Rex, your hit it right on with the confidence thing. Someone who is confident can learn to ride or do anything much faster. It is almost impossible to learn if constantly in fear of failure. My husband and I learned to ride well in a short period of time because we both knew it was something we wanted to do and could do.

Also agreeing with those above that somethings can only be learned from experience, but that true in everything in life. But the most important thing is you have got to start doing something before you can ever get experience.

Agrees experience doesn't equal a skilled rider, 1,000 miles doesn't either nor does 100,000 miles, the amount of years ya been riding or the fact that ya haven't had any issues doesn't equal a skilled rider. I've seen some fantastic riders of 2 years, and some piss poor ones at 40 years. I do believe that 3 things come in to play, experience, learning and continue learning skills, and the desire to or drive to constantly challange yourself to improve. The MSF, whomever said I agree all 50 states ought to consider it as part of getting a M endoursement, but then again it ought to be done for the driver's license to begin with. Driving isn't a right, and we shouldn't treat it as such.
Experience: well that's is the amount of time years, miles however ya want to view it. Thousands of mile following another around or may or may not increase skills, why for as a "throttle Master" if your not thinking as your following, then you are gaining only miles. If one refuses to ride on highways and has been riding 20 years, that person is just riding for years. Experience I think has to do with the combination of Years, Miles, and Challenges presented. If one has riden 10 years and 20,000 miles and not once it the rain, or wet surfaces, their personal experience is lacking greatly, why? Well, wet happens, that rider can continue to avoid it yes but their personal experience is lacking, If the same roads are always ridden then is there any challenge there? Not really for the road or roads are memorized which the rider responds to, however they also know where the hill is or that wide sweeper is located in the road and can act out of memory more so than react to the change in terrain. So experience to me is a combination of miles, years, different terrains, different road conditions, Mother Nature at her best and worst, in traffic, not traffic, alone, with others, road obsticals and challanges.
Skill: can be developed by MSF, IRC and ERC, also reading, and practicing the skills knowing that what was taught was practiced correctly. It can also come from the miles, years, and different road conditions, and Mother Nature. Now what to remember is this, bad habits or incorrect excution of a maneuver, can develop skills that are undesired, that may get a rider by for a while or a long while but at this point one is just lucky.
Learning and desire: I think that this is important, cause if you want to learn you can and you will. However if you don't continuously apply what is learned while gaining experience, and developing skills a rider might find themselves on the lucky side not the learned side of riding. The desire to continue to learn comes from the desire to want to be better and improve, if you master the smooth braking technique, then learning to feather the brakes and such is most excellent, however if ya can't stop by basic maneuvers, more advanced maneuvers may or most likely not will not be able to be applied either. To continue learning is to challange yourself with the different road conditions, because it is not uncommon to be heading down a paved road, and come across construction sites, roads that may go from paved to gravel, some turn to dirt, there are the hills, city and intercity as well as forest and open highways. Then to this add Mother Nature, the ability to learn wet, dry, dust hot, cold also matters, Sometimes learning helps to decided when to call it a day or not.
The combination of all three is what makes a skilled experienced rider. I believe that anyone can learn on any bike they want, however riders need to keep in mind what the bike is designed to do. If you go out and buy an R6 and are shocked to find that while learning on this bike it tends to respond very quickly and your prefere something not so fast out of the line, then the R6 is not for you. However If you love the quick responce of the R6 and it isn't intimadating at all then the R6 is for you. In the same token ya go and get the rebel 250, and know that you want some pep and plan on riding it on the highway to work, the rebel may not be a good choice it might seem like it at first cause it less than intimadating maybe something like the R6 might have been the better choice. All riders start as terrible, really we are. However Terrible can stay terrible, or can advace to ok, then good, then excellent. Its possible and heck there are thousands of riders out there to prove the fact. Riding isn't for everyone, and not everyone ought to be out on the roads on two, some no matter how hard they try just can't grasp the concepts of riding and that is ok. have a great one! "T"