This review is for the Basic Riding Course offered at Bluegrass Harley Davidson, March 2025…read more
Although I do not have firsthand experience of taking this particular class here at the Bluegrass Harley Davison, I did help my SO enroll, gain access to the online portion, and sat through majority of the day-1 classroom portion, observe the day-2 classroom activity, day-2 riding range, and day-3 riding range.
On day 1, students are required to have their completion certificate for the online portion, a long sleeve shirt or jacket, long pants or jeans without rips, over the ankle footwear, full fingered gloves, eyewear, and a D.O.T. approved motorcycle helmet (the brochure does specify that the helmet must be full face or 3/4, and indicates that no half helmets are permitted, however, this specific note regarding the half helmet is not included in the email sent to students). There were a few loaner helmets available for those whose helmets were not D.O.T. or training compliant.
Both the classroom and range are done at the Bluegrass Harley Davidson facility. The classroom is located on the second floor above the showroom and the riding range is the parking lot to the left as you are looking at the building. During day 1, students are given a tour of the Bluegrass Harley Davidson facility and shown a bike similar to what they will use during the range days.
The instructors, Randy & Ed, were friendly once we met them in person. My only qualm is in all the pre-class emails, they stated that if there are any questions prior to the class starting, you could use the email address provided. We did send an email 2 or 3 days prior to the class starting, but no one ever responded.
The classes are set up for 12 riders at a time, which is great and gives the students enough interactive time with the instructors. The class uses Jump Start 500 for training bikes [similar to the one pictured, except this shows a 750]. For taller or heavier students, this bike may be a bit small, but they should be able to manage for two days of training.
The range day is two full days that goes over a series of riding exercises. First, one instructor is on the bike dempmstrating to the students what needs to be done. The other instructor verbally explains it, and then the students will do the activities themselves.
Although there are no designated lunch periods, students are able to stop and eat or use their breaks to eat if they bring food. Water and granola bars were provided.
I think the class is worth the $150 value. The online course portion's fee is waived and throughout the training, students get water and granola bars, as stated above. At the end of training, students receive a completion certificate, their MSF safety foundation card, a written test waiver for Kentucky license holders - good for 1 year from the class date, and a Harley Davidson t-shirt. I would highly recommend this training to others.