Did my CBT today - Direct Access soon...

Lozzo wrote

Was that the last time it was done, they must be due doing again then?

 

steve auvache says...

Should be done at every service, whatever the interval may be. I just
did them because I figured it must have been a while since they were
last done and the engine was out of the frame, making it so much simpler
to do. IIRC they were hardly in need of any adjustment.

 

Champ wrote

I wouldn't get too excited if I were you, it wasn't super hero status or
anything worth having.

 

4 hours of whatevering. I do that as well, but I'll be fucked if I can
remember what it was.

CIHAGM? Maybe at the Round 2 concrete party?

 

That's cos I'd only just had 'em done along with the carb balancing, not
to mention brand new gold chain and sprockets and new tyres.

Grrr.

 

Whinging Courier wrote

No probs.

 

Why bother with a limited mileage policy if you're doing 30k a year?

 

I'm fully comp - The Pan is group 15 insurance. It costs me a smidge
over a ton per year (£111 IIRC).

 

They ask how many miles you do in a year. The difference between
declaring 10k and declaring 30k is £100 / year on the premium.

 

Different companies I suppose do things differently. I've only ever
been asked once or twice and always explain I don't know - It depends
on the weather. If it's a foul year I'm more likely to use the car
than the bike.

 

Can't remember now - I'd have to delve through my papers. Premium
started at something like 3 quid a month, IIRC, and is now about 8 quid.

 

Well done.
I also decided to learn to ride a bike in July, having never been on one in
my life. Did the CBT with the same fears as you. All the 16/17 year olds
seemed confident in comparison to my shitting self stance. Every instructor
kept yelling at me to chill or I'd pull the handlebars off the bike.
I rolled straight into Direct Access. Two days on the 125 and then 2 more
on the CB500 - U turns are a bugger and I hurt myself when I stupidly
stalled the bike half way round and got thrown (and I mean THROWN) off.
Pride hurt more than anything else, my instructor told me to sit and gain my
compusure, then get back on and do ten more, which of course I did.
I failed the first test. Rode great but stupidly left an indicator on after
joining a dual carriageway (and I mean for a mile!) Was chuffed as other
than that silly mistake I had ridden well, remembered all my moves and not
felt at risk at any point. Re-tested, same examiner(!) and passed. Bought
a VFR800 (big bike if you don't know bikes) a week later and then put 3500
miles on it in seven weeks - a great time and lots of fun! Even went out
yesterday to drop off my tax form
Yes the other road users, especially cars, do not see you. I wear a big
reflective overjacket. You have to see for them and allow extra
time/space/etc as the buggers will not see you. This should get covered in
the DA course, certainly did in mine.
Have fun and welcome to biking.
Paul

 

Being a bit of a geek I actually keep a track of it. The last few weeks
before I sold it, it was doing about 35 regularly. This was commuting to
work (about 10 miles) and the odd blast but with me being a bit cautious
since I was wary of binning it before selling. I'm guessing the short
journey time didn't help those figures but I was getting a bit
concerned. When I first had it it was 40ish I couldn't decide if it was
down to me being less of a PFF or something with the bike.

Fazer currently giving about 42mpg which is on par with my diesel
company car, but much more fun

 

That was constructive of them.

Do bike instructors have teaching methods covered in their training?
An appreciation of the different learning styles people have?

 

Depends on who trains you I suppose. The chap that ran the training
school I worked for and trained me to teach was an ex-schoolmaster and
was very good at putting things across in different ways to different
people.

 

I had (thinks) 4 different people across the CBT, lessons, then pre
test. On the CBT the guy who was teaching me was being examined on his
teaching by the bloke who owned the place. But he was just making sure
he covered everything, didn't appear to be any comments on his methods
at all.

Who examines the examiners anyway?

 

Simon Atkinson says...

I think it's the same across most training environments. You get
some instructor trainers who will give you their method of training
and nothing else, whereas others will demonstrate a variety of
methods, how to apply them and ways of adapting them to suit
yourself and those that you are training.

I've had little formal instruction in training others but have done
quite a lot of training over the last few years. Conversations with
other lecturers/instructors have helped us all to develop our style
and increase our awareness of methods. You will always get those who
are unwilling or unable to vary their approach to best suit their
students.

 

Lady Nina bored us all completely to death with wittery prose along the
lines of:

Bike instructors are amusing to see in France. They follow the bikes in
cars as opposed to being on bikes with them. Most of the time, anyway.

 

Heh...

Well the trainers are all checked regularly (not regularly enough based
on some of the stuff I've seen going on) by the Drving Standards Agency
- usually a local examiner, he is then checked regularly by his
upstream management etc etc...