Well, that was a humbling experience! It's amazing how much basis skills can diminish when you don't take time to practice. I passed the BRC tests without losing any points, but it wasn't graceful. Thought for sure I caught points on the U-Turn portion at least.
And, I even managed to drop the bike during practice. Granted the course was drenched again, but it was a ll me. So, I always 2 finger brake. The bikes I tend to ride have very aggressive brakes, and I also trail brake a lot. Years of track time and fast riding. Fwiw, I've even taught some top notch track riders. At speed, I"m pretty much untouchable. Well, for MSF, they want 4 fingers on the lever. And RiderCoaches are expected to show that. So i was making every attempt to break the habit. Well, on the quick stop through a corner practice, I remembered to use 4 fingers, and immediately started sliding the front wheel. Got that under control, and didn't realize I was also sliding the rear. Let off the rear brake just before I was stopped, and it kicked a little. Tried to catch it as it fell over, but once you get to that point, we all know just set it down. No damage, no injury, basically just set the bike down on it's side, and had a severely bruised ego. I was also probably going a bit faster than I should have been. Another thing I need to work on, riding at true novice speeds. I was probably going twice the speed I should have been for the exercise. RC's were awesome the whole time. I honestly thought I was done right there, but they walked me through the whole thing. Even admitted they've done the same. It was practice, not the skills test. Bikes get dropped a lot during practice.
We were even able to use me as an example for the class in the end. I have track day accolades, pro level licensing, the whole shebang. Everyone knew from the introduction part that I was retaking the BRC as part of the RCP program, and when we had to discuss our riding background, I did give a brief explanation. At the end, the RC's were talking about diminishing skills, and I added how everyone watched me struggle with some of the exercises, and even watched me drop a bike on the range. My background and experience, none of it mattered because I let those base skills get rusty. It really had several other students realizing they needed to keep practicing, and hopefully they won't let those skills go like I did.
I did also really enjoy the process. There were a few students who struggled hard, but they had no quit in them. They gave it everything. And as they would finally learn something, or start to sort it out, I was legit cheering in my helmet for them! My mentor for the program asked me after today if I still wanted to be a RiderCoach. My answer was absolutely, now more than ever. The BRC may have humbled me, but it really gave me clarity as to why we do this.