Bungleaio

You aren't the only one that struggles with U turns. How long are your lessons? I did 2 days of 7 hours which helped rather than having short lessons every now and then.

Great stuff we'll done mate

You'll be fine mate, just take your time, try and take in what your instructor is saying and relax. Have you got a bike in mind that you would like to have once the test is out of the way?

I did my mod 1 training over the weekend and test this morning. I'm not going to lie it wasn't easy and I struggled. I've enjoyed reading other peoples experiences so I thought I would add mine. TL:DR Passed! It has been just over a month since I did my CBT and that had been my only experience of riding so I can't say I was very skilled at riding. I had my mod one training booked for the weekend with test on Wednesday, there was two of us training with one instructor. Saturday morning we went out and rode on various roads for an hour or so then we went and used a car park with cones set out which was pretty much as the MOD 1 test site. The instructor showed us everything and then let us try everything out for ourselves. I was OK on the slalom, struggled a bit with the figure of 8, terrible at the u turn and ok on the stopping and swerving. Lots of practice at the figure of 8 and I was doing OK, still couldn't keep it tight enough not to need to go round the yellow cone but I could string them together. Still struggled with the u turn, I just couldn't seem to get it round without putting a foot down. After that we went back to base and had lunch. We then swapped bikes, I had been on the MT07 but changed to a Honda CB650F. The Honda had a great engine but I really struggled with the rear brake lever, it felt a lot further back than on the MT and closer to the foot peg. I've got size 12 feet so I didn't get on with it at all well. I had to ask to swap back after about half an hour as I didn't feel safe on it. Anyway back to the car park for more practice and I was getting the U turn but more often than not I'd mess it up. We went for more of a ride round at which point it rained well it was rain but it felt like a monsoon. It's interesting in the rain with water on the visor especially on a dual carriageway at 70mph, not scary but it certainly sharpens the focus. I'm so glad I bought waterproof gear, the other lad didn't and his jeans were soaked. Onto Sunday and thankfully the rain had cleared and my kit had dried out. Today we had some time on the actual test site. An hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. We had a walk round it then we both got to try out riding around but individually. I still couldn't string everything together, I'd hit a cone doing something or put my foot down and my U turns were worse than ever. The other lad nailed everything first go so he spent most of the time watching me mess it up. I felt bad for hogging the area but I certainly needed the practice. The more I got it wrong the harder it got. As our hour was coming to an end some other instructors turned up from the same school with their students so I had a proper audience watching me be bad. My instructor must have said something to the other instructors as they both came over and gave me a few tips and it started to come together, messy but I managed a couple of complete turns. Our time was up and we went back on the road for a bit and had some lunch then went back to the test area. Still messing the U turns up pretty constantly but I was getting them but after a while I got them pretty much most times. A minor break though but at least I knew I could do them. My test was booked for Wednesday morning just before 9 so I had a couple of days to sort my head out. Monday I was dreading it, I wanted to write my experience up so far but I just couldn't face it. In the evening I went out on my pushbike to clear my head, it was a really nice sunny evening and I find riding really relaxing. I was putting into practice what i'd been learning over the weekend on the motorbike and as stupid as it sounds even practised a couple of U turns. Tuesday I was feeling better with more of a calmer outlook on it, I knew I could and have done all the elements individually just not necessarily each and every time. I do really enjoy being under test situations though, I have no idea why, I just like to prove to myself that I can do things and I like the nervous adrenaline feeling. That's the whole point of why I'm learning to ride. I don't need to do it I just fancied giving it a go after being inspired by my girlfriend taking her driving test and being jealous of what she was going through. I really like these types of tests as they are true - go on then I'm watching you so do it tests, so you have to prove it there an then, I really enjoy the buzz of it. I hate roller coasters but I love tests. I must be insane! Anyway with this in mind I calmed down on Tuesday and was feeling alright about it, after all if I failed then it didn't really matter as I'm not going to miss out on anything plus it has the upside of another test opportunity (I must go and see a man in a white coat about this!) Tuesday night I went to sleep no bother and slept really well. My alarm went off early as I had to be at the riding school just after 7 to then give enough time to get to the test area. One of the instructors said if you want to have a bit of a practice then you are more than welcome. I did 4 or 5 U turns and got them every time. So once it was time to go to the test area we rode out with me in the lead and I was feeling great, no real nerves got to the test site early and the examiner turned up slightly after us and got set up. We were doing right hand circuits which was fine, I'd practised and messed up both before so I didn't have a preference. The other lad went out first and did his test. It started to drizzle whilst he was doing his test but after all the rain we had over the weekend it wasn't an issue for either of us. He passed with no minors, on to me. The examiner was a really nice guy, took everything every slowly and made sure I'd understood before moving on. It felt like there was no real pressure from him. I moved into the area making sure I was doing my observations, parked in the bay, fluffed trying to get neutral a couple of time so just left it in first. Rather than make an arse of going 1st to 2nd a few times I just pulled the clutch in when I moved the bike. I'm 6'3 and it had less than half a tank of fuel so I didn't really struggle with it. Onto the slalom and no issues but I hadn't really had any with that bit anyway. First real test was the figure of 8 and I got it spot on, didn't even need to go round the yellow cone either, probably the best I'd done. He called me in after the two circuits of that ready for the slow ride and I got that sorted to, exactly 4 mph with next to no wobble, I thought anyway. Now the nemesis, the dreaded U turn, he explains what he wants me to do. I say ok. Deep breath, observe, move, observe, turn, look up the test area and bring it in right next to the line and stop. I couldn't be happier. Controlled stop went no problem and was good for practising the speed trap. Emergency stop was fine, I thought was a bit slow but was exactly 50kph, the swerve was fine too but I added a bit more speed and did 54 through that. Examiner asks me to leave the area and take a seat in the hut, the instructor came with me and then I was told I'd passed with no minors! So it goes to show that even if you take a while to get it in your head what you are supposed to do it is possible to do it.

Strange they made you ride a moped rather than straight on a geared bike that certainly wasn't the case for me but at least they are giving you another day of free training so at least it's only costing you your time.

Another vote for the halfords pro stuff from me. I've had one of their 150 piece sets for over 10 years and it's all still working just as it was when I first got it despite being used quite a lot.

The theory is different for bikes rather than cars but it's still pretty simple. I didn't do the hazard perception when I did my car theory as it was ages ago but it's pretty simple to score well. I practised with this app which I thought was pretty good https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.deepriverdev.motorcycle.hpt I'm sure you'll do well mate, enjoy the process.

Just to follow this up I went to Sports bike shops store this weekend to try the knox stuff on. I was impressed with the Urbane shirt but I didn't get on with the all sports jacket so I decided not to buy it. I will consider it at a later date though if I'm looking at getting a leather jacket at some point though. I've ended up going for Halvarssons gear as I felt this fitted me the best after trying on all sorts of jackets.

It's not that long until mid August but if you know the roads around Carlise then I would be tempted to go there and get it done as soon as possible. I've still got 3 weeks until my mod 1 so you may well have done CBT and both tests in a shorter period than I've managed CBT and mod 1!

Congratulations on the pass mate, one minor is a fantastic result! The only questions is, when is the MOD 2 test? Re 30mph feeling really slow and really fast. I've found this in the car too. I'm fortunate to have two cars, a golf gti and a classic mini. The golf can be quite quick but it's very insulative and you can find the speed limit has to be closely observed whereas the mini is loud, very bumpy and has no refinement, I often find myself doing below the speed limit in the mini. When I got to ride a bike on my CBT 30mph certainly felt very quick when we left the confines of the training ground but after we had done a bit of a blast down a dual carriageway at 70mph residential roads felt a lot lot slower!

I can't help with your question but it's not the nicest of junctions. Good luck with the test today!

SorryI wasn't clear with what I meant. When I said traditional jacket I meant a traditional motorcycle jacket, I understand the armoured jacket is only providing impact resistance. I was just wondering which of the below I should go for: [list=]Knox armoured shirt with another brand motorcycle jacket (with the armour removed from that)[list=]Another brand motorcycle jacket with the armour integrated into the jacket

That's great of the instructor to email you and reassure you. You've had two full on days of learning so it's not a surprise that you've made a couple of mistakes. Good luck on Tuesday, I'm sure you'll nail it but if you don't then you certainly won't be the first to need another go. A single day's training for mod 1 is quite short, the school I'm learning with have said it's 2 days for me, maybe they just think I'll need a bit more training to get through it. I'm jealous of you though it's been a couple of weeks since I did my CBT and I won't be out again until the 22nd July, it gives me a chance to buy some kit though. I don't want to ride in my air jordans and standard jeans again!

I'm very early days in biking and am looking to buy my first set of kit. I've come across Knox clothing and it looks quite appealing, I like how the armour is worn very close to the joint rather than being within a jacket where it could move and not be in the right place when it's needed. Does anyone have any experience of them? I'm guessing that the armoured shirt could be worn with a traditional jacket? From what jackets I've seen they come with shoulder and elbow protection, that can be removed can't it to allow the Knox shirt to provide the armour? Or should they only really be worn with the Knox jackets? Apologies for what may be stupid questions but it's all new to me.

Sounds like an eventful day! Glad you came out of it relatively unscathed. To try and learn from your mistakes - when you say you closed the throttle off didn't you get the clutch pulled in? When we were doing u turns on the cbt I was told to keep the revs at about 2k and control the speed with the clutch. Did they teach you to do it differently? Are you back out again tomorrow?

Sounds ominous. I look forward to hearing the full story.

Fantastic mate sounds like you had a fantastic day. I felt the same as you when I finished, absolutely buzzing! Good luck with the mod 1 training tomorrow, I found the bigger bike easier than the 125. My cbt trainer let me ride an mt07 rather than the125 for the road part of the cbt which was great. Looking forward to your update tomorrow!

Enjoy the cbt today!

Great right up, the hazard perception is a bit weird but you are right, multiple clicking is the way as things are happening, it's like a game really. I'm sort of on a similar path as you at the moment but I need to sort booking the DAS so it's interesting to see someone else's journey too. You will have a full on weekend going from CBT to mod 1 but it will be fun. Have you ridden before? I hadn't and was wiped out after doing my CBT.

In preparation for my CBT, I've enjoyed reading other people's experiences so I thought I would add mine. I'm no literary genius but I hope it's useful to someone. Some history about me - late thirties and been driving for 20 years, fairly keen cyclist (both road and mountain bikes) but never ridden a motorcycle until the CBT. My CBT was done after a couple of days of very hot weather, I was a bit worried about it being too hot for me but thankfully it was cloudy so it was ok. I didn't have my own jacket, gloves or helmet so I was borrowing these from the school which was fine apart from they had been used in the heatwave so were a bit stinky but after a couple of minutes, it was fine. I'm glad I didn't have to buy the kit as I wasn't sure whether it was something I would want to take further so I appreciated being able to borrow it even if it did smell a bit. There was three of us on the course, I was the oldest and only driver, there was a lad in his early thirties who had a 125 a few years ago and there was a lad that had only just turned 16. The youngest lad was riding a 50cc twist and go moped so some of the exercises were different for him. I was training on the 125 so I won't mention what he was up to. Before doing anything we did a sight check from a few meters further away than the legal minimum then we went through the talk about kit which took a while but I knew quite a bit of this from my online research beforehand. Then the main event for me really - hands on with the bikes. The school had Yamaha YBR125's. We were run through safety checks, pre-ride inspections and how to get on and off the centre stand which was simple enough really. We then got to walk the bikes from where they are stored to the training area. This had a gravel base so we could experiment with the front brake to get a feel of how much was required to lock it up. We sat on the bikes and learnt how to move away in 1st, slipping the clutch seemed bad to me from a mechanical sympathy point of view, I understand the theory but an engine at 2-3k revs and a slipping clutch really felt bad to me. It took me a few starts to get away smoothly. We moved onto turning right and braking, again more clutch slip then getting up into 2nd gear. The more time we spent doing this the more natural it felt to me. I was a bit worried at the start as it felt awkward. I just had to remember I was operating a bike throttle, clutch and gearbox rather than a car. Next was onto emergency stop, I wasn't the best at this and stalled it a couple of times, I was also conscious of not locking the front wheel so I wasn't pulling the brake as hard as I could. The instructor got on my bike and gave me a demo and then I had another go and I was a lot better. We then got shown how to set the mirrors and what shoulder checks were then we had a go at U-turns. I was getting a lot better with the clutch, and I'm also quite used to checking over my shoulder on my pushbike so this went pretty well. This concluded the morning session at about 12:30. We went back to the training room and had lunch (I had lunch, the other two had ignored the instructions to bring a packed lunch so they didn't have anything) during this time we went through road positioning and junctions as well as don't drive when angry or drunk etc. At the end of this we were then asked if we would like to go out on the road. I think we all felt a bit nervous but we all said yes. I was to go out with the other lad on the 125 but we were asked if we would like to go out on a bigger bike and we both said yes. We were shown around the Yamaha MT07's and they immediately felt more comfortable, I'm 6"3 so had felt a bit squashed on the YBR. We had 15 minutes to toddle around the training ground then onto the road. This is where it all started to come together for me, despite the bike being bigger it felt so much better. We did 20-30 minutes of slow speed residential areas with loads of roundabouts then onto a NSL road. Feck me these things are amazing! The wind on the chest and helmet was a surprise, I'm not sure why I was surprised, a naked bike at 60mph is bound to be windy! We were out for about an hour before we stopped for a 5 minute break. I was fine but the other lad looked worried. Turned out he had lost his wallet at some point. We were about 10 minutes from the base so we went back so that he could look for it there then we went out and retraced our steps. I was happy to do that as we'd been on a really good mix of roads. We didn't find it. On the 2 hour+ drive i still stalled a couple of times but I recognised what was going on and soon got on the move again, it takes me back to my learner driver days. When we got back to base the instructor said it was one of the best rides he'd seen on a CBT for quite a while. Seeing as I'd never ridden a bike until 5 hours before I was very pleased. Overall I loved the experiance, theory is booked now and then onto DAS soon hopefully.

My sister went to a wedding recently, Nick Mason was there and was pointed out to her. She didn't know who he was. I've disowned her.

What school did you do your training on mate? I'm looking for recommendations for Leicester.