1/5 stars. For $250. That's my experience. The fact that this private company has been around for so long, and yet I am still the first one to write a review should tell you something about them. I went to the San Luis Obispo course because they didn't have enough students at the Paso Robles course.
First, in order to sign up, you have to email their office regardless of your schedule, because no matter how many times you call them, they will not pick up, you don't believe me? Try it, their number, it is the same on yelp. They will return your call within 24 hours if you are lucky, regardless of your busy schedule. The lady working on the phone is named Cheryl Johnson, she told me she will get back to me by 3pm on a Tuesday at 12pm if I can take the course based on their "availability", but never got back to me until 6pm. Once they do decide to get back to you, Cheryl will take forever to answer simple questions, such as, "what equipment are provided? How long are the classes? Where are the classes located?" Be prepared to stay on the phone for at least half an hour or more, because she will just go on and on about things not relevant to your question. Oh by the way, the classroom is located in secrecy, and they are afraid to let you know where the location is before you pay. After you pay the $250, you get the address of the written course, and no address, just a badly drawn map of the secret location where the motorcycle riding course will take place emailed to you two days before the course starts. And by the way, Cheryl will ask you to email her a copy of your driver licenses to get ready for the written course, but be prepared to give your driver licenses to the written instructor another photo copy again because even though they are the same company, apparently they don't work in sync.
Next, you have the written course taught by Tom. He is cool, and funny, but be prepared to bring a voice recorder, because the class is divided into 10 small groups in answering 126 motorcycle related questions, some people speak in a monotone, some people are giving the answers in the back of the room, and Tom doesn't go over all the questions one by one, sometimes he will just say "Yup" and go on to the next one. Oh by the way, you go over every question just once, so if you didn't get the answer, that's too bad, go look for the answers on your own. I took the written course on Thursday, and I just took and pass the written test today at DMV; more than 60% of the official DMV motorcycle test are not in the study questions from Central Coast Motorcycle Training course. You're better off re-reading everything in the motorcycle handbook provided by DMV if you want to pass the DMV motorcycle written test. Me & other students from the same course all agreed, at DMV, that we had to re-read the DMV motorcycle handbook, because there were just too many materials not covered in the written course of Central Coast motorcycle Training.
Last, you have Tom and Rocky teaching the riding course of the training. Be sure to leave at least 1 hour early if you live in Paso, because even though the riding location is only 45 minutes away (8 miles west from San Luis Obispo), you have to take into account of traffic, and do some analysis on the poorly drawn map if you're not familiar with the area. Normally when you sign up for a class that cost you $250.00, you'd expect the company to at least provide some signs near by as to let you know the whereabouts of the location, so that perhaps students who are unfamiliar with the area will at least know they are going the right direction, but you get none of that, you get yelled at for being 5 mins late. Oh yeah, be prepared to leave a bad first impression and get yelled at by Rocky and the, "Well, you should've left early" talk. Oh by the way, did I mention Rocky is the one in charge of grading your riding at the end and Tom just holds a stop watch? Tom, taught 75% of the course, that being both written and riding, but Rocky is the one with the score board in hand who will ultimately grade your riding test.
Oh, and if you not prepared to give them a perfect score on reviewing the rating of their course, don't be stupid like me, and put your name on the review, because they get to see those review scores before you take your final riding test!!! :/ The irony was that I gave both instructor perfect scores, except I gave Rocky a 4/5 for politeness (for yelling at my face for 10 hours), just "coincidently" I got 21/20 wrongs and failed the riding course, every other person in the class passed. So there you go, 5 hours of written, 10 hours under the sun, and 6 hours of total driving back and fourth, a total of 21 hours and $250 dollars invested, and no graduation certificate.
That's okay right?! Take Rocky's advice, "you can come back anytime to redo the riding at no charge" but unless you pay, you won't get an available spot. Tough luck! read more