Discussion
I hope to f
k that you're not anywhere near Sevenoaks because the mother of all thunderstorms has just struck - never seen rain like it in my life.
Walking / running between restaurant / pub / home with the girlfriend, got utterly saturated in about 400 metres. Cue instant panic - my bike is parked up on a tiny strip of concrete (next to a fat steel pipe to chain the rear wheel to) but with the sidestand resting on the half-concrete / half-grass next to it (for another thread)...
Weather is predicted to be constant rain for the next few days in SE London and most of Kent so I hope you're not here. I did my DAS 3-day intensive course (when they said intensive, I wasn't quite prepared for what they meant - it should have been described as 'EXTREEEEME') but, after some of the most intense concentration of my life, I passed the test in February freezing temperatures and constant drizzle. With a borrowed lid which kept flying off my head, and gloves with holes in that left my fingers numb with cold within half an hour. And it was 8 hours on the bike each day.
I was both lucky and unlucky in the sense that my test involved an uphill stop, then pull away into a right turn that comes back 270 degrees (still uphill) with a big flat steel manhole cover on the apex of the bend. It's hard enough anyway, because of clutch control... but on my test, I rode over the manhole cover... and the GS500 front tyre went from under me, followed by the rear... but because of either luck or natural balance, I didn't make any rash adjustments and the bike righted itself as it hit tarmac, steady throttle. I think the test guy passed me for getting away with that even though I kept on forgetting to turn the indicators off....
Seriously - point of this rambling nonsense is to make sure you've got waterproof kit and at the very least (if there's likelihood of rain) that you've got waterproof gloves or inners so your hands don't freeze and your clutch control goes to pot. I had real trouble on the second day (first full day on the 500) when I got so cold that I couldn't operate the hand controls smoothly. Soft southern woofter, perhaps
but fk it, nobody sane enjoys riding a bike when sopping wet and freezing cold. You won't be cold in August but you could get wet. I didn't invest in a load of biking gear because I'd spent all my spare cash on the direct access course. If I had to do it again, I'd have some good gloves, and if funds allowed, my own lid that fitted properly. The training centre provided one-piece waterproofs to put over the 274 layers of random clothing I'd worn for the course, but all the gloves on offer had holes in them and the helmets were dire. This was 10 years ago though, it's probably twice as expensive and you probably get better kit to hire for the course these days...
With that out of the way, best of luck, and when you get a chance to enjoy it (there will be a bit of the course where you follow the instructor on open roads, hopefully nice country lanes if you're not in the centre of a big city), ENJOY IT - the rest of the course will involve serious concentration. Don't let the hard work put you off the fact that riding is FUN and that's what you're there for!!! At one point, with the bike on the floor after a failed U-turn attempt, frozen and wet, I was cursing myself and losing motivation... but half an hour later, swooping from bend to bend on a country road near Tunbridge Wells on a 500 (second day ever on a motorbike) I was LOVING it. And that's why I hire a bike whenever on holiday, and why I've finally said 'sod it' and bought myself a CBR600 and back on two wheels again.
Good luck!!!
k that you're not anywhere near Sevenoaks because the mother of all thunderstorms has just struck - never seen rain like it in my life.Walking / running between restaurant / pub / home with the girlfriend, got utterly saturated in about 400 metres. Cue instant panic - my bike is parked up on a tiny strip of concrete (next to a fat steel pipe to chain the rear wheel to) but with the sidestand resting on the half-concrete / half-grass next to it (for another thread)...
Weather is predicted to be constant rain for the next few days in SE London and most of Kent so I hope you're not here. I did my DAS 3-day intensive course (when they said intensive, I wasn't quite prepared for what they meant - it should have been described as 'EXTREEEEME') but, after some of the most intense concentration of my life, I passed the test in February freezing temperatures and constant drizzle. With a borrowed lid which kept flying off my head, and gloves with holes in that left my fingers numb with cold within half an hour. And it was 8 hours on the bike each day.
I was both lucky and unlucky in the sense that my test involved an uphill stop, then pull away into a right turn that comes back 270 degrees (still uphill) with a big flat steel manhole cover on the apex of the bend. It's hard enough anyway, because of clutch control... but on my test, I rode over the manhole cover... and the GS500 front tyre went from under me, followed by the rear... but because of either luck or natural balance, I didn't make any rash adjustments and the bike righted itself as it hit tarmac, steady throttle. I think the test guy passed me for getting away with that even though I kept on forgetting to turn the indicators off....
Seriously - point of this rambling nonsense is to make sure you've got waterproof kit and at the very least (if there's likelihood of rain) that you've got waterproof gloves or inners so your hands don't freeze and your clutch control goes to pot. I had real trouble on the second day (first full day on the 500) when I got so cold that I couldn't operate the hand controls smoothly. Soft southern woofter, perhaps
but fk it, nobody sane enjoys riding a bike when sopping wet and freezing cold. You won't be cold in August but you could get wet. I didn't invest in a load of biking gear because I'd spent all my spare cash on the direct access course. If I had to do it again, I'd have some good gloves, and if funds allowed, my own lid that fitted properly. The training centre provided one-piece waterproofs to put over the 274 layers of random clothing I'd worn for the course, but all the gloves on offer had holes in them and the helmets were dire. This was 10 years ago though, it's probably twice as expensive and you probably get better kit to hire for the course these days...With that out of the way, best of luck, and when you get a chance to enjoy it (there will be a bit of the course where you follow the instructor on open roads, hopefully nice country lanes if you're not in the centre of a big city), ENJOY IT - the rest of the course will involve serious concentration. Don't let the hard work put you off the fact that riding is FUN and that's what you're there for!!! At one point, with the bike on the floor after a failed U-turn attempt, frozen and wet, I was cursing myself and losing motivation... but half an hour later, swooping from bend to bend on a country road near Tunbridge Wells on a 500 (second day ever on a motorbike) I was LOVING it. And that's why I hire a bike whenever on holiday, and why I've finally said 'sod it' and bought myself a CBR600 and back on two wheels again.
Good luck!!!
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