BAMT Standby Fee
Usually coming back as standby student is the cheapest and fastest way to finish your class. If you come early and often, you can usually finish your class within a week.
Paying this fee makes you eligible to take any of our beginning sessions as many times as you are able to get in over a 6 month period at any of our locations as a standby student. If you get into one session per month over a 6 month period you could get 60 hours of riding time with our instructors on our bikes for only $200, so it is definitely the safest and cheapest way to get more practice before going onto the street with your own bike. Getting in every weekend is usually available in San Francisco, so if you get in every weekend you would get 240hrs of riding time!
You may also choose to pay for a confirmed first riding session or second riding session instead of coming back as a standby student. Confirmed seat availability changes constantly, so please check these links often.
Since coming back as a standby is the safest and most cost effective way to get a lot of practice, if you are a standby due to not finishing your original class, we very strongly encourage you to use the remainder of your 6 month standby period to get more practice after you use it to pass. While you are not required to repeat the classroom sessions if you have already passed the class, you are welcome to use the remainder of your standby period to try to get into any in person classroom or riding sessions as many times as you are able to get into them.
Generally locations that have the most students coming at once have a higher likelihood of having an open spot. Since San Francisco usually has the most students coming at once, it usually has the best chance of having an opening, then Alameda/Oakland and then Vallejo. San Francisco almost always has several open seats. Since classes are sometimes cancelled especially during the winter months, be sure to check the schedule just before coming so you do not waste your time!!
Standby spots are first -come first -served, so the earlier you arrive the better. Be sure to let the instructor(s) know you are a standby as soon as possible so another standby does not check in with them ahead of you. If you are not prepared to join the class immediately, you may not be let into class, so have everything ready to go. If you do not have your waiver, ID and gear ready to give/show the instructor as soon as check in is completed you may not be let into class and/or the next standby that is prepared may be let into class instead, so be sure to have everything required ON YOUR PERSON(NOT in your car, for instance) and ready to go as soon as check in starts. As soon as you arrive you should sign and initial a new waiver(yes, we are required to get a new one every time you come to class even though you already filled one out in your previous class), pick a helmet and gloves if you are borrowing ours and be ready for check in. Every instructor has a different process, so please be ready to go right away, since check in may not go in the same order as it did with the previous instructor.
Once you do get into a riding session as a standby, you will then have a confirmed spot for the next riding session in that class. Yet another standby fee will be applied if you get into a class and then are late (including late for the next session in that class or from a break during class), do not have correct gear, are abusive or otherwise disrespectful in any manner to the instructors or other students, etc., so be sure you are familiar with our requirements before paying this fee.
Standby works as a last MINUTE waitlist. Students arrive early to the class they would like to get into to see if there is a last minute open seat created by late or otherwise unprepared students that are registered for that class, so unfortunately the office is NOT able to give notice when there might be openings ahead of time.
Please do NOT use the number of open spots in a class to determine if you should try to get in as a standby, since we may not run a class at all or we may cancel it altogether if there are too many open spots to run it. On top of having more students and therefore more potential for a spot to be available for a standby student, a class is much more likely to run if it is sold out than if there are a lot of open seats in it.
After you pay the standby fee, be sure to print out or take a screenshot of your payment receipt in order to confirm your eligibility to be let in as a standby to the instructor, since it is often not possible to get enough cellular reception to pull up your email at the riding sessions.
In person classroom sessions almost always have room, since we are allowed to have a lot more students in them at one time than we are allowed to have at once during the riding sessions, so it is always worth it for standbys to go to in person classroom sessions.
60 DAY REQUIREMENT(for students earning their license only)
If you are coming back as a standby to get your M1 you must meet the 60 day requirement! Even though Bay Area Motorcycle Training gives you 6 months to come back as a standby, the State of California requires that all classroom and riding sessions/tests be attended/passed IN ORDER within 60 days of each other in order to earn an M1 skill test waiver.
We will not be allowed to count any of your previous scores/attendance, though you will NOT have to repay the standby or original fee to do this as long as you finish within the 6 months that we give you as a standby. You will need to start both your classroom and riding sessions over if you are not able to complete all sessions/tests in order within a 60 day time frame. If you need or want to go past the 6 months, you only need to repay the standby fee to continue as a standby student. In person classroom sessions are free to standby students, but there is a fee for a new eRider account. Please contact the office to find out when the next in person classroom sessions are taking place, as they will not be listed on the schedule.
In person classroom sessions MUST be taken in order of:
- 1st classroom
- 1st riding session
- 2nd classroom
- 2nd riding session
eRider classroom sessions may ONLY be taken in order of:
- all 6 chapters of eRider
- 1st riding session
- 2nd riding session
or:
- chapters 1 and 2 of eRider
- 1st riding session
- chapters 3 and 4 of eRider
- 2nd riding session
- chapters 5 and 6 of eRider before midnight of the second riding session
It is your responsibility to keep track of which sessions you need(including classroom/eRider chapters) and the order in which you need to take them. Since some standbys are not eRider students the instructors will not be checking your eRider grades, so you must make sure you have everything done IN ORDER! The office will catch anything taken out of order when the rosters are processed and will have you redo any of them that are taken out of order, so please do not waste our time or yours by skipping/taking classes out of order.
Making sure all students take all classes in order is part of what our office is required to do by the State of California, so there is no option for us to ‘give you a break.’ The CHP feels very strongly that classes will benefit you best if they are taken in full and in order within a 60 day period, and that it will make you safer, so we will not be willing or able to make an exception. If you are not sure about when you started or when you need to finish by or anything else, please contact the office.
Since all of the same requirements for attendance for a confirmed seat also apply to any class attended as a standby, you will not be let into class and/or receive credit toward your certificate if you do not meet these requirements and/or do not identify yourself with the same valid, government- issued photo ID.
This standby fee is non-refundable and not transferable, and is only offered to students that have already paid in full for a confirmed seat with Bay Area Motorcycle Training within the year.
By paying this standby fee you are agreeing to abide by the conditions above.