Just failed the CA DMV motorcycle popsicle test (and I thought Ihad passed)

I've owned two Apple products in my life - this iPhone 4 and an Apple II+.
.... You can see that one in a museum somewhere.

 

tomorrow wrote on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:35:57 +0000:

Nobody at the MSF is paid a salary?
They own no capital equipment?
They don't try to grow in size and hire new employees?

You must not realize 'what' a non-profit organization is, so I'll give a hint:

The key differences between a non-profit and profit are two things:
a) They SPEND all the money they make (on salaries, equipment, advertisement, etc.)
b) They don't pay taxes (so they can spend MORE on salaries, equipment, etc.)

So, in summary, the MSF makes tons of money. They just choose to SPEND it all
to keep their non-profit status. It doesn't mean they don't make tons of money.

 

I've taken the class. It's a joke. Do you know what they do?

First, they give you a 250cc piece of junk.
You can forget about using your own liter-sized bike.
They won't let you use a 'real' bike.

Second, you sit through two classes filled with the same
crap that you can just read by reading the DMV manuals.
If you don't score 50 points out of 50 on that paper test,
you're a real moron as I easily aced it (sorry I can't
prove that statement - you'll have to take my word for it).

Then you go outside for the weekend in the parking lot.
They unload the baby bikes from a trailer parked at the
corner of the lot and you spend an hour "familiarizing
yourself with the bike". Needless to say you rode in on
your 1-liter rice burner, so this is supremely boring.

Then, you take it for a few starts and stops. More boring.

After a while, you get the chance to finally get out of
first gear, although at no time in the entire class will
you ever get into the higher gears. And this is supposed
to prepare you for highway riding?

Now, let's take the circus act. You do a u-turn in a
realistically huge u-turn box. The u-turn isn't hard, but
people miss it by feet. Not inches. Feet. Maybe even yards.
They still pass because it's a grading system of something
like 20 points or so (I don't remember exactly, as it was
a few years ago).

Then you do a curve. They grade you on looking ahead (as if
they can tell) so you exaggerate your head movements unrealistically
(who wants to lose points for nothing), and they grade you on
slowing down going into the curve and accelerating out of it
(which is second nature to any rider anyway).

Then they grade you on stopping. Here is where your skills as
a rider might interfere because they INSIST you ratchet down
in the gears before stopping. Now is not the time to prove a
point, so, you dutifully ratchet down for the last time in your
life in an emergency stop - and you move on to the next part of
the test.

In the end, out of 20 or so riders, 20 pass, even though a few
knocked the cones down, a couple missed the u-turn box by a yard,
one or two forgot to brake in the emergency stop and the instructor
had to jump to the side, and some even snipped a cone or two in the
curve.

Everyone passed. I guess they figured if you pad a few hundred bucks,
you deserve your license. I was just glad the waste of my weekend
was over.

On the positive side, the "coaches" were nice guys who had a job
to do, which they did to the best of their abilities. So I don't
fault them. The system is merely a money-making operation where
you pay for your license. It's still better than blowing a few
hundred at Vegas because at least in the MSF class, you're guaranteed
the license if you simply show up.

However, to their credit, I've heard they flunk people who don't
show up (and don't make up the class), or who show up late, so,
you actually have to do two things to earn the license.

1. Show up.
2. Pay the few hundred bucks.

 

I forgot to mention all the time they spend on making
sure you turn off the fuel line to the carbs.

Yes, I said carbs.

Now I had two strokes and non-fuel-injtected bikes maybe thirty
years ago, so, I'm familiar with shutting off the fuel line,
but really, the class is just not realistically a training.

It's more like baby sitting.

 

Whoops.

I'm sure we can all see that you're another of these born
experts who don't need any lessons about anything from
anyone.

What a pity that they forced you to take those boring old
lessons that prevented Honda from adding you to their
MotoGP team as lead rider that year.

Tsk!

 

Well, that's after salaries.

 

So you're agreeing with him. Duh.

 

Since when was a 250 not a real bike?

 

This may come as a shock to you, but FI has only really become
near-universal in the last decade or so. And people do buy and ride
older used bikes. In fact, there are probably more carbed bikes in
service than FI.

Not too bright, are you?

 

In <512ed447$0$18124$4all.se>, on 02/28/13

And later, after an emergency stop, you are looking in your mirror and see
a car coming at you at 100 kph that won't be able to stop in time. While
you are frantically trying to find first gear and soil your pants you are
thinking of that instructor who might have know what he was talking about
after all.....


Cheers, Bjorn.

 

If they spend it all, how would they "make tons of money"...?

"A non-profit organization is a group organized for purposes other
than generating profit and in which no part of the organization's
income is distributed to its members, directors, or officers."
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/non-profit_organizations

The premise that a non-profit could operate on an entirely volunteer
basis and accomplish much is silly.

 

I wouldn't think many people would have the stones to fail their exam
and blame it on the test after thousands have managed to pass, but
then there's the red light camera "issue" that suggests I don't think
too good.

But I still don't think many things exceed motor vehicle operation in
validating the Dunning-Kruger effect.

 

When I say that the MSF is a non-profit organization, I mean that it
is a non-profit organization. I do not mean to say (nor do I think,
nor is there any reason for you or for anyone else to think) that I
think that noboday at the MSF is paid a salary.

When I say that the MSF is a non-profit organization, I mean that it
is a non-profit organization. I do not mean to say (nor do I think,
nor is there any reason for you or for anyone else to think) that I
think that the MSF is does not own any capital equipment.

When I say that the MSF is a non-profit organization, I mean that it
is a non-profit organization. I do not mean to say (nor do I think,
nor is there any reason for you or for anyone else to think) that I
think that the MSF is does not grow in size nor hire new employees.

I know EXACTLY what a non-profit organization is. The MSF is a non-
profit organization. Your suppositions about what I do or do not
know about what a non-profit organization is have NOTHING at all to
do with whether an entity is a nonprofit organization or not, so I'm
at a loss as to why you went to the apparent trouble to make such wild
guesses about my understanding of what a non-profit organization is,
or what it does or does not do.

Wow. Aren't you generous!

Of course, you failed to list:

c) they are organized and operated exclusively for charitable,
scientific, religious or public safety purposes.

Why would you leave off such a key difference, especially when it is
REQUIRED in order to receive the tax status accorded such entities?

Really? How much money does the MSF make?

How much do they spend, and what do they spend it on?

Really? How much money does the MSF make?

 

Which is true of all non-profit organizations. Is the inference that
the management of the MSF is getting filthy rich (via salaries, which
presumable *are* taxed) by using the Motorcycle Safety Foundation
entity as a huge cover?

If so, those making the charge ought to be forthright and say so. It
would be interesting to see their evidence of such a charge.

If not, then what difference does it make?

What, exactly, is this "profit motive" of the MSF, if it is a non-
profit organization? Is it a cover for obscene salaries that are
being built on contrived, collusional, falsely difficult state
motorcycle licensing tests? And if so, are the lowlife MSF executives
paying the state DMV test officials obscene kickbacks from their
obscene salaries?

Someone should investigate NOW!!!!

 

You will use your own bike if you take the MSF advanced rider
course.

 

tomorrow wrote on Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:20:59 -0800:

Just to be clear, I don't think I brought up the fact the MSF
is a non-profit organization (maybe you did?) Dunno who did.

It's only relevant if someone intimates they're not 'making' money,
as in they're doing it for free out of the goodness of their hearts.

That, would not be even close to true.

They're actually 'making' tons and tons of money (revenue) - they're
just SPENDING it all by pouring it into normal business things such
as salaries, advertisements, lobbying the government, etc.).

Hey!

I wonder how much they spend lobbying?
Do they sponsor or bankroll any of the motorcycle legislation?

Do we have any way of finding this out?

 

Not quite, Tim. There are at least two categories
of non-profit organizations that frequently have no
salaried employees. Both the model railroad and
the astronomy clubs I belong to are typical
examples.

Of course we don't conduct busness on anything
like the scale of the MSF, nor would we be able to
do so unless we wanted to start paying people.

You can only do so much volunteer work before it
becomes a real job.

~Pete

 

"..Federal law clearly states that a 501(c)(3) publicly supported charity may
devote no more than an "insubstantial" portion of its activities to lobbying. ."
http://www.njnonprofits.org/NPsCanLobby.html

 

If reading won't work I guess all that's left is having it read to
you.

 

He might not even see the car coming. ;-)

Ben