Michael will likely have a totally different view on it and his review is probably a lot more pertinent to the typical student.

Was it worth the time/effort?

I had been concerned after hearing about your background that maybe the course would be too basic for you. For me, given that I had never been on a track and had not been introduced to any of these concepts (yea, I know, surprising) after 30+ years of riding it really changed my riding, but I fear I was coming from a different, less advanced place.

For relatively new riders I suspect it's still a very valuable course. Thoughts?

Brilliant course, IMO, for riders with 2-3 years of experience who understand the basic principles and are increasing their technical skills and want to learn how to lean (and good throttle/brake technique). It was still worth it for me for the time with the instructors, they were excellent about working with me on specific elements during the drills. Things like fine tuning head/body position at entry, apex, exit; decision speed, and understanding feedback from the bike while in changing corner conditions. After the first corner drill the lead instructor said "Well, I don't think you have any problems with the concept of leaning the bike over" and laughed. From there we worked on specific elements, as I said which was great. I stayed after everyone else had left (must be a MbyM trait huh??) and went through some really nitty gritty suspension stuff and things like better foot position techniques in different cornering conditions. That was helpful to me because I was hitting toe on all the cornering drills, but didn't want to drag knees without pucks.

I'll be doing the CornerSpeed RoadRacing school in the late spring and some track days, which will be more inline with my wants/needs.

Oh, one of the other students asked me how fast I was going and what gear I was in on the corner drill. I told him I didn't know because I wasn't looking down at the speedometer and neither should he LOL. But the instructor estimated that I was going about 30-35 on my fastest laps, and I think that's right based on engine sound. I did all of the drills in 2nd gear. PLENTY fast on a 40 foot circle, evidenced by scraping the pegs. To go any faster I would have had to been wearing leathers so I could get further off the bike since it was already at max lean. You don't have to ride all that fast to learn or improve - just need a controlled environment.

One other thing to note... I was using 2nd gear instead of first to go SLOWER not faster in case anyone wondered. Using 2nd allowed me to keep the engine out of the meat of the power band and allowed for more throttle distance and better control at those speeds and corner radius. The beginners in class would have done it in first Ithink because they were going pretty slow. If I had been in first I would have been in the fat part of the power curve and at those lean angles could have induced tail slides too easily. (this works when the engine is strong enough to pull 2nd gear from the bottom of the tach)

I liked being able to practice the cornering skills in a controlled environment with constructive comments from the instructors. I do think the class would have benefited from better time management by the instructors. We ran almost 90 minutes long and still had to drop what I think would have been a good exercise (alternating lean/direction change).

I was also disappointed with an aspect of the class that didn't match the class description: "Each skill is built up in small two-mph increments until the desired result is achieved." We just seemed to jump into each skill, and the coaches weren't very precise in their instructions about our speed. I was told to consider speeding up on one drill, but that's an ambiguous instruction.

Here's what would have made the class better for me:
1) Better time management by instructors.
2) More structure to the drills.
3) More variety in the drills (i.e., different cone configurations).
4) More riding, less classroom.

Bottom line: A valuable class for a beginner that had the potential to be better.

Yea, when I was riding the Ninja through the Gap I was intentionally in third for similar reasons ...

I'm starting to think I need a KLR...and a ZX10R

Have you taken a look at a KLR? The relatively new one I checked out seemed awfully tall to me.

Are you implying I'm short?? LOL! Yeah, I've ridden them before. The height goes away once your moving, and it's nowhere near as tall as a KTM.

laugh. I couldn't flat foot the one I was sitting on and thought to myself I wouldn't want to do any challenging single track offroad work on it. I haven't done any motocross but I have done a lot of trail riding over the years and I hate that feeling of being on a hill and having the damned thing start tipping over down the hill ... that just sucks.

The videos you found of the Trans Am Trail are awesome. I fear I may be hooked. I'm going to look at a 2006 F650 Dakar thumper that's all kitted-out with Touratech gear for serious off-road use. Huge tank. skid plates. bags. etc. We'll see.