Bay Area Motorcycle Training

I'll never EVER do business with these people again 3 of us signed up to take this class. My husband, and another friend were able to attend. We were scheduled for Thursday classroom & a Saturday/Sunday ride. Sadly, I came down with a very bad case of pneumonia. On Wednesday I went to my Doctor to see if I could possibly do the classroom part. No dice. I was still contagious, and hideously sick. My Doctor wrote a note to the company, asking if I could schedule for a later date. They refused to accept it. No refund, no reschedule, no help, no way. REALLY???? Seriously? You can't have an extra person in the classroom? It's not like it costs them anything. What jerks. Also, ladies - listen up. My husband reports that there were 2 women in the group. Both dropped out early on the 1st day of riding. The bikes were too big. The smaller woman was there in hopes of learning to operate a scooter, which they have - but didn't pull out. My husband passed, but said the experience was miserable. He & I will take a better, more helpful class. All in all - this company is a total fail. more

I share all of the comments by other readers. I arrived very enthusiastic having passed my permit. I had not been on a bike. I am wishing now that I had read the reviews before. I too spent 4 hours with 2 instructors, who are good riders, but who cannot teach. (Maybe they are fine to work with people who have been on a bike, but they cannot work with novices unless the novice has some kind of prior experience.) They run through the drills and make passing comments with no advice for improvement, no interaction with a student who may not fully be catching on immediately or may have misunderstood a technique, and no offer to assist or improve. 4 1/2 hours pass and I thought things were fine, just as another reviewer commented, and was told to start the course again. I found it outrageous to clear a weekend, to spend the time with no real direction and be told that I needed to start again. (For background, I am athletic, coordinated and well educated.) I did raise the issue to the site manager who arranged for me to work with other coaches...These guys are very good. They understood when a skill was not at the right level and they addressed it with discussion, advice and additional work. Unfortunately, I only had 40 minutes with them and there was no time to recover from the first day, so the solution is to start again....I am very disappointed. I am optimistic, but given the other reviewers comments that the second time was also unproductive, I am concerned. Going forward, I will be certain to insist that I am in the group with capable coaches...and most likely will insist on working with the guys I worked with later on. There seems to be willingness to improve this experience, but given the reviews plus my experience thus far, I know that this BAMT has both good and questionable instructors...If you are a novice, make sure you tell the coach in the beginning that you expect them to tell you immediately if they don't think your skills are progressing as fast as others...and make a point at the each break to get a review....(If you are a novice, you will be horrified to hear you need improvement if no one has provided you feedback in 4 hours.) If you get negative feedback and you have had no assistance, you have a bad coach and make sure the site manager knows and see if you can change groups as fast as possible...or you will waste your time. However, because I have met good coaches at BAMT, I recommend to BAMT to read the reviews for Bike Smart....This seems to be a course which wants students to learn and pass...and the high praise suggests that they know how to run the course such that a group can efficiently get through all of the drills but still find time to give help to students who need a little one-on-one....(Generally, my experience is that most people do not want/need lots of individual assistance, but everyone can use a little extra now and again.) more

After going to this class to learn how to ride a motorcycle I am very dissapointed. I was told after the first day that I need to come back because I was to nervous and slow and they said I can come again no charge. So I did this my second time I was very confident and was constantly being praised by the instructors of how good I was doing. Then around 4:00 since our entire group was going too slow I was told that they're on the fence with me and that they were sorry and would love to have me back. Basically they said I have to pay another $250 to take a class that they may not let me remain in!!!! I did not come to this class for a certificate I came to learn and that's what I expected Dont's waste your time here if you are a beginner learn form a friend so that you don't get kicked out as so many in my group did. What a waste of money to not be allowed to finish a lesson it's very discouraging I even told them I would stay late or come back anything but didn't happen. Pros: I learned some basic riding skills Cons: $250 down the drain and they didn't give me my full lesson more

On the advice of a friend I called Bay Area Motorcycle Training. I have never received such lousy customer service in my life. I was told to call on a Tuesday or Wednesday when the next class opened up to enroll. I tried for 45 min. Non-stop dialing for 45 min on my cell phone. When I finally got through I was told to call back next week that this class was filled. I might add that I don't have a desk job w/easy access to a phone or Internet. So I tried the next week. All I heard was a busy signal. With my nerves shot, I was told that again the class was sold out and that they were going to do an online lottery. Again, I rearranged my schedule to sign up for the lottery. I was told that I'd get a call to confirm if my ticket was drawn. No call ever came. Two more weeks of trying to make time in the middle of my day to get online or have a friend do it for me (as they suggested). That was doomed. Finally I asked to speak to a manager. NO HELP. So I asked to speak to the owner. And waited for the call. No Call. I called back and asked if he has received my message. I was told that he had, and that he wasn't interested in speaking with me. more