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July 17, 2005
Learning Curve
This site is still hovering in disarray, and for that I apologise. I don't know when it will all be fixed, hopefully sometime before the end of summer. I have been spending my time catching up on housecleaning, two months of laundry as well as getting back into my exercise routine. And also making homemade dog treats for my dog (she can't have regular ones due to her renal condition).
I also apologise for this long boring post, I will try to animate it with photos to break it up. I am testing out the photoshop web gallery feature, which I still need to tweak in a major way....
I finally passed my practical motorcycle test! This is big news. It was the last hurdle in the whole drawn-out process of obtaining a full motorcycle licence. For those of you who don't live in the UK or don't know, this is what I had to do:
First, before you can ride at all, you must take a one-day training course called a CBT (Compulsory Basic Training). While the instructors stress that it’s not a test, if you can't demonstrate by the end of the day basic manoeuvres and safety procedures, they won't give you a certificate. Once you get this, you can drive with "L" plates for up to two years, with a few restrictions (you cannot carry a passenger, ride on motorways or ride a bike over 125cc). Before the two years are up you must get your full licence, which entails taking a computerised theory test and a practical riding test. If you don't get a full licence in those two years, you must start all over again.
Michael, my cycling instructor.
So most of my two years went by unnoticed, and it wasn't until about 2 months before my CBT was to expire that I started to get in gear. It takes a few weeks just to get an appointment for the theory test, and I failed it the first time due to the very annoying and retarded "hazard perception" part of the test. In this part you watch movie clips on a PC and have to click your mouse when you see a hazard "developing". You get points based on how far ahead you see them. Of course if you click too much you get no points (nul poin!) for that entire clip because, according to the test's designers, you could just be clicking randomly in the hopes of scoring without really paying attention. I got all of the multiple choice questions right but failed the second part because of overactive clicking. So then it took an entire month to get another appointment, the second time again I scored perfectly on the multiple choice and then barely passed the hazard perception, but passed I did! Although I really really hated the second part of the test, I did enjoy the clip where you had to slow down to avoid sheep crossing the road not once, but twice. I'm sure that will come in handy while riding around town.
Ok so theory test aced, I needed to pass my riding test. Of course the great country of the UK has decided that I am not allowed to take my test on my very special (and awesome) motorbike, so I had to ride on a regular 125cc scooter. I paid for one day of riding lessons on such a bike before I took the test the following afternoon. This was a few days before my CBT expired. On the first driving day the weather was horrible, it rained and even hailed (oh how I wish I had my bike then) and we kept losing other riders in our group. The second day the weather was better, but with stakes riding so high I made a few stupid mistakes and failed the test. Disappointing because I hate failing tests, and after failing the theory test once it was even more frustrating. It was also unnerving because I got stuck with a car-driving examiner who followed behind me in a car, a bit too close for my taste.
Gilera 125, bike I took my tests on.
So then I had to take the train to work for a week before I could take a full day and do another CBT. And then, finally, on Tuesday I had another half a day on a wee bike before passing my test with a biker-examiner. He put me at east right away when I met him. His office was trimmed with a long row of tiny model bikes and he had plenty of tattoos and what looked like a few teeth missing. He even made me feel better about failing the first time because of a comment he made about the other examiner. "Oh you had DW, Mr. Cheerful? That guy never so much as cracks a smile." He was a fair grader and marked me down for a few minor things that a biker would notice a lot more than a car driver.
Fellow student's crash helmet.
So now I can ride an automatic motorcycle (which means scooter, under UK law there is no difference between a motorcycle and a scooter, only between automatic and manual transmission. Of course all motorcycles are manual transmission, and scooters are automatic.) in the UK! Woot. Who knows how long it will take me to get a driver's licence in this country! I will have to go through a similar rigmarole again. I will have the advantage to knowing the road rules and riding on UK roads. One thing that is very different from driving in the US, other than riding on the left and roundabouts is that there are very very few stop signs. Most of the time there is just a dotted line painted at a junction (unless there is a traffic light of course). At these places you don't have to stop, you can just roll through (if no one's coming of course). The dotted line just means you have to give way to traffic. I can think of all the tickets that my friends or I have gotten in the good ol' USA for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. Signs that are littered all over the place, just there for a cop to nab you on. Nothing like that here, and it takes a little time to get over the habit. Another thing that messed me up while taking my tests, was turning left instead of right. I think part of this was due to some advice I read somewhere about learning to drive on the opposite side of the road than you're used to. It said don't think of left or right, just think of 'easy' or 'difficult' turns. And this is what I did, of course on the test when I was nervous automatic habitual thinking took over. So when he said right turn I thought 'easy' turn, (duh), which of course is left. My advice is don't mess with your brain, there are no short cuts and its surprisingly easy to switch from riding on one side of the road to the other.
Posted by shannon at July 17, 2005 07:42 PM