New motorcycle test - suggestions?

[willis1337]

Sunday Times yesterday had an article:

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article7147860.ece

"Learners will be delighted to hear that Britain’s unpopular new motorbike test is to be ditched, or at least revised. Last week Mike Penning, the incoming transport minister responsible for road safety, confirmed there will be an official review of the two-part bike test, which was introduced in 2009 at least in part to comply with a European Union directive. It is said to be responsible for many accidents, not least as it requires riders to perform a difficult swerve-and-stop manoeuvre at 31mph (50kph). This exercise exceeds the speed limit on minor British roads and is taken in simulated road conditions.

In response to campaigns for the test to be scrapped or substantially revised — waged by Motorcycle News magazine and The Sunday Times as well as the dwindling number of riders who are taking it — the government has decided to take swift action.

Penning has asked riders and any other interested parties to suggest ways to improve testing and training as part of a brief consultation exercise. Constructive suggestions can be submitted to RUSD4consultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk until July 31."

What do you reckon? A test that includes wheelies and stoppies?

[T1z3R]

i could only suggest making it harder
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duck my sick!

[LordShaftesbu...]

Make it quicker and easier. The fewer bikers there are, the easier biking will be to ban.

[stephennorman...]

The only need for change in my opinion is either more off road test centres or designate certain roads for the maneuver part of the test. From what i have heard the accidents are caused by bad tuition or learner not listening to there instructor. The only problem I can see is having to travel many miles to and from test especially after failure and the cost of bike hire from riding school ie 3 hrs hire for 15 min test .

[yuri2085]

Well, the reason there are not more test centers is because of the requirements of the test.

If the speed requirement was adapted a lot of it could also be performed on public roads.

The eu directive does not require a swerve and an emergency stop to be performed one after each other, although I have done that manoeuvre from 65 when a unsigned t junction appeared!

[stephennorman...]

It is not a swerve and emergency stop it is a controlled stop.The emergency stop is a maneuver on its own .

[yuri2085]

Ok but the stop does need to be soon after the swerve. Apologies for confusing the names its as fast as an emergency stop basically anyway.
Emergency stops don't actually have to be that quick.

[Ste]

It is good the way the test is split in two parts, module one is only £10 so if someone is going to fail it's better to fail on that rather than doing everything in the test in one go which would be more expensive.

If more test centres are made then I'd expect the cost of the tests to go up and then people would complain about that.

[stephennorman...]

mod 1 is £15 .50. for the test . The controlled stop is no where near an emergency stop if you do the emergency stop as the one after the hazard avoidance you would fail the controlled stop requires very little if any fork compression on breaking the emergency stop the forks compress considerably

[Mudskipper]

Ahem.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=198900&highlight=
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CBR125|||GSXR400|||CBR400|||CBR400|||CB250RS|||GSXR750|||CB250RS
"You're clumsy, you eat too much and you behave like a 12 year old boy. But you know what? Every once in a while, you find a thumb."

[ajbsmirnoff]

maybe if i wasn't divided up into 2 separare test days. Would it be a better test if you did the playground bit, then went out for a 40min examiner session. Same BS, but in a slightly smaller bag.

It would be more like a more advanced CBT

Either that or a chap measures your chickenstrips before and after 5 laps of a busy roundabout

[willis1337]

[el_oso]

the Germans seem to be able to cope with a test similar to what we now have. My German friends are appalled at the discipline on the roads in this country, and i would have to agree.
Lane discipline and speed discipline are terrible in the country. People stick much closer to the speed limits in Spain. especially in towns where the limit is 50kph. You also don't get the typical BMW/Audi drivers that like to see how close they can get to your back bumper without actually touching. At least not in my experience. The amount of people that hog the middle/outside lanes is ridiculous in this country.
Maybe if tests were harder there wouldn't be so many accidents as people would need more discipline to get on the road
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[defblade]

[Walloper]

We need more cops on the roads in unmarked cars/bikes and less scameras....
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[Mushroom]

[stephennorman...]

How the fuck do you people come up with these conclusions?A tests a test once its over its gone it has no influence what so ever,the most aggressive to the most stupid of drivers can be trained like dogs to behave as needed to pass a test from then on "zee harder test" does fuck all spot on

[2wheelsteve]

I think there should be more on target fixation, counter steering and road positioning to see and be seen but hey, what the hell do I know

[gooner]

I know Paivi is on here somewhere - Hi Paivi.
Some time ago she posted this in another forum - I think it's great and so I reproduce it here for your perusal and enjoyment .............

For some years now, since the demise of the old ride-around-the-block test, bikers have had a test roughly on par with the car driving test (except you're not sat in an enclosed space with a sour-faced bloke, nervous as hell but too scared to fart in case he fails you for it) with a number of set manoeuvres to carry out before you get the coveted pass slip.

In October of this year, however, in an effort to curb alarming increases in the number of motorcycle accidents [1] the scope of the test is widening to encompass many more manoeuvres which are an element of everyday motorcycling. These are listed below:

1. Emergency stop. As currently the student must bring the bike to a controlled stop from 30mph. Because, in the last 5 years, only 3 motorcyclists have been KSI'd while running over examiners (2 intentional) in future the examiner will simply pull his Audi out of a junction in front of the candidate. Failure at this stage may lead to the rest of the test being cancelled.

2. Emergency stop (poor conditions). As above, the candidate is required to bring their bike to a controlled stop from 30mph, but this time on a road surface compromised by rain / gravel / diesel / bits of candidates who failed test 1, etc. Locking either wheel will not automatically fail the candidate, nor will them needing to take a dab or having a bit of a scream. In fact as long as the end result is tidy enough not to be described as "a heap" the test will proceed.

3. Emergency slow (high speed). A variation of the emergency stop, the candidate will be required to slow as quickly as possible, with the bike under full control, from 70mph to 30mph, as if a small child had just run out in front of them or, more likely, they'd just spotted a camera van in a 30 limit.

4. Emergency swerve (high speed). The candidate must swerve their bike at 70mph to avoid an obstacle ahead - as if the driver of the Volvo in front of them had just spotted a camera van in a national speed limit zone.

5. Feet up U-turn. As with the current test the candidate will be required to perform a U-turn in the road without putting their feet down.

6. Dead lift. The candidate will be expected to show the correct technique to lift a fallen bike by themselves, as if they had, for example, just spectacularly cocked up a feet up U-turn.

7. Filtering. The candidate will be expected to filter between two lanes of stationary / slow moving traffic showing appropriate observation, respect for other road users and the courtesy to GET THE f@!k OUT OF THE WAY if somebody filtering faster comes up behind them. The examiner may award bonus marks for imaginative and appropriate use of hatched areas, cycle lanes, pavements and flower beds in order to "make progress".

8. Filtering (part II). While maintaining full control of the bike the candidate must make use of appropriate thank you/f@!k you gestures to traffic on both sides (not simultaneously). Once again, bonus marks are available for candidates showing exceptional imagination.

9. Observation. At a distance of 400 meters the candidate must decide whether the vehicle ahead is (a) a breakdown truck, (b) a marked police car or (c) a Highways Agency fake-fuzz and, based on their decision, make a controlled deceleration from 150mph ... or not.

10. Communication. While maintaining a steady speed of 60mph the candidate must make the appropriate hand signals to show (a) they are turning left, (b) they are turning right, (c) they are slowing down, (d) they need petrol, (e) they need a pint, (f) that a member of the group is no longer present after the last series of fast twisties and may have gone for a countryside lie-down, (g) that something has gone wrong with their bike, but they're not sure what, (h) that their mate is f@!king mental and (i) to warn on-coming bikers that there is a cop with a hairdryer in wait 1 mile ahead, followed by 3 miles of clear roads and then another 2 cops, on bikes, hiding in the entrance to a field.

11. Parking. The candidate must demonstrate the correct technique to park, nose out, in a 5 bike bay without needing to occupy the entire bay. Kicking over scooters to clear some space will be overlooked as long as the examiner is happy that it was intentional.

12. Stunts. The candidate must attempt to wheelie, stoppie or get their knee down (examiner's choice). The candidate will not be penalised for being a ham fisted c**t with no clue as to what they're supposed to be doing as long as they don't actually end up on their arse in the road watching their bike do the cartwheel of death.

Following the practical section of the test their will be an extensive verbal test, one to one with the examiner, where the candidate must demonstrate:

1. That they can discuss the relative merits of the ZX-10R, R1, Fireblade and GSX-1000R despite the fact that they're taking their test on a ER-5, which is the only bike that they've ever ridden.

2. That they are aware of techniques to improve their performance or aesthetics of their bike, yet unaware that if they do all of the things that they're talking about their bike will end up an unrideable shed that looks like it's been attacked by a chimp dunked in Hammerite and given an anodising gun.

3. That they are capable of planning an elaborate bike related scheme, such as touring Europe, riding "the long way round", taking up amateur racing or building a special from scratch. The candidate should make full use of the back of a fag packet to describe their idea, but this may be discarded once the test is complete.

4. That they can make observations and timely judgments sufficiently well to know when it's time for them to go to the bar.

The government's stated objection is to make the test last so long that, by the time it is completed, all riders are already at the "old and slow" stage of life and so damn sick of bikes that they never want to see one again.

In an effort to further this the UK is likely to have only one test site, with one examiner, who has been suffering with sciatica since 1987 and frequently has months off work at a time. In addition the test fee is likely to be raised to £15,000.

MAG was quick to denounce the proposal, saying that it would lead to a UK biking population entirely composed of late-middle aged bikers with an excessively cautious approach to bikes and bike riding.

In other news BMW has predicted a 75% increase in sales for the first quarter of 2009 and Honda have announced that they are ceasing production of all of their models except the VFR800.

[1] Last year 99.4% of all motorcyclists were killed or seriously injured [2].

[2] Based on government figures of everybody who has ridden a motorcycle since their invention, in Leicester in 1898, and calculating what percentage of them are now dead or have been seriously [3] injured. Ever. By anything.

[3] Seriously enough to use one of the "big four" swear words.
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Better to be scared to death than bored to death!

[N cee thirty]

the tests are fine tbh,mod 1 is really easy the swerves simple compared to a car pulling out on you


just would be better if there was more test centres,or more instructors at 1 site taking down the waiting lists.
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'00 Aprilia RS50 > '92 Honda CG > '99 Yamaha Fazer > '91 Yamaha RXS > '79 Suzuki X5 > 01' Honda Cg > 07' Honda Cg > 82' Kawasaki Z200 > suzuki gsxr 400 gk73a > honda vfr 400 NC30 Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

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[polarman]

A minimum number of lessons covering all aspects of riding and not just enough lessons to get you through the test.

This would be applied to cars too.
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Gixer 750

[tahrey]

Gooner/Paivi: Very yes

He says, having literally just passed mod1...

I must say, it wasn't actually that hard. Good tuition definitely helped. There's a trick to the swerve manouevre, if you go into it cold you've got very little change of making it unless you have the reflexes of a cat and are doing it on a race bike. If you're shown how to do it "properly" (totally unlike how you'd do it on the road, given that you take a much shallower line that would only be possible if you KNEW the hazard was there in advance) it's a lot easier. Not actually easy, but doable without crapping yourself or falling off.

Mind you, I took mine in the dry. Never had chance to even practice in the wet and probably would have binned it immediately after posting a detector speed of 47km/h.
(Hmm, there's a thing to suggest to my tutors, should I be on speaking terms with them after suffering a brainfart of epic proportions yesterday and forgetting I had a lesson - break out the hoses and soak the practice yard for one of the sessions so the n00bs can learn how to handle the bike in the wet without having to slow down to pedal cycle speeds).