Viva victoria

After buying a new bike on Saturday I’ve had to wait until today to collect it and give it a proper ride.  More than an hour talking to at insurance companies broke my will to fight on.  There was also the issue of the bike not being taxed and I would need to get insurance before I could sort that out.

My Monday work time coffee break was spent on the phone to an insurance company, we more so, I was on the phone for  half an hour.  Lunch time was spent in the Post Office.  My project manager was really nice and was ok with me leaving early.

A tube and train journey later and I was finally in West Croydon to pick up my bike.  Was it really as good as I remember?  The short answer was, yes.  I think it is a great bike for the money, a 1992 Yamaha TDM850, but really well looked after.  Everybody had been saying take it really easy and I was.  A few times I did open her up and it is so nice to be on a big bike again.

In celebration of my new bike, passing my test and my new job, I christen this bike Victoria.

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Module 2 motorbike test

For motorbike test it seems to be busy season, I guess people are trying to get a pass before the weather starts to get bad.  After passing my module 1 test I had a 3 week wait until I could get a date for training and a test.  This meant 3 more weeks of getting used to my 125 again and forgetting what the 600 is like so a full day’s training, on a 600, would be welcome to get back up to speed.

I’ve been doing my training with Metropolis and I’ve always had a different instructor.  I’m not sure if this is an intentional thing on the part of Metropolis but I do think it is a good idea.  All teachers, instructors have different teaching styles and some work for some people and don’t for others.  Mark who was training us on Sunday for the test on the Monday was good, he’d been doing the job for 12 years.  The general hint I got was that there wasn’t a great deal wrong with my riding just small improvements.  Getting back on a more powerful bike was great and I was loving it.  We rode over to Erith where we would be testing to get to know the area and do all the tricky corners that were catching people out.

After lunch at a not so greasy spoon we did some more riding and what was a very windy day turned into a very wet and windy day.  My waterproof jacket and trousers were far from waterproof and a ride back along the A2 to central London, at 50mph made sure I was completely drenched.  It was good to get back to the house and have a warm up in the shower and have a nap.

After a chilled out night Monday arrived and it was test day.  I had a 13:14hrs test so we had another morning of riding the roads around Erith.  We got to the test centre and Mark asked me what I wanted to do we had another half hour to either go for another ride or have a chillax.  Chillax it was I wasn’t going to learn anything new in half hour.  After my nerves on the module 1 test, the module 2 test was completely different.  I told myself I was just going for a ride and I like riding so no problem.  The tester gave me the radio set to strap on and asked me which ear did I want to hurt.  I’d had the Metropolis ear piece on my right ear, which was now numb, so right it was.  If I passed I wouldn’t need to wear one  for the return journey.

I don’t remember that much about the ride now, just a few things.  I did ask me to turn right and I missed the turning.  It was a wooded area and easy to miss.  The hill start was with normal riding and I had some slow riding in town.  Creeping out from a junction with parked cars was maybe a bit messy but safe, and that is what you are being tested on.

I recognised the bridge near the test centre and knew where we were going had we really been out on the road for 40 minutes seem to have passed quite quickly.  We parked up and the tested told me to go through to the waiting area and he’d be there in a few minutes.  Talked to mark in the waiting area and he wanted to come in with me to see what comments the tester had.  We were called into the office and the tester straight away said “Good ride you passed.”.  I felt so pleased and relieved.

I did accumulate 4 minors but you are allowed 9 and can still pass.  Not that I was thinking about that, just happy to have it behind me and be thinking about getting a new bike.  The other guy on the course Ben also passed, so we could all ride back with no comms and ride normally.

The best advice I can give to someone taking a Module 2 bike test is to treat the test as a ride, which it is!

Module 1 motorbike test

This is my 300th post and with failing my first module 1 test last week I didn’t really want it to be on a sad note.  A week on and I can do this posting with a smile as I passed with just one minor point.

1st module 1 fail:

In the training I was riding fine and all was looking good for a pass.  The other guy on the course said I looked fine and the instructor too.  In the test that was a different story.  In the figure of 8 I did a dab – a foot down but not supportive, so not a fail, but it was the fact that I did it and I let it get to me that lead to the fail.  After that things just kept going wrong.

2nd Module 1 pass:

This time I had a different instructor for the training, which I think made the difference.  He had us doing exercises around cones, first with them in a straight line and then staggering them and we had to ride around them on the outside.  After that cones in a straight line was easy.

For the figure of 8 he had us riding for a position about a foot away from the last cone.  If you ride a foot away from the last cone, rather that through the centre point of the two blue cones that gives you more room for the second blue cone and less chance you will need to go around the yellow cone.

The U turn I was doing ok and then it went wrong.  I kept looking at the line or curb and as soon as I did that I would put my foot down.  The instructor said in all these cases I was around and just needed to ride out.  His advice was keep looking where I wanted to go and don’t look down, if I ride over the line I would fail but looking down would give that result any way.

The swerve was one of my other fails on the first test, I just clipped the cone.  On the way to the test centre we found a quite road to practice swerving around the white centre lines and also some practice counter steering.  We found a quite roundabout and got up to speed.  Feels really strange pushing the right side of the bar while banked over but it does work.  Well it works really well, just takes some getting used to.  The other big tip for the swerve it to ride to miss the cone on the outside of the swerve not the inside one this will make you wider and have less chance of clipping the cone on the inside.

The test started bad, my instructor tried to be helpful and moved my bike so that I just needed to ride it out rather than back it up.  I didn’t see him do this and went to the bike in the place where I’d left it and could get the the key to turn.  The tester said “Have you got the right bike?”  Whoops, good start.

My foot started shaking with nerves on the figure of 8 but riding a foot a way from the last cone worked a treat and gave me much more space for the other cone.  In practice for the U turn I was getting worse the more I did it.  I wasn’t going to fail by putting a foot down, I was almost around and gave it a few more revs and rode out I didn’t see the line so didn’t know if I was in or out ride on.

The first of the speed tests was the controlled stop and I did ask the tester to give me my speed after so I would have an idea of the speed.   I was just shy 48km, but for this test you not being tested on the speed.  On the others 50km is the target.

E-stop (emergency stop) was something I was getting right all the time in practice, but on a few occasions the back wheel was just getting ready to slide, so I would have to be careful.  Speed I needed to give it a bit more and did so.  56km through the speed trap and no sliding and a good stop.

The hazard avoidance (swerve test) is tested on speed as well and I did have a glance at the speedo in the corner 17mph I gave it some more to get it to 19mph, hit the straight and got on line for the cones and speed trap and went to 30mph.  I did the swerve and didn’t feel any clips or hear anything.

I rode back to the gates making sure to look over my shoulder both ways before setting off, I wasn’t going to fail now.  Got to his office and took my seat, he said you got one minor on the hazard avoidance, you didn’t quite make the speed.  Speedos under read sometimes obviously the case with the one on the XJ6 I was at 48km in the speed trap.  I was just out of my seat eyes wide “but that’s still a pass?”.  Yes was the answer.

The paper work seemed to take ages, I walked out everyone asked then I kissed the Module 1 certificate.