Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

How did it go Kwacky?

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He's not out of the cells yet waiting for his lawyer to turn up

Alleged GBH with a polite vest wearer

Only a couple of bikes turned up. It was bloody freezing last night.

Good turn out, mixed crown but as expected mostly middle aged blokes.

First talk was from a retired police officer talking about accident scene preservation and information gathering for anyone in a group involved in an accident.

Then we had a talk from an Arai rep from MotoDirect talking about AGV and Arai lids, construction and development. I'#ll do a new thread about that because I know we all like to talk about our helmets.

So the starter pack has arrived, which is essentially the manual you need to pass.

I've had a read of the road position section. Thankfully I already do most of it so hopefully that's a decent foundation to build on.

I reckon the thing I'll struggle with most is the use of the mirrors and showing that I'm using the mirrors. The manual seems to suggest you spend about a third of your time using your mirrors.

Next step is to hear from BAM and to start the training.

A good instructor and examiner will be able to tell very quickly how good you are on your mirrors. If you want to emphasise the fact that you are using them, just give them a slight tweak so you have to move your head just a fraction to look into them. If your instructor and/or examiner is anu good they will soon pick up on your slight head movements and the examiner can soon check how well you are checking by using indicators on test to direct you on the route.

The point is, it is not a big deal if you know that you are doing them regularly

When you go through Roadcraft, the other point to make which is different to going through the L test is that unlike the L test where everything is cast in stone, at advanced level the most important or frequent word we use is "Consider"

Nowhere does it say you must, it simply says "Consider" and by considering it helps you develop your riding plans along with your observation links and so on.

Hope you enjoy the practical aspect when you start.

Thanks TC, that's very useful to know. Good suggestion about the mirror position.

Kwacky wrote:Thanks TC, that's very useful to know. Good suggestion about the mirror position.

If you ever have difficulty in understanding anything you are told (which I am sure won't be the case) or you want something clarified that perhaps was not explained properly or clearly, always feel free to ping me a message and I will be happy to try and clarify points.

Or in some cases (as I have had to do recently) is take the instructor to task about what they are teaching.

Really enjoy the training aspect of it i know i did. When the instructor asks why you did something have an answer for it they want to hear about your thought process. Good luck with it all, looking forward to hearing all about it over the next X amount of months

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Was there free tea and cake ?

No cake.

I'll change that.

So having picked up the manual I've been trying out a couple of things they suggest. One is changing which foot you put down. I always put my left down so it feels weird having the right on the floor.

I've also been practising my U turns. I've not done one for years.

U-turns on a hill... that's a fun one (shakes head)

I found that rule about putting your right foot down a bit difficult to follow. I understand the whys (staying in Neutral when stopped then being able to engage 1st quickly before pulling away) but I have it hard-wired into me to put the left foot down because being on the rear brake when stopped is safer than being on the front (if you get rear ended the rear tyre will slip whereas the front will dig in).

I'm with you on that one. I can have my left foot down, pull away and change gear pretty quickly. I have never found myself thinking, "oh crap, I put the wrong foot down"

The other one I might struggle with is not using the gears to decelerate. I do that all the time. The manual seems to suggest you do block gear changes.

Far too prescriptive for me and the main reason I only went once.

I still don't do block changing, my trainer wasn't a big advocate on that either. It's backwards to me and I think probably carried over from car driving. I don't feel in full control unless I'm in the right gear all the time; especially being on a 600 supersport

Likewise. I like using the gearbox

Kwacky wrote:I'm with you on that one. I can have my left foot down, pull away and change gear pretty quickly. I have never found myself thinking, "oh crap, I put the wrong foot down"

The other one I might struggle with is not using the gears to decelerate. I do that all the time. The manual seems to suggest you do block gear changes.

Not sure i could do that either. Will they really fail you if you dont do everything in the manual? I can understand mirror discipline, but not gear preferences or feet.

It's not black and white. It's up to the examiner. I think if you're smooth and using the appropriate gear then it'll be fine. If he sees you using the same foot at every stop he may ask you to show to him/her that you can use the other one.

Kwacky wrote:Likewise. I like using the gearbox

From memory (and it was quite a while ago) the preference was to use the brake as it gives a warning to following vehicles that your slowing. The gearbox doesn't.

FWIW, I prefer using the gearbox, especially on the big twins as it saves a load of money on pads. I did get into the habit of using the rear brake though, not because it had any effect on slowing the bike, but it kept the observers happy.

I had never thought about it, but I'm a right foot down type. I always like to sit in neutral at a stop so I'm not hanging on the clutch the whole time.

I'm not sure what you mean by block braking, but I slow down with the brake and follow with the gear changes so my rev's don't get too low, just find it's smoother and more controllable.