[very long report] my theory and practical tests

Hi,
I've been a lurker of this group for quite a while, basically since I
decided at some point in 2007 that I needed a proper driving license
for motorbikes. The messages I found in the google archives of this
group have been extremely useful and I hope my message can contribute
a bit to this amount of information, too, especially for those looking
for more information about the UK test systems in 2008 (but before 29
Sept 2008, see the coming changes on the DSA website).

* My background: I'm Italian (sorry for my English) and I moved to
London in 2000, I'm 33 and I've been riding a moped with manual gears
on the handlebar since I was 14 till 20 (first a Garelli and then a
vespa, the last one being a vespa HP), in Italy. At the time (nearly
20 years ago) you could ride a moped at 14 without *any* form of
training, and so I did. I then went on and at 18 I got my car license,
and at 24 a C license (do you call it LGV license?) during my
compulsory military service. In Italy it is possible to ride a 125
bike with a car license without restrictions, and so I never took a
test for motorbikes, and I moved to automatic gears 125 (Gilera Runner
etc) when I came back from my military service. I then moved to
London, I converted my driving license and I discovered that I was now
restricted again to mopeds :-( (NOTICE for Italian drivers: NO, YOU
CANNOT RIDE A 125 WITH YOUR ITALIAN CAR LICENSE IN THE UK, even if you
don't convert it to a UK license you cannot drive here. You are
allowed to drive a 125 with passenger only within Italy, check the
Italian law carefully and you will find these small prints). BTW, a
small ET2 is OK for London traffic and I could also carry my wife. But
the glorious et2 has now nearly 20K miles and I think it wants to
retire soon...

* Theory test. So I started looking at the past messages of this group
and at the DSA website and I discovered that I had to re-take a theory
test, the third theory test in my life (basically: everyone has to
take a theory test, there is no way out of it). Not a big problem I
have to say, I bought the official DSA book with all the questions and
a DSA DVD, and on the day I got 50/50 for the questions and 65/75 for
the hazard perception test . The questions are quite easy, you just
need to remember a few things such as "what is the amount of pollution
caused by traffic", the various kinds of crossing (pelican, tucan,
puffin: we don't have them in Italy!), and some other things such as
stopping distance at various speeds, but the majority of the questions
are straightforward if you already passed a theory test for cars and
you know the road signs and rules. The hazard perception part seems
more random to me, I still cannot understand what I have to do to
obtain 5/5... sometimes I get 5/5, sometimes 2/5. The very first time
I tried with the DVD I got on average 1/5 or 2/5 at most, sometimes
0/5: I then discovered that I had to press a couple of times: first
when I /think/ the hazard might develop, and the when it is actually
developing. E.g., pedestrian crossing with people nearby: 1 click.
People starting to cross: a second click. This worked for me but I
think the DVD is essential before taking the test.

* CBT: easy if you are familiar with clutch and gears on a bike,
otherwise I'd suggest you go for the automatic version of the CBT (the
outcome will be the same AFAIK, the same piece of paper). When I did
my CBT a couple of weeks after my theory test, I found myself in a
group of 4 guys. 3 of us (including me) asked for the clutch and gear
thing, one asked for the automatic moped. I passed the CBT without
problems, but the other 2 had never used a bike and they both failed
the CBT (it's hard to get familiar with a bike in 3 or 4 hours!). The
guy with the automatic never used a bike but he could pass easily. So,
overall, 50% pass rate that day...

* Practical test - the training part: as I said before, I'm familiar
with clutch and gears, but not so much with the foot gears... So I
booked a 4 day course with a school in NW London for a DAS as
suggested by them (they have 3, 4, and 5 days courses). I started last
Friday, when I was supposed to ride a 125 all day. The instructor
decided I could go for the 500 (a Suzuki CS) after one hour, and so I
moved to this big thing (for my standards). First impression (I'm
obviously a newbie): the 500 is a scary, powerful thing, you cannot
open the throttle as with a 125 in first gear. So, if you want to take
your DAS, you really need to get familiar with the thing. I had two
instructors: one of them was very fussy about shoulder checks, low
speed control, etc. The other one took me on 50, then 60, then 70
miles/hour roads (A1, A41, etc). 70 M/hour on this CS 500 without
fairing is a bit shocking the first time (well, even 60 is more than
enough to start with...), you really want to close the throttle and
move back to 50 or less, it's windy, noisy, you think you will fly
away dragged by the air. But the instructor was pushing me, including
overtaking at 70 and a right turn out of a 3 lane at 70 (!!!)... In
the end a very useful exercise because you'll be a *lot* more
confident at 50 (which you have to do for your exam) if you do a bit
of 70 with your instructor.
Shoulder checks and low speed control: again, very useful exercises
and very useful for the exam. I'm familiar with small wheels vespas,
so riding at 4 or 5 m/hour on a straight line playing with the clutch
is not that difficult. Additionally, on the 500 you can even control
the machine with your knees, which is much better than an open
scooter. The difficult bit is the U-turn, you need to try it plenty of
times and be confident with it. I got the first one wrong (foot down),
but then from the second one everything went OK. How I do it: mirror,
shoulder check, go straight for 2 or 3 meters to reach the appropriate
speed and balance using clutch and brake, mirror+shoulder again
without loosing balance when you turn your neck, then handlebar all
the way to the right just playing with the clutch; I normally use the
*rear brake only* after the midpoint (but not before) because the
camber of the road tends to increase the speed of the bike in the
second part (if you even think of using the front brake you foot is
down and if you try not to put the foot down your bike will go down:
I've seen it). That's it. Be relaxed, your shoulders and your neck
should be relaxed, be positive and confident, breath easily before
starting. It's a psychological exercise on top of being a technical
exercise.
Emergency stop: this is easier. 1-2-3 gear, around 25/30 miles/hour,
when the hand goes up and you see the palm release the throttle, front
brake first, just gently press the rear brake ("as if you had an egg
on the pedal"), clutch and stop. Your should *not* have your fingers
on the brake and/or clutch while driving down and before seeing his
hand up (well they should not be there anyway when you drive), the
examiner will look at the levers, they must be visible (first thing
he'll check). After the stop, 1st gear, indicator left, mirror
shoulder and park. Again be positive and confident, it doesn't need to
be your best emergency brake ever, you don't need to stop in 2 meters,
in an emergency I normally brake way more harshly and I stop way more
quickly. Just show you can control the bike confidently.
Your instructors will go through all this plenty of times so don't
worry.

* Practical test - the actual exam. I did my test yesterday at Hendon.
As in all exams, I think it is useful to know how you'll be evaluated.
I have here a copy of the "Driving test report", I just copy what's
inside and I think may be relevant:
1a Eyesight
1b H/Code / Safety
2 Controlled Stop (promptness / control)
3 Reverse (control / observation)
6 Turn in road (control / observation)
7 Vehicle checks
11 Precautions
12 Control (accelerator / clutch / gears / MC front brake / steering /
balance M/C)
13 Move off (safety / control)
14 Use of mirrors - M/C rear obs (signalling / change direction /
change speed)
15 Signals (necessary / correctly / timed)
16 Clearance / Obstructions)
17 Response to signs / signals (traffic signs / road markings /
traffic lights / traffic controllers / other road users)
18 Use of speed
19 Following distance
20 Progress (appropriate speed / undue hesitation)
21 Junction (approach speed / observation / turning right / turning
left / cutting corners)
22 Judgement (overtaking / meeting / crossing)
23 Positioning (normal driving / lane discipline)
24 Pedestrian crossing
25 Position / normal stops
26 Awarness / planning
For each one of the items (including the ones in parenthesis) there is
a box. If you make a fault, a certain number of points will be placed
in the box, if you reach 15 points you fail the test. You can also
fail the test if you make a serious or a dangerous fault (for
instance, point 21 - cutting corners: if you cut a corner in a
dangerous way you will fail for that; if you put your foot down in a U-
turn, this is considered a serious fault and you'll fail the test).
The test: the instructor will start by identifying you, you need both
parts of your license, CBT and theory pass certificates. Then, he
will ask you to read a plate number from 20 m away more or less, then
he will ask you a couple of questions on vehicle checks (see DSA
website but also the school will tell you). At that point you'll be
asked to start the bike and drive. He will give you directions using a
radio, very simple instructions: "turn left at the next roundabout",
"turn right in the next road", "move to the left and stop when it is
safe to do so", etc.
At some point you'll be asked to stop in a small road and he will tell
you to walk the bike around in a U-turn (if you can walk it, you can
ride it...), then start the bike and do the actual U-turn. Emergency
stop will follow, then probably you'll go to some 40 or 50 miles /
hour road: YOU NEED TO MAKE UP YOUR SPEED QUICKLY, 1-2-3-4-5
positively and confidently, up to 50 or whatever the limit. You'll
probably be asked to turn right at this point, mirror - signal -
mirror - shoulder - move from lane 1 to 2, mirror - shoulder - move
from 2 to 3, same thing to enter the right turn lane. Engine brake
4-3-2, clutch and 1st gear to stop. "Nice and easy" but with
confidence, don't be hesitant or you'll get points (see point 20
above).
Everything else is quite easy, turn left, turn right, etc. Just
remember all the visual checks, lifesavers before turning right, etc.
(I'm still not 100% convinced that all these visual checks are really
necessary, but I had to do them for the exam and that's it).

My test went really well and I got 0 points. I did the things
mentioned above, at a point I had one car coming towards me and
turning right without indicators which caused a kind of emergency stop
with my bike but it all went well I managed to brake safely .
As I said above for the U-turn: the whole thing is a psychological
test as well: if you are able to remain calm everything will be OK.
Depending on road conditions, it's easy to make small mistakes; I've
been lucky and I didn't, but don't worry if you forget one
observation. *Do not escalate mistakes!* If you forget one
observation, just leave it and move to the next thing, otherwise if
you think about it you'll miss a traffic light.

OK I think I wrote too much at this point... Just a quick conclusion:
if you already have a car license and you have some road experience,
the test is not too difficult. You need a course and a good confidence
with the bike but you should be OK pretty quickly. If this is your
first license, then you are better off doing a CBT, buying a 125
machine with gears and drive around for a while before trying the exam
(IMVHO, of course)

Well, thanks again to the past posters!

SD

 

wrote:

<snip>

No need to apologise for your English - if I could write Italian that
well (and stick at it to make such a long post) I'd be quite pleased
with myself.

Interesting writeup to compare with what I went through nearly ten
years ago. I found this:

a little bit thought provoking. Are new drivers/riders being
conditioned for more green taxation at this early stage? What's it got
to do with safe driving, and why should it be on the test? I can't see
any reason for it other than either guilt-tripping tree-huggers into
not driving or justifying green taxes.

However, one vital point was missed out - what are you going to get?
10R or gixxer thou?

 

Frankly, I'd be happy if I could do it in English, myself.......


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The only reason I can think of is that a certain style of driving is
more polluting than another and, at the same time, more dangerous.
Hard braking etc is more polluting than a uniform speed (indeed
another question is: "how should you drive in presence of traffic
calming measures: 1) accelerate between bumps and brake before 2) keep
a uniform speed" or something like that). So I guess the question is
part of a chapter on this. But I agree: remembering a percentage is
pretty useless.

Me? I'm the shame of the category. On the very first time out with the
Suzuki, half a mile from the school gate I reached a two lane traffic
light. I stopped on the left lane, to the left of a red Micra 1.0, T
plate or something like that, driven by an old lady white air with
purple shades. Amber light, I look around, in front of us the lanes
merge into a single lane and I give way to the lady in front of us (I
was afraid of overtaking to the left, the first traffic light etc...);
she then drove for a mile or so at 20 in an empty road (of course I
could not overtake with the instructor). I'm now known at the school
as "the guy who was left behind by a granny on a 1.0 micra".

So, I'll stick to my Piaggio Vespa. A friend of mine is going back to
Italy and I'll inherit his vespa GT 200. I'm not old enough for this
kind of toys... maybe when I turn 40 I'll move to a 500, and to an R1
when I'll be 50 (ideally, prepared by Peppo Russo, with whom I worked
a little bit when I was still in Italy)

SD

 

wrote in

Yes, piqued my interest too

Oh. Are you some kind of poof?

 

No, I'm not pursuing opportunities outside of the firm.

In Italy: ET4->girl, GT200->boy. The other combinations are very
likely to reveal the sexual inclinations of the driver.

SD

 

Are you in Italy then?

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