Failed Bike test - tips for retest

[adi]

Despite driving & racing cars for 16yrs, having a commercial helicopter license and being having biked rush hour through Central London on a 125 for 3 months, I failed the test due to the examiner not being convinced I was actually doing right lifesavers (I was - it's my life!)

Is the test really a reflection of your ability - I had really thought it would be a breeze as I just did exactly what the intructor told me to (Elite - and he ws convinced I had nothing to worry about), but this was obviously not quite what the examiner was looking for. It is £130 for a retest, so I don't want to fail a second time!)

I am wondering whether it was me, the wrong instruction or just a grumpy examiner (failed everyone that day). Tips for how to convince the examiner you are doing the lifesavers without having a neck like an owl would be gratefully received!

:)

[Carrera2]

I was told to really exaggerate the lifesavers just so the examiners can tell.

It's like any test - you don't ride on your test like you would when you've passed. You've got to exaggerate and be whiter than white.

[Fats25]

Has a similar thing with checking mirrors, I was checking them all the time with instructor, but she said that it didn't appear that way and I would likely fail test with the examiner.

So I moved the mirrors so that the only way I could see them was to really exaggerate looking in them. Seemed to work as I passed........

[adi]

That's a pretty good idea - cheers!

[tone]

If you have a plain helmet, small movements aren't so easy to see. Mine's plain silver. I was doing my lifesavers but the instructor couldn't easily see them.

I added a couple of 1" orange dayglo stickers to the back of my lid, at my instructors suggestion. It made it a lot easier for him to see me move my head.

Just a thought.

[Andy Oh]

Carrera2 said:

I was told to really exaggerate the lifesavers just so the examiners can tell. It's like any test - you don't ride on your test like you would when you've passed. You've got to exaggerate and be whiter than white.

I agree with Carrer2 here, you really do have to exaggerate those life savers.

Also if you have a plain coloured lid put a large sticker on the back just to show the examiner you are moving your head.....good luck with the next test

>> Edited by Andy Oh on Thursday 13th October 18:09

[Mark_SV]

Quite normal - you're far from the only one who's had this problem with the test. It hardly measures your biking ability, IMO.

When I was learning, a police Traffic car driver failed his bike test for not riding through a red light

All that emphasis on U-turns and nothing on countersteering ... madness Where do new bikers have single-vehicle accidents? On bends, but the test barely tests cornering. Never heard of anyone dying from a poor U-turn.

Nothing on positioning, other than remain in position 3 regardless What's the most common bike accident? Car pulling out from a junction because of SMIDSY, which moving to position 4 or 5 could help avoid.

As for exagerating your lifesavers and mirror checks, that's sound advice for the test, but a dreadful habit because the excess head movement can generally lead to wobbling the bike.

Good luck with the re-test!

[adi]

Cheers Mark.

I assume there is probably an advanced course I can do at some point which will teach me real world biking skills, rather than testing my ability to convince the guy behind that I'm doing what I was told to.

It would be good to get some counter steering and filtering experience for a start...

[speed8]

Mark_SV said:

All that emphasis on U-turns and nothing on countersteering ... madness Where do new bikers have single-vehicle accidents? On bends, but the test barely tests cornering.

Exactly. When I did my lessons and test (only last year) countersteering wasn't mentioned once. I kept wondering why I had to throttle off to get the bike to drop into 30+mph corners. If they had only spent an hour or so explaining and demostrating then it would have prevented me almost taking out a lampost on my first day on 600cc lessons. It would have undoubtably made my riding a lot smoother instead of the raggy arsed mayhem it is now

[Mark_SV]

adi said:

I assume there is probably an advanced course I can do at some point which will teach me real world biking skills ...

Hi Adi,

Yep, top idea and definitely the thing to do once you've got DAS out of the way. Have you bought/decided what bike to get, BTW?

If you can afford it, by far the best tuition would be a couple of days or more with one of these folks:

UK Advanced
www.advanced-motorcycle-training.co.uk/ (including a highly recommended accredited training course that RSVMille here has done)
RapidTraining
www.rapidtraining.co.uk/e/faq.htm (Rapid train all the bike journalists, among other things)
MAC
www.macridertraining.co.uk/macriders.asp (MAC have insurance discounts with Bennetts and Yamaha)

These three offer highly enjoyable and truly world class training

A non-professional but cheaper option would be to join one of the local groups as an "associate" member:
IAM
www.iam.org.uk/Aboutus/join.php
www.iam.org.uk/IAMGroups/regions.php
RoSPA
www.roada.org.uk/groups/index.htm

Generally, RoSPA are better than the IAM, but there are less RoSPA groups around and the IAM gives better financial membership benefits. (IAM test is worth doing for membership benfits alone, regardless of anything else.) RoSPA and IAM local groups generally offer social activities too, BTW.

Hope this is helpful.