| Author | Message | ||
     Teddagreek |
NEW LAWS FOR MOTORCYCLE LICENSURE TAKE EFFECT JULY 1! Basic Rider Course now required for all motorcycle endorsement Starting July 1, new motorcyclists must take and pass the Basic Rider Course through the Florida Rider Trainer Program before they can have the motorcycle endorsement added to their license, per Section 322.12(5)(a)., Florida Statutes. After July 1 of this year, everyone will have to take the class and pass the test, no matter their age. Future motorcyclists will be able to find a Basic Rider Course sponsor or teacher on our website. Upon successful completion, the sponsor will submit the pass results electronically to the department records. Upon receiving the results, the applicant will be processed for a motorcycle endorsement. The Department’s Florida Rider Training Program has a wealth of information on motorcycle safety and proper licensure. For more information, check out www.flhsmv.gov. Also information on where to find approved sponsors who teach the course can be found here. Please note that anyone driving a motorcycle without an endorsement is violating the law, today. I'm a big MSF advocate but I still have mixed feelings about this law.... Last time I checked more Cagers are killing bikers than accidents... The Most important thing is just having a choice.. This isn't going to stop morons from buying bikes and driving off the lot and wrecking!!! Does this open the doors for civil Deals... I can see some lawyer Scheming how to go after people and dealers who sell a bike to a person who does not have an endorsement? On the Bright side another law passed..  Workers and customers will be allowed to keep guns in their cars when parked in lots owned by private and government employers, but two business groups are challenging it in federal court. I now have another reason to get hard bags...  | ||
| Littlebuggles |
I think it's great, as long as the instructors do the stellar job they usually do out here anyway. You have to take a class to drive a car, why not a bike, they [bikes] are inherently more dangerous than a car, so no one should think that just because they want to ride one they simply can. Besides, I learned a lot of things in my classes that help keep me safe from those who would hit me given that chance. Awareness is probably the biggest thing I learned. I've read here that we should ride not just as if they can't see us, but as if they want to hit us. That's not something I learned in the classroom, but I learned a term there that is no longer used called "Rider Radar" that helps me look for everyone who is out there "trying" to run me down. Paranoia makes me so crazy sometimes... Glad they passed that law regarding firearms, by the way, people need to be allowed to protect themselves, their families and loved ones, and their property. Just takes too long for the cops to arrive. -Mike | ||
| New12r |
Mandatory training is not all that bad, I would rather adhere to a tiered license system instead, or a REAL class that can or will skip the tiered license if you pass the basic skills test. Check out GA's new carry laws! We can carry on public transportation, parks, and restaurants that serve booze(but if you carry you cant drink)!! There are a bunch of restaurants that are fixing to put up signs telling you you cant carry(grey area of the law now). IMO you are just advertising to a thief you are not armed. | ||
| Loki |
Dealers will just have another box to check before a bike leaves the shop. Private sales on the other hand..... | ||
| Torquemonster |
a gun toting 3%er...thats my kind of homeland security! | ||
| Teddagreek |
Drivers Ed/ Drivers training is not required in Florida.. Heck they even dumbed down the test and got rid of the parallel parking part of the test in the mid 90's | ||
| Miamiuly |
Maybe they should think about NOT offering the driver test in at least 3 languages. Our stop signs actually said ALTO as well as STOP at one time. That didn't help either. The driver test here is a bad joke. While I'm not big on government restrictions, we should require training for car drivers too, like in Europe. They actually learn about the car and how to maintain it as well as how to drive. From watching Top Gear, I know that you can get a big ticket for running out of gas on their "highway." Here we have trucks to give you enough to get to a gas station because we KNOW that people will be too stupid to fill the car when it gets low. I mean they are very busy in their self-absorbed, self-important lives. Nobody is THAT important, life will go on without you, even your family will move on, even the Prez has a replacement ready to go at all times. So stop and consider others, I swear it isn't that people try to be asses here, but they get sooo caught up in their own bullshit and have to rush around like the world will end if they don't get the kids to soccer practice. | ||
| Jaimec |
The problem with Mandatory Training is that now you'll have a class with people who don't want to be there. When you have a class full of people who WANT to be there and honestly WANT to learn, things go much better than when you have a class full of yahoos who think they know more than you, and just want you to hurry up and finish so they can go out and kill themselves. We had this problem back when I taught in Connecticut. If you were under 21 and wanted a motorcycle license you HAD to take the MSF course. Can't tell you how many teenaged boys came in thinking they were hot shit and knew more than the instructors. Of course, every now and then, you DID get the occasional teenager who'd been riding dirt since he could walk. But those rare exceptions were also the ones who wouldn't brag about it and actually sat through the course and WANTED to learn about riding in traffic. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
you couldn't pay me enough money to go back to miami. lived there for 5 years until early 88 and even went back after the hurricane for a while just to work. 3 in hialeah and 2 in hollywood. i did learn how to drive defensively down there though. | ||
| Miamiuly |
you couldn't pay me enough money to go back to miami. lived there for 5 years until early 88 and even went back after the hurricane for a while just to work. 3 in hialeah and 2 in hollywood. i did learn how to drive defensively down there though. I fear that WHEN I leave Me-a-Me, I will stick out in traffic like a sore thumb anywhere but maybe New York or L.A. I have done okay on bike vacations though so maybe I will be able to adjust- I hope. (Message edited by miamiuly on July 02, 2008) | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
"lived there for 5 years until early 88" It was a cocaine war zone with the Columbians in the 80's. I wouldn't have wanted to be there either. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
yes, you will stick out whether you want to or not. ask anyone who is scared to ride with me any more. of course my wife feels safer on the bike with me than in the cage. | ||
| Zane |
Couldn't agree with you more Nevrenuf. I did most my growing up in the Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Bch area and spent most of my adult life there. Got my family out 12 years ago. Went back for a 14 month contract at a college (St. Thomas University) in Opa Locka in 2003/2004. Never want to go back there again. As far as I'm concerned, if God was gonna give the entire world an enema, South Florida is where he’d put the hose. To crowded, to much crime, to much drugs and way to expensive to live there. Don’t see any reason to ever go back. | ||
| Miamiuly |
I remember when they stopped putting dade county on the auto tags because nobody could go on vacation without getting hassled. And when I was in Gainesville around 1990, anytime I got cut off in traffic it was a Dade County tag on the car. I still remember this little pink, toyota POS, that guy was the bleeding edge of today's gaudy ricer cars. Fake euro tag on front reading, "Pink 8." Don't know how many times that idiot got in my way, but if I still remember it.... | ||
| Oldog |
you couldn't pay me enough money to go back to miami. lived there for 5 years until early 88 and even went back after the hurricane for a while just to work. 3 in hialeah and 2 in hollywood. i did learn how to drive defensively down there though. I worked several stints down in hialeah around the OkeeChobee industrial area west of HG Took the Buell down there once and went over and rode the beach loop once too. YES! your head has to be on gimbals and in constant motion or else you will be a hood ornament! I enjoyed my visits man do I love some of that CUBAN food! I have to ask what is in the water down there there are Beautiful women EVERY WHERE! | ||
| Miamiuly |
See...there are some benefits, sadly even great looks are only superficial....people are a little too full of themselves a lot of the time. That is one reason they almost kill you be it car or bike. THEY ARE THE ONLY ONE ON THE ROAD in their mind. It is the true meaning of inconsiderate, they literally fail to consider that it MAY be a bad idea to slam on the brakes and shoot 4 lanes to the right to catch that exit they forgot they needed to get. It really isn't uncommon to see people reversing in the break down lane to get back to an exit rather than continue as little as one mile to the next and loop back if needed. The weather is nice in the winter and there is diversity -with all it's faults and benefits. (Message edited by miamiuly on July 02, 2008) | ||
| Nevrenuf |
uhhhh, the good ole days, i'm sure glad their over with! there's parts of tampa that's starting to look like miami and sometime's the traffic is just as bad. | ||
| Retrittion |
Instruction is good -- anything to better prepare riders so they have less of a chance of dieing. More required training to operate a motor vehicle would be nice too -- the drivers test for cagers is absurd. I say offer it in every language possible and make it hard, and make sure they learn how to not kill us and I will be happy. Oh, and monster tickets for following to closely, not signaling when turning/changing lanes, and not stopping fully and completely AT THE F'N LINE at lights and stop signs. That would take out 90% of the idiots who drive and try and kill me every day. Lets say an even $1000 per offense -- yeah, I'm vicious but it was harder to get my carry permit than my drivers license and lets be honest the vehicle is a much more dangerous weapon than my 1911 .45 -- soccer moms in SUVs scare me more than people with AKs (they usually shoot themselves anyways). But don't worry -- in 10-15 years the baby-boomers will be old as heck and still trying to drive -- personally I will be moving to the EU for a few years till those old folks die off.  | ||
| Firebolt32 |
Never took the class. I live on a dead end road with no traffic. I watched the "Ride like a pro." dvd and practiced what was shown. I just don't let my cockiness exceed my skill level. 8500k of ride time...not much really, but the bulk of that is in tampa traffic. there's parts of tampa that's starting to look like miami and sometime's the traffic is just as bad. Sometimes? you've been gone too long. I've been driving to and from Tampa for 8 yrs. It sucks everyday. I did a job in Miami about 3 yrs ago, traffic was just as bad...even during business hours. It was like nobody works down there. Not a fond memory. Terrible hotel, terrible food and our van was broken into in the Dade County Sheriff's Office parking lot. That's ballsy. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
when my truck was broken into and stolen out of my driveway in hollywood, that was the last straw. got the truck back when it was found in a heavy drug related neighborhood but all of my carpenter tools were gone. until you train the cages down in miami your pretty much wasting your time training the motorcycle riders. | ||
| Lost_in_ohio |
I still would like to see a graduated license system like Britain has proposed. No GSXR 1000 for your first bike. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
that would actually be a great idea. | ||
| Danny_h__jesternut |
Hey quit dissin on my home towne. I HEART Miami. I was born there. I would go back there in a heart beat. How I loved the eye candy ridin to the beaches, South Beach, parkin at the Eagles Nest strollin the boardwalk Hollywood Beach, The strip in Ft Liquredale, damb. Graetest times/memeries of my life are there. Hottest girls from all over the USA as well as the world are to be found sunning them selves down there. God now I'm home sick. good/ok on the new licencing law. | ||
| Miamiuly |
You would be HEART broken if you saw hollywood beach, they did put up a nice wall though. No more cruising, the mall that helped kill the strip is in trouble or dead already. It went to older people I guess, no more wandering around the spring break madness a la myrtle beach style. South beach, well how do I say this, it looks a bit like Growing Up Gotti meets Las Vegas mixed with a heavy dose of Latin sabor, I mean flavor. Coconut Grove, Just sad, again no cruising, no walking and looking into the line of cars in traffic and hitting on women. Still some good stuff here but you'll be happiest if you like to go clubbing, buy a bottle so you can have a VIP table, and generally show off $$$. | ||
| Nevrenuf |
that don't sound like much fun. worked on a coffee shop down in coconut grove back in around 93. went down to check out the night life a couple of times and would pull into the building so i wouldn't have to bother with the parking although you were able to park in front of the bike shop that was down there for free. last time i was down there was about a year and a half ago to do some design work and when i tried to find my old buddies house i got lost all over the place. in fact i think his daughter is with either the police dept. or sheriffs dept. last name was marchese. he's a supervisor in the construction dept at the airport in miami. | ||
| Gtmg |
Very interesting law by a state that has no helmet statute. The number all say if you want to truly reduce deaths wear helmets. The one good thing about Florida is they do have a significant number of people giving the MSF course. It is not restricted to just a few like it is here Georgia. | ||
| Miamiuly |
Correction to the above- I was thinking Ft Lauderdale strip when I said Hollywood Beach. Hollywood Bch may still be okay, at least compared to the others. As for the no helmet law but mandatory schooling....it can't be a secret that Florida is shall we say, bi-polar. 2008)}you were able to park in front of the bike shop that was down there for free. Ah yes, the ol' Spokes in the grove, what was that guy's name? he was a party animal and fairly nice guy. Unless you meant grove cycles on Grand Ave, either way both closed. Back around 94 I wanted (dreaming) to take over johnny rockets, open a bike shop that would sell and install accessories on a Fri or Sat night while you had a burger. Wanted to call it Johnny Rice Rockets- I'm sure they would be cool with that. Not. (Message edited by miamiuly on July 02, 2008) | ||
| Irideabuell |
Lived 10 years in Boca Raton. Couldn't get out of there fast enough. Stuck up people, too much traffic and way too expensive. I don't know how many times conversations started with, "So, do you live in Boca?" If you didn't, that's where the conversation ended! | ||
| Nevrenuf |
I want to say full throttle, but it was just a small parts and apparel shop down there. right off the main drag. it's been to long since i was there. | ||
| Miamiuly |
Oh, you mean Easy Riders, they used to wheel out a junk bike to save a spot and they always had to argue with the city but kept doing it so that we and their customers could park there. |
