounds. I am as happy as I can be with my bike! I have taken the bike to a local parking lot and practice all of the skills that were in the class. Other than the bike not liking to be lugged around a parking lot, everything else was easy to do maybe except the figure 8 things in the box.
Most of the time when I am riding, I use half throttle or less. The only time I am over that is when I am in traffic and I am just keeping up. I have only had it to full throttle a hand full of times and that was just because I was curious. It is fast, recently I was pulling on to an interstate and I opened it up on the entrance ramp. To my surprise, the guy that was tail gating me was way back there. I remember my first thought was oh crap! So it surprised me.
Sines then I have taken two 200+ mile trips to and from the Blue Ridge Parkway and wait until you can actually practice counter steering. I know in class they told us to turn left push left and to turn right push right, but I never really could get the feel of it in the little course we was on. The America does it so well and very predictable, I mean it is a real pleasure. And the front brake is great! You just keep squeezing and it just keeps stopping. The bikes we had in class were a little weak in that department.
Lastly while the MSF course is still fresh, I recommend a book called Proficient Motorcycling. This guy really wrote the book to motorcycle safety and this is where the MSF gets a lot of its info. However the book has 10 times the amount of info and really makes of all that stuff they told you in class more practical.
