NEW PRACTICAL BIKE TESTS START NEXT YEAR?

[MrAndyD]

I just passed my practical (yay!). And my instructor also told me that next year the practical test is changing, and there will be 2 practicals to do! 1 off road, 1 on road! They really dont want people to ride bikes do they?? So now you will need a CBT day, a theory test, and 2 practical days being tested, plus all the training, in order to be deemed good enough to ride a bike. When does it become over the top?
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ITS ARRIVED! New Oct 2004 - Grey Speedfight 100cc ohhh yessss. And Ive passed the A2 test 1st December 2004. Bring it on!

[Kickstart]

Hi

Congratulations on the test.

Yes it is changing soon, but think it is a bit longer away than next year. Apparently they are busy trying to buy suitable land for tests at the moment.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[G]

At a guess they want to make sure people are safe before they take them onto the road.

Also maybe want to find a safer place to do slow manouvers?

Can't see any problem with this.

My issue with the test are the way it's not relvent to 90% of road riding.

[mchaggis]

I presume off-road means off public roads? Not like we have to pass a test at motocross before they'll let us on the roads? Not that wouldn't be a horrendously bad idea, just a little expensive.

If they start bringing in multiple tiers of tests for motorcycles, I'd fully expect them to bring in multiple tiers for every other class of vehicle. I'm not sure what point there is to passing a test with no other traffic other plastic though. If you've a decent instructor/ have half a brain you should be perfectly capable of riding safely with traffic anyway.
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[stryker]

I'm just amazed how the car test has none of this extra tests to pass nor restrictions, yet its the cars on the road that kill the bikers.... and everyone else...... well the potential for damage is much greater.

On the bike front I think its under representation thats the problem. Bet the people behind these new rules are not bike riders.
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Now what?

[instigator]

[Gingernut]

[Nath]

I overheard my instructor having a conversation about the proposed changes. He was saying that he can't afford to buy/rent land to practice stuff off road. He would therefore have to continue to do all the training on the roads, as he does now(except CBT obv).

So the govt. are saying that this stuff isn't safe to be done on the roads, but are making people learn it in order to get the licence, for which they will practice it... On the roads!

Having recently passed my test, I can see no problem with the current test, where the U-Turn etc is done on quiet residential roads. I was very happy with the way my instructor tought me, and I always felt perfectly safe with him. I was also happy with my test, and felt perfectly safe with the examiner.


If this is only for Bikes, and not Cars, then they're basically trying to "do" something about the high mortality rate in motorcycling. Doing something stupid that doesn't even slightly help, is no better than leaving it as it is.
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[LustyLew]

Performing slow speed maneuvers (eg U Turn) I was always taught to check mirrors and do a life saver, also keep looking both directions whilst performing the maneuvre. So if you're doing this, you should be able to see a car thundering down the road towards you.

If you learn all the 'dangerous' maneuvers in a safe environment, how will you learn the dangers?

Lewis
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Like a Yorkie - I'm not for the girls

[mrchips]

Sounds daft all I can say is I'm glad mines over with. Now I'll need to get the car test out of the way before you do it on a simulator blindfolded.
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Northern Irish? www.nibikers.com

[Ian (GPX)]

This is not due til 2008 !

Please take a look at the following links

https://www.dsa.gov.uk/pdf/csu/04posters/Motorcycling_Poster1.pdf

https://www.dsa.gov.uk/pdf/despatch/Despatch_Summer_2004.pdf (see page 7)

Well done on the pass btw.......

[MrAndyD]

Thanks And yeah, Im glad to get it out of the way too. As for the new test it does concern me that they are making it harder and harder to get a bike these days, when really its cars that should be banned Well, lets face it, they are pretty dull things in comparison. Nothing beats two wheels.
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ITS ARRIVED! New Oct 2004 - Grey Speedfight 100cc ohhh yessss. And Ive passed the A2 test 1st December 2004. Bring it on!

[Flip]

My instuctor told me last year that it was a 'hazard avoidance' test, where you have to avoid cars and the like. He wasn't very happy of the idea of all the students bining his bikes. At the time the nearest place to the Chester area that could be used was a runway in Anglsey, North Wales (no where near Chester!).

[NSR125-Kid-UK]

Plenty of motivation to get mine sorted now!
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[pipnet11]

They make it so hard for young people to drive/ride, yet the thousands of nearly blind, hardly able to walk 70odd year olds are fine to keep driving about at 20mph as long as the like. They also dont seem to have noticed the fact that people who are going to be bad drivers just drive safely till they pass then drive like idiots anyway.
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[meyrick]

What exactly is the point in making the test so hard to pass when you can ride indefinitely without taking it (by doing CBT every 2 years). I know you are restricted to 125, but still, L-plates are not a magic shield against reckless car drivers and if you are going to kill yourself, a 125 is plenty enough to do it on anyway. Glad it's not due for ages, hopefully I'll be all done by then.

[hawkeye]

Makes me glad I done mine two years ago when things were simple and weren't going to change any time soon! Thought I'd heard somewhere that the CBT was in include off-road high speed maneuvers, meant that only about 10% of CBT sites were suitable or something
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