Just failed the CA DMV motorcycle popsicle test (and I thought Ihad passed)

Now all you have to do is supply the California DMV with
the millions of dollars it would take to institute your ideas.

I'm sure you keep small change like that in your hip pocket,
right?

Pretty much like I did: by knowing the relevant laws and then
riding for many years before the MSF was instituted.

Maybe so. Maybe not. It's all speculation because there's
no way to test the proposition.

And you truly can't understand why that is? If that's the case, you
have
no place in this discussion.

Imagine that the Moon was made of green cheese. "What-ifs" mean
nothing lacking the funding to carry them out.

 

Yet we all know how many bad habits ("I had to lay it down", "Don't use
your front brakes") people get without training. And the Hurt report
showed how many lousy riders there were before the MSF.

C'mon, Pete. Stay civil, OK?

In California, you can get a motorcycle license without a car license. If
car drivers were tested like riders, the test would include parallel
parking and nothing more. Would you feel comfortable knowing the cage test
only tested whether the driver could start, stop, and negotiate a tight
turn?

You talk about costs for realistic testing. There are more than 500,000
bikes registered in California. I paid several hundred dollars in DMV fees
last year. D'ya think $10/bike might cover it?

 

Thomas wrote on Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:25:18 -0800:

Actually, if car drivers were tested like bike riders, the car test
would have you do two loops in each direction inside a fenced tennis court.

As for numbers, this official DMV document says there were 818,650
registered motorcycles in California as of 12/31/2011:
http://dmv.ca.gov/about/profile/official.pdf

The same document says the average fee for those bikes was $100 per bike.

So, that's eighty-two-million dollars a year in bike fees alone!
Source: DMV Forecasting Unit, telephone 916-657-8008

 

You think the MSF solved the problem? Get out and ride much?

No. Not OK.

If you say something silly that you hadn't bothered
to think through before you clicked "send", you'd best
not expect civility.

You just don't seem to get it: California doesn't have
the money to institute your ideas. It didn't even have
the money for that sort of thing *before* the recession;
much less now.

Oh good: let's raise taxes so that you can feel better
about the training and licensing routines your fellow
riders are required to undergo.

How popular do you think that's going to be with the
riders themselves, how long do you think the
politicians who vote to raise those taxes would remain
in office after they did so, and are you really so naive
that you think California has nothing better upon which
to spend our money?

Taxpayers are not a bottomless pocket into which
politicians can -or should be allowed to- reach into
as deeply as they like every time somebody comes up
with another good idea. And that's because there will
never be an end to new ideas that would actually be
useful if they could be put into practise, but there is a
very definite limit to how many things taxpayers can
afford to finance. Unfortunately, an idea motorcycle
training and licensing system is among them.

 

Yes, and alas: every penny is already spoken for several years
in advance.

 

That's a lot. The UK has about 1.3 million, so some 50% more for a
population of about 67 million.

 

That's too bad. You were actually a nice guy in person.

 

But I think that UK bikers must be an altogether more
determined species when you consider the respective
differences in weather, Etc.

~Pete

 

You suppose that could be because you didn't try to
tell me how I should act in person?

 

Just pay the few hundred dollars for the license at the MSF class
and be done with it on a single weekend.

The MSF test is much easier than the DMV test so you're basically
just paying the private sector for the privilege of not taking the
public sector DMV test.

 

I'm reminded of local parents and "driving instructors" recommending
and sending children to the easiest known driving exam station...
publicly... with no apparent sense of embarrassment, responsibility,
or thought of the future:

"Sharonville exam site is toughest for Ohio driver's test
Review of data reveals easiest, toughest places"

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/...onville-exam-site-toughest-Ohio-driver-s-test

Or http://tinyurl.com/3rnvenp

 

The BRC test is more realistic for real world riding than the MOST and
ALMOST tests.

As some of the best instructors have pointed out, riding at speeds where
the bike responds by direct steering is a completely different skill set
from riding at speeds where the bike counter-steers. It should be
obvious to anyone who is not a politician or a bureaucrat that the
higher speed handling skills are more useful in avoiding serious injury
or death.

The really stupid requirement is for learner's permit holders needing to
have a licensed motorcyclist follow them to ride on the roads - what
good will that do, especially since there is no requirement for
bike-to-bike radio communication? Notably, in some other countries this
is not the case. Unless the point is again to encourage people to take
the BRC (why not make it mandatory then?) or to discourage them to take
up riding in the first place? Not everyone has someone with nothing
better to do than follow them around.

 

The brake-torque technique is taught in most slow-riding classes.

No problems with the dry clutch on the Beemer overheating?

 

Two bikes are easier to see than one?

Independent critique is better than no or self-critique?

The licensed motorist can signal the student to pull over or turn off
to discuss errors, give pointers?

Descriptions of past events are not as accurate as witnessing them in
real time?

A push to talk switch is an unnecessary distraction?

A running critique in the ear is a distraction?

You must suck as a rider.

 

That is a bizarre and illogical conclusion, especially coming from a genius.

 

Well, no, you're paying to learn stuff that you
really need to know.

And it's a max of $250, not a "few hundred".

 

I would have thought a genius with a background in psychology would
understand the difference. Guess not.

Odd that someone would know everything in the MSF BRC curriculum, but
not have a license. "Plenty of riders" is even more odd.

Have you looked into the most recent UK licensing requirements?

 

I would find that a much easier test than the MOST/ALMOST to pass.

It should be noted that in many states one cannot get a motorcycle
license, but rather a motorcycle endorsement to a cage license is granted.

 

Oh dear.

No, none of the best instructors ever say that, because it's
not true, and "the best" instructors know that. Unless your
feet are holding the bike up, you are using countersteering
-and nothing else.

But while you're at it, would you like to tell us how the best
instructors teach students to "lay her down to avoid an
accident"?

 

You do not ask for much, do you?