"New bike test - a question for the Instructors" thread in "Staying Alive"
Originally Posted by Ernie Cooley quickly stamp on the gear lever and put it in 1st, should stop the bike instantly .... job jobbed Brutal, ...

Brutal, but the danger is the sudden stop, and you with one foot still in the air, it could all land in a heap on top of you. That won't impress the examiner.

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Cousin Jack

A bof that rides a Bonnie T100.

unless your bike is a 2 stroke and it runs off down the hill with the engine running backwards

Long time since I've seen that happen... you could turn the ignition off tho

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The dull copyright bit - feel free to nick it for personal use. If you want to reprint it for your club, I'd like a mention as author. Otherwise hands-off. Full terms
"Force has no place where there is need of skill" Herodotus 450BC

not on mine, it's just got a button you have to hold in to get it to stop

All you wussy southerners forget there a mountains up 'ere.

In Bradford, you have to do a u-turn on 45 degree gradient while holding a ferret in yer pants and control the bike using the front brake.

The hills are so steep, that wheeling a bike uphill is impossible unless you are built like Giant Haystacks and \ or you have a Land Rover nearby fitted with a winch to haul it up the incline. Reversing into a parking bay can only be done by putting the winch in reverse and using the winch brake to control descent

Try telling that to the DSA examiners in Cardington amd Stanley House Towers and they think you are pulling their pisser

Steve

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The EU supports "Zero Vision" - The inability to see the bleedin' obvious

Perhaps that is why they don't have a new-style test centre and all learners will have to go to Hull to take a test ?

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Cousin Jack

A bof that rides a Bonnie T100.

Yup! And the Wessies are well pissed off at the prospect. Bradford centres may have to travel to either Harrogate, Wetherby or Rotherham for at least six months. I know of at least one long well established ATB based in W Yorks thinking of jacking it in due to the hassle.

Steve

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The EU supports "Zero Vision" - The inability to see the bleedin' obvious

If I tried that right hand on the seat business putting the Tiger in its garage, which is going backwards downhill into a narrow space between the Velo and the pushbikes, we'd end up in a very untidy heap. As said, fine for flat level surfaces (and light bikes) but useless in the real world.

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Ian.

There was a scathing article in the recent "London Biker" about the wheeling round exercise, pointing out that it was liable to end up in tears for a lot of riders if they tried it, and that the DSA could find little justification for including it in the test.

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The dull copyright bit - feel free to nick it for personal use. If you want to reprint it for your club, I'd like a mention as author. Otherwise hands-off. Full terms
"Force has no place where there is need of skill" Herodotus 450BC

The comment I'd heard from one instructor was that it got included because a lot of smaller people, and women in particular, had difficulty wheeling the bike round by hand.

Just as well they'll be doing the u-turn off road... imagine telling people they can't have both hands on the bars (i.e. using the front brake) while wheeling the bike round on a steeply cambered road!

Now my Electra Glide goes in at 375kg unladen, I'll push that backwards in any way I want!
Shit I've seen some people not even manage to get one off it's sidestand

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Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams.

yes the examiner does ask for the bike to be walked around the u turn... not always though in my experience...

I have to open a garage door to park up the bike. Get off, on perfectly flat surface, open door, return to bike. choice of push bike 15 feet or jump on and turn key. Guess which I do?

It's the best method I've found for getting bikes with tls brakes backwards down slopes in a controlled manner.

In this months Bike there is a short comment on why this is include in the test, apparently it is to simulate manouvering a bike 180 degrees from a parked space and it has to be done in an arc.

How many people actually do that when they are getting out of a parking space? normally sit on the bike, clutch control with a bit of throttle and front brake, foot the bike back, bit of throttle, foot the bike back until you can get out easily. Perhaps a better test would be if they rider could actually control the bike whilst sat on it in this example rather than say they fail because they cannot handle it when not sat in it?

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