Test

[Twitchin Kitten]

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glad its going your way! I knew you could do it too.

So now what is it? One more test and you're fully licensed or was this the test? I'm confused!

[Rhubarb]

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You're confused, I thought about what happened yesterday and so am I.
I'm booked in for 5 days riding with the controlled test at the half way mark on the sunday. If I fail I continue and try again and re-book the road test. If I pass then I go onto the last day as the road test.
Only the morning was training off road for slow riding and manouvres yesterday and then it was road practice and putting what I learnt into practice, again and again and again, til I was pooped!
I've only done one day half of each part of both tests, I can't possibly be ready to take them. When Bill said he would train me going to the off road test and on the way back from it. It isn't the local site but on the other side of Southampton (at least nearer than the only site last year which was 160miles round trip). I said I don't to the city and without a licence its the only way to the test centre, its all motorway which I can't use on a L-plate.
I don't know what to do...................

I see Kim asked if I have to have a plate on the bigger bike, yes I do, and I suppose it ought to be with an amber warning light!

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Good God. The road test here takes 20 minutes. I am so glad I am here!

[LKTraz]

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Hell......Pennsylvania just runs you around an obstacle course and a roughly 1 mile ride around the block!

But then again, if you just LOOK the least bit unsure, unstable or unsafe you get the big red SORRY BUT YOU BLEW IT stamp.

[Rhubarb]

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45 minutes for the road test, but you are on the road for an hour, so you don't actually know if they start testing you right at the start or 5-10-15 minutes into the time or stop testing you before the hour is up.
The school say the examiner either follows in a car or on a bike and knowing everyone is nervous are unlikely to start the test straight away. Its always best to get a riding examiner because he/she has to remember your errors, and they have to be really bad to fail and I know they are really hot on the Stay Alive Glance on roundabouts (a hazard you lot don't have in the US)

[Twitchin Kitten]

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We still have quite a few 'round abouts' here too. We call them traffic circles.

I took my road test for cars in NY City right in the thick of afternoon traffic! In NJ our road tests are a joke - in a parking lot with no real traffic and cones for obstacles! This is for ALL vehicles too. I took my motorcycle test in NJ.

I was more confident in traffic than in the stupid, unrealistic parking lot!

[Rhubarb]

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Good God. The road test here takes 20 minutes. I am so glad I am here!

I so wish I was too, I would have whistled through
I have to be honest I wasn't confidant about Thursday (so you know where I'm going here). When I got to the school on my baby 125 both Paul and Bill were already there looking very somber. They had had a break in and 4 bikes had been stolen and one trashed and parts stolen.
At least the other lockup hadn't been broken into, but the bike I had been using was gone. No worries they did have two more. So I had to get use to another bike (ok same model just felt different for some reason). So its a two hour ride with the last hour on roads I was totally unfamiliar with, through the city, over a toll bridge and past the naval base. We went and got lunch and Bill did his best to keep my nerves down. I felt really shaky.
You are no longer allowed near the test site until one hour before the test so I couldn't even go and see the track until I went to book in. The instructors aren't even allowed to park in the test centre, they have to leave their bikes outside on the airfield and walk in.
The examiner was nice enough but ....I couldn't understand his accent, he was Scots!! What the hell? France is closer I'd been better off if he spoke in French.

So, you know I failed.
The other instructors were gob smacked how far we had ridden and said no wonder I struggled, I was so tired, remembering I have only ridden this size bike once before. None of their students had travelled more that 20 miles, one even lived on the airfield housing estate! He walked across from his house to collect his bike from his instructor (who was a really nice lady- ex Army driving instructor). She gave me a few tips 'us girls must stick together' which was very helpful.
The lad in front of me failed on the slow ride (so did I! My best feature, I hate putting my feet down) but the examiner was so short and he walked so slow a tortoise would have failed. I slowly over took him and at one point was keeping pace, which I thought was what he had asked me to do (that accent!)

Judith- lady instructor told us that she had an American living here and needed to take his UK licence. She took him through the CBT (the test I have now) and he said that would have been advanced training in his State.
Our laws are ludicrus, because although I failed....I was able to ride the two hours home again and get back on my little 125 to go home.

Judith also told us this American need to get his car licence too, he had been using his US licence for a year. He drove himself to the test centre, afixed L-plates front and back and the examiner failed him after the test. He took the L-plates back off and drove home. Now actually if your a resident you need an instructor sat with you at all times and if you do fail they must drive you away from the test centre and you are not allowed to drive for the rest of the day or re-apply for 5 working days to re-take the test. That doesn't apply with non-nationals- no wonder our roads are bonkers!

So, I think it will be October before a re-take. God! I hope the examiner speaks English

*Note Bill told Paul, I am a really good rider and although I was really tired at the end of the day I did a near perfect ride even using indicators correctly and the Save a Life glances at just the right times, including a perfect emergency stop when a kid decided to to a U-turn in the heavy traffic we were 'white-lining' through.

Poor Mark was disappointed though, he told me he was looking to buy me a Suzuki 400 for my birthday (in pink and blue).

[Twitchin Kitten]

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I'm sorry you didn't pass the test! You'll definitely do better next time. At least they don't make you wait a year in between!

And if the next instructor has an accent you cannot understand don't be shy and not say anything! You have to understand what you're told and feel free to say so!

And Mark should get you that bike anyway! It'll be inspiration for you to pass!

[Rhubarb]

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The bike had gone when we went to look at it. Well it was there, with SOLD on it. Mark was really disappointed so I wondered who he was getting it for. 'I don't want a black one' I told him. He said it was pink and blue It was black!
There was a Diverson in 'pink' although Phil' swore it was red with air-brushing. It was pink!
He was trapped in the car pleading to Blocker (one of the shop owners) to bring to the car for him to see. Mark said he couldn't have it because it a) too expensive
b) too big for me
c) looked to girly

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Just go pick out the bike YOU want - don't worry if it's too big! I outgrew mine in 3 months and you know how big Harley's are - even the small ones. Don't sweat the color - that's what custom paint jobs are for!