Just thought I'd mention I got my DAS today. That's all.
It pretty good, I'll try and post a link to some pictures of it. Correct. It's not very nice having a Cardington assessment.
The CBT is supposed to be the harder one with almost 90% first time failure rate. DAS is under 80% first time failure rate. I found CBT hard but DAS harder. I did well on the CBT but really struggled with DAS. I wouldn't want to do either again.
Cheers Pip, it was tough but the toughest part was my nerves. It's really silly, I don't mind getting on a stage and singing to a few hundred people but doing a one-to-one DAS assessment is quite scary.
Congrats on passing! I found them both to be a piece of piss, though I enjoyed neither. Are you bothering with the Post Test Register thing? At the moment, I'm ambivalent, though I can see it being used to bring all training under their control. Next step is the DIAmond assessment. Again, a doddle. Just combine Twist Of The Wrist with Roadcraft and the Highway Code and you can't go wrong. I'm quite looking forward to the Bikesafe assessment as CBT delivery aside, I haven't been assessed for two years.
I've just applied for it. I had a long chat with the DSA today and the PTR will be made compulsory if anyone wishes to teach advance course, this includes accelerated access. I can see the time coming really soon when the post DAS will have bikes restricted in size. It is also possible that PTR instructors might be doing the assessments to move on to bigger bikes. At the moment the failure rate for CBT and DAS is quite high so you must have done really well. Cardington aside, I been assessed twice in the past year. It doesn't help being on DSA's doorstep.
This is the part I don't like. The DSA seem unable to understand counter steering, standard throttle control and any deviance from rule based riding. They don't separate sports bikes from tourers and customs, nor do they appreciate the differences in approach to riding them to get the best from them. Roadcraft has a major part to play but it is not the be all and end all of bike control. Their views on observation are blinkered ( hah! ) as their views on what makes good planning. If you haven't already read it, I thouroughly recommend a book called 'Mind Driving' by Steven Hayley ( I may have got the authors name wrong there ). Read that. Your DAS training will take a huge leap forward. Given your racing heritage, I don't feel I need to pound the TOTW beat too hard, yet I get the sense that Mr Code is viewed as a heretic in their circles. Taking Level 1 from the track and applying it to street riding really does improve confidence backed by sound technique for riders and by giving them a sense of location on the road and a sense of destination, their riding goes from stilted to flowing. They start making progress and stop being surprised, with all the bad things that brings. Imagine the legislation that will bring along with the companies whose sole decision is short term profit making by signing off riders. A structured Pass Plus has been mooted by many ATBs for years, sounds like they are finally listening to us. Two threes, the rest fours, so not perfect, but damn close. I don't mind the spot checks. Just follow the CBT publication and you really can't fail.
;-) Congrats Molly. Our daughter (17) passed her CBT a few months back and has since done a couple of hundred miles on her 125 4/ TAG Piaggo Skipper, accompanied by me in the car (I was working on the CB 250 again today) :-( She also did a further training session with a different school (another pov etc) and their opinion was that she was 'bloody good and sensible' and 'just needed to get some more miles under her belt' (all reassuring for her old dad to hear <g>) Today she did a couple of hours with the same school on a geared bike (CG125) and they reckon she'll be good for the road on the next session (a sentiment shared by our less than confident and self critical daughter). There were a few learners today and they sort of started from scratch so progress wasn't as fast as it might have been on a 1:1. So I guess the next step might be for her to take the theory test then the local bike shop said they will sort us out a geared bike to borrow for a month or two (probably an SR or YBR 125) to save us having to buy / rent anything. He is also going to check out covering her on their insurance so she can keep the Skipper going (we couldn't afford to insure both and not sure if we could get two bikes on her policy being a young learner etc)? She's done nearly 50 of the computer based mock theory tests and has passed all but a couple of them but the bit we (and others by the sound of it) are unsure about is the actual mechanics of the Hazard Perception bit. When do you click etc? We have the HP DVD but it all seems a bit vague? So, could you (or anyone) give us some tips / thoughts on what the deal is re that part of the test please? Is it just 'obvious' when you are sitting in front of it? All the best .. T i m
This is good. They are right about a few miles, it always helps with the confidence. We train about ten CBT's on Saturdays and get a complete mixture but we usually manage to get most of them through. A few weeks ago we has seven we couldn't take on the road. She wil lalso need formal training if she wants to pass first time. You're not kidding. The problem experienced riders (and drivers) have is that we click much too soon. The key is to click on a "developing" hazard and not a "potential" one.
In my experience the vagueness of explanation is just the same in the real test, unfortunately. However, once you can crack it using the DVD then the real thing is a doddle. The way it is meant to work is that in each video clip there is one hazard which then develops into a situation where you would have to brake/take avoiding action (and in one video clip there will be two such hazards). For example, a cyclist coming the other way is a hazard which only develops when a lorry overtakes it using your side of the road. The way they score it is that as the hazard appears there is a window during which you can score points by clicking the mouse. It's meant to work so that if you react fast you get 5 or 4 points, then it tails off and you get fewer points. The length of the window seems to be about 3-5 seconds. As Molly said in her post, for some idiotic reason the window opens just after the hazard first appears, so if react very quickly and only click once you can end up scoring zero. There is also a penalty where you can score nothing for a clip if you click too much. This stops you just clicking at 2 second intervals throughout the click. And (usefully) this doesn't happen if you click several times during the window. Best approach seems to be to just to click each time you see a hazard, and to click a couple of times when a hazard develops. And try not to react too quickly. HTH Nick
