Yesterday and today I took a motorcycle skill course that's required to get a Motorcycle endorsement for my state's drivers license.

There were 12 people in my class. 9 guys, and 3 females. Female #1 was a gal who's partner is a long time biker guy with a really nice Indian cruiser She was decently skilled but very tentative. Female #2 was a purple hair with a butch haircut who was actually pretty funny and pretty well skilled. Female #3 had never driven a manual transmission car, let alone a motorcycle. Her clutch and shifting skills were terrible. She dropped the bike once and also rear ended me once when getting back into line.

Me. I rode dirt bikes from the age of 8 until 17. I haven't been on a bike for 34 years. Do the math. I was the second oldest in the class. One other guy looked 60'ish but it's hard to tell because it looked like he had past substance abuse issues.

All the other 7 guys were young 18-23. Us guys once we got past baby steps were all helping each other out. We asked one another for positive critiques. We offered advice to one another when we saw something obvious. We laughed together and groaned when one of our new buds messed up and then gave them shit when they got back in line. We had nearly instant camaraderie. When one guy said, "I don't need a perfect score, I just want to pass." I replied "You know what you call a guy that graduates med school with a D average? Doctor" They all cracked up.

To sum it up...We had a lot of fun together and I'm kicking myself in the ass for not doing it sooner than 34 years.

The girl who couldn't run a clutch didn't pass.

EDIT: Sorry I meant to include this. I never once saw the females interacting in any positive manner with each other. Some of the guys tried to give advice to the struggling girl and she just stared daggers at them. The purple haired girl seemed pretty at ease with herself and could joke with us guys. She said her dad and brothers ride bikes so they had her practicing. The Biker dude's babe went straight to him during breaks and he would give her advice and critiques. His bike had a Trump flag on it and he was open carrying a Glock in a shoulder holster. After the class while waiting on grades I talked with him a bit. She was riding backsaddle with him on his Indian right behind me when we left. When they passed me down the road a bit they both waved at me. I have a NRA and 2ND Amendment sticker on the back of my pickup.