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narp

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Everything posted by narp

  1. There's at least one school around here that offers a late-afternoon-into-evening CBT in the summer months for people who are allergic to mornings.
  2. An unconventional strategy, but hey, if it worked for you. Congratulations.
  3. How terrible. That's where I took my Mod1, and it's certainly a fence all the way around the Mod1 compound, but it's a substantial metal-grid fence, not a bendy chicken wire affair. https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4562127,-2.7252684,3a,75y,30.89h,90.87t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srvSycYRUM56J3aHdQBdfMg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 I'm not willing to speculate on what might have happened, but I will be interested to read a more informed review of sad events in time.
  4. When I first looked at the seller's advert for my bike I spotted a Scottoiler sticker and I thought 'ooh - it's even got a Scottoiler' but no, what my bike has is a Scottoiler sticker. I use wax, because I had some in the garage.
  5. My MOD2 was in such heavy rain that my (very experienced) instructor was bracing me for the test being cancelled at the last minute. I just tried to still show my intention to 'make progress' when there was opportunity, but took it easy where I could, too. It was hard in parts - the examiner gave me a minor for the sweeping bend that I turned into a couple of slower ones when I lost confidence in the grip I might find, and another minor for getting a bit close to the car in front, given the conditions. With wet gear - take your gloves off by pulling each finger individually so the linings don't turn inside out, and DO NOT breath-in anywhere near your waterproof trousers once you've taken them off after several hours nervous and soaked hours riding.
  6. I understand the convention in a wet-suit is to simply let it go and enjoy the warmth - perhaps a combination of a high-pant and water-proof boots would afford the motorcyclist the same comfort on those cold days? It's a very good reason to not buy your wet-suit second-hand.
  7. If you don't mind. I notice some trousers - both textile and leather, are actually dungarees - but why? What advantage disadvantage is there to a dungaree?
  8. Cringingly reminds me of a gravestone inscription near a memorial I was visiting several years ago: 'A loving Grandad, taken to soon'. Always wondered where soon was, and if it was worth a visit to discover what Grandad saw in the place.
  9. I hadn't realised this was the case - I most certainly covered filtering on my DAS (September 2018, Dragon Training, Chester), to the extent that having disucssed the possibility before we set off, my instructor and I were filtering through traffic on the return ride from passing my MOD1. It was a great way to be introduced to filtering, with the instructor able to talk to me through my headset, and me nodding or shaking my head in his mirrors to say I was confident or not to follow him through gaps and opportunities as we approached them.
  10. NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!!!! Bugger.
  11. Don't ruminate on it - the culture at bike shops is still firmly in the old-school - you don't get to be a valued part of the gang unless and until you have been initiated. Anyone can hand their money over for goods and services, but when you need a small favour, or an 'off the books' conversation about fault diagnosis, your shared history ('remember that first time you came here and you dropped your bike? Hahahaha') is what will get you that help, where the polite but unmemorable customer who goes un-noticed will be referred to the service manager's desk for a copy of the workshop time vs cost analysis.
  12. I think I understand what this is - so 598 please
  13. I started my 'journey' to my license in September 2017 by registering here and stating my intent. I booked and passed my theory test and then sat back and did nothing for a few months, and in July (I've looked back and checked) I read your post about how you had just passed your CBT and were looking for a bike. Reading your post at that time made me think 'f**k this waiting around when she's just getting on with it' and I got on with booking my CBT and DAS. So I was motivated in part by you [mention]elizabethf[/mention] and there are lots of us here invested in seeing you succeed. I was shit at roundabouts for ages in my training and on different occasions I pulled out too late, too early and then started getting it more or less right - and now I get it right (mostly) with the help of the confidence and relief that gets issued to you with the MOD2 pass certificate. You'll be good next time - and there will be lots of people here who are pleased as punch for you.
  14. I bought an expensive CEL branded one years ago and it's still going strong. Mains powered because I didn't want to be waiting for batteries to charge for a tool that I knew would be an infrequent use, but when you want it, you need it NOW. It's been really useful and I'm glad I have it, but I wouldn't pay for a premium one again - by far the most useful thing it came with was a pair of adapters that mean it will take any blade from any other make, wherever I see them on offer or I need one at short notice.
  15. I'm familiar with this bit, too - Mrs Narp was resigned to the re-emergence of a bike in my life (luckily we've been together so long I was still on my MT-5 when we met, so I had established form) - but I don't think she was ready for the difference between the MT-5 in her memory mind's eye and the FJ1200 that landed in the garage - I think it's the extra two zeros in the name, you know? I came back from a few rides still alive and with a big stupid grin on my face and it's all good now
  16. Congratulations! I too got a minor on Mod1 for going into too much space on the figure eight (though he said the 'slalom' I'm sure he meant the figure eight) - it's the new fashionable thing to do. I then drove as badly and as self-consciously as I ever have on the Mod2; stalled it, got told to get on with it on the pulling away from behind a parked car, bobbled my way around a sweeping bend as if it was 3 smaller radius bends, and picked up six minors. But I got that pass - just like you did, and just like you I have an awareness of the issues with my ride and no arguments with the decisions, so well done and carry on learning.
  17. I had about the best ride I'd managed on the way to my Mod1 (less than two weeks ago, so still fresh), but that's obviously no use at all for the Mod1 itself, except in terms of confidence and relaxation. I made my mistakes on the way to the Mod1 test area instead - I clattered my helmet on the door post (carrying it, not wearing it), leaving the waiting room, and stepped off the kerb near my bike and did that stupid foot-in-the-air stumble-step thing that you do when the floor isn't where you thought it was when you left it. So I laughed and swore at myself and I was on the Mod1 - it was all over so fast I couldn't quite make sense of the examiner's instruction to ride slowly over to the gate at the end - I thought he might have ended the test early or something. It was my Mod2 last week that I had the experience of messing-up during the build-up: I very nearly dropped the bike for the first time ever - standing still, and not knowing where the ground was again (see embarrassing stumble before Mod1, above), but astride the bike on a cambered junction this time. I also tottered round corners, and trail-braked into bends, and entered roads in strange positions relative to the kerb, and pulled away in 2nd, and did pointless shoulder checks like I was telling someone 'no' all the time, and changed down the box when I wanted to go up a gear, and so thoroughly messed-up pulling away at an angle behind a parked car that my instructor stopped me again and asked if he was remembering wrongly that I'd ever done one of those before. And I'm not able to tell you I'm one of those people who then went on to clean-sheet my tests, but I 'only' picked up 2 minors on the Mod1 and 6 on the Mod2 - and that's a pass regardless, and you can do it too. Something I did think to do, 40 minutes before my Mod2 was to eat (essentially inhale) a snicker bar to get my blood sugar up in the hope of keeping distracting nervous rumbles at bay, and I'm convinced it helped. 'Ride for you, not for the examiner', my instructor kept saying, which I think is code for observing that I am more capable and skillful when just riding, or learning, or practicing for myself than I am when I'm being tested, and I'm sure that's true for you, too.
  18. ...aaannd...there it is - my Mod2 test pass certificate. Earned on the most rainy, pissing-down-awful, relentlessly drenching day of the (late) summer, but it's mine, all the same. 6 minors - which was fair considering I lost the instructor through the first set of lights out of the test centre , stalled the bike (for the first time ever) in the middle of the road on a right turn and having shown no issues at all through my time riding the same bike on all my lessons and the MOD1, the damn thing decided my Mod2 was the right time to stop going into first if I stopped in a higher gear. Probably helped me, to be fair, as it gave me something to focus on and the examiner could see me faffing about and repeatedly trying to get into first. The examiner was great - he's a reputation as a bit of a one if he thinks you're not up to snuff, apparently, but for me, and in the nasty conditions today - pouring rain, loads of spray, and standing water - he was really fair; advising me when we went into a national speed limit zone that the repeater signs were missing, so I should ride as if I'd seen a black and white national speed limit sign. And the minors he gave me match my recollection of my riding really well, and are typical of the things I've done and will keep trying to improve on. Four hours today in soaking rain, having to take my sodden gloves on and off was horrid - I was glad to get the test going because by the time I'd done the show-me, tell-me bits, my body heat had brought the cold gloves back up to temperature. Oh, and I came as close as I've ever come to dropping the bike about an hour before the test, when the road camber caught me off-guard and my left foot went further down before finding the floor that I was expecting I wasn't able to show the examiner that I was an expert rider, but I think (I know) that I managed to show him that I'm a proficient one.
  19. This is good advice, and I think it's definitely a good idea to know the speed limits of the first couple of roads near the test centre. Worth looking on streetview if the images are up to date - I did and at least you know for example you exit the test centre on a 30mph and you need to be wary of a change on a certain few roads nearby. Thank you, both. Mod2 is in Chester, where I'm about a million time more familiar with the roads - and I am already learning some of the local speed limits, tricky corners etc - I was off down a couple of likely lanes in my car over the weekend, reccying. Yesterday was the 3rd time in my life I've been to St Helens, and the first was 30 years ago and I was drunk, so you can't hold me to retaining much of that (it involved a summer festival of some sort, a beer tent, and a requirement to do something constructive with the quantities of beer that was being tested for weights and measures compliance by the trading standards officers with whom I was visiting).
  20. Opps, sorry! That wasn't my intention. And don't be - it's all over very quickly. I got an attack of anxious butterflies as the examiner was explaining the slow ride, so I was a bit wobbly but OK, and the next thing I knew I was riding towards the higher-speed exercises, and just the act of opening the throttle a bit in 2nd gear blew all the worries away in an instant and I was on my way.
  21. Mod 1 PASSED this lunchtime My advice: don't book a lunchtime test slot - I didn't have any appetite for food beforehand, and wasn't aware of being hungry, or low blood-sugar or any such during the test, but boy was I hungry as soon as I left the test centre. Luckily there was a corner shop, well, around the corner, and I inhaled a meat and potato pie to restore equilibrium. It's a bit of a trek from Chester to the St Helens test centre when you’re not allowed on motorways, but the shiny new Mersey Gateway bridge is toll-free for motorcycles. Having arrived more than 10 minutes early, there are posters up in the waiting room telling you to park elsewhere and not take spaces in the test centre car park, but there are no restrictions on the quiet access road, so that was no hardship. We had to allow plenty of time because of the length of the ride (about 40 minutes if it all goes well), so we were there with probably three-quarters of an hour to spare. I wasn’t feeling particularly anxious, and the weather was dry and pleasant enough, so hanging-around, discretely watching others take their Mod1 was quite a useful way to spend some time. My confidence was helped by watching the earlier test candidates (two of them), because the better of them was no better than me (by my rating), and the least capable of them was far less accomplished in his slow riding (clutch, throttle and rear brake control) than me, and still passed, which gave me a (slightly schadenfreude-fuelled) boost. The candidate before me didn’t turn up, so there was a moment or two of confusion while I had to deny being Anthony, but it was my turn soon enough. The examiner wasn’t scowly / grumpy / aloof or anything specifically unfriendly, but was resolutely silent and emotionless and stuck to reading his script and answering my questions. I decided not to let it bother me, having seen that on the flip-side, this same man had not ten minutes earlier passed a candidate who I watched pull away while still performing his observations, rather than completing observations before moving. The layout was probably 10-15% more generous in all its dimensions than the space I had been taught and practiced on, which was predictable enough, I suppose, and predictably helpful, too. Oh, except the manual handling of the bike between ‘garages’, which felt like I was walking the bike for ages, past the big gap between the coned-off spaces. The examiner was very specific in saying I should maintain a speed of 19mph as I rode around the far end of the arena, but I figured I wasn’t being measured at that stage, so fekk that extra little stressful detail, and I would just ride the corner as fast or slow as felt safe and appropriate. I got a bit lost in the detail of his explanation as he described the first ride around the far end and controlled stop, so I asked him to clarify he was asking me to ride around the turn anti-clockwise, and I was away. Emergency stop next; went well; told me he wouldn’t ask for that again (good!) and then onward to the swerve / avoidance exercise. I’d asked him what speed I went through the speed trap on the emergency stop and it was 51kph. Good: I’ll go that speed again then. But I didn’t quite manage it and the swerve went well, but I only got 47kph – a single kph too slow to pass with a minor, but without a repeat. So on to a re-try, and this time went through at 54kph. And we’re done! Keep the observations going until the engine is off, and into the office: I had the minor for having to repeat the avoidance, and he definitely said my other (only other) minor was for taking ‘too much space on the slalom’, but I’m sure he meant on the figure-eight: My slalom was pretty tight, and while I took a wide curve through the figure eight, I didn’t stray anywhere near any ‘extra’ cones, so it’s a bit of a mystery what he was trying to highlight, but my pass certificate was right there in his hand at that stage, so I wasn’t about to start arguing the details! Mod2 here I come.
  22. A pinch and a punch for the first of the month; no returns. This is the month - I have my DAS lessons scheduled, and my dates are set for Mod1 and Mod2 (Mod2 date move-able of course, in case of 'issues' in Mod1), so that it's entirely possible I will be fully licensed within September. This is the week - I have my first big-bike lesson this week. Pray to your weather gods for me, and I'll deal with the rest, thanks. And MANY MANY thanks for the help and encouragement to date - both directly to me from forum members, and by being here as a place to visit and scour for useful stuff. Updates to follow as and when.
  23. Hey All, I know I've been below the radar on the forum for a while, but I'm still here - a change of job got in the way of things somewhat. Still, I took and completed my CBT today with Dragon in Ellesmere Port, so here's a report. Alan - owner and Matt (I think - I might have that wrong, as I was pleased enough to have remembered one name as it was) - CBT instructor. Alan was there to meet and greet, but also called in later in the day to see how things were going, and ended up joining in some of the car park stuff. I arrived stupidly early, and very self-consciously in my own boots, kevlar jeans, vented jacket and spanking new helmet (just gloves to go), but any item of ones own was duly appreciated and complemented, and I just had to choose the least smelly gloves from the racking to complete the ensemble. I gave them a bit of a start initially, because I was wearing walking sandals and left the rest of the gear in the car to put on later. The day was run with two candidates; both of us middle-ish-aged men, with experience off-road from childhood and on-road as teenagers, but pretty-much nothing for decades since. The plan was two-to-one with the instructor, but for half the day it was one-to-one, as Alan joined-in. I didn't ask directly (shy and retiring me), but I gather Matt was new to the company, and working towards full instructor qualification under Alan's tutelage, so it wasn't just us being watched and assessed. To their credit, they took us through the required stages of CBT with the occasional apology for having to do so even though we were both experienced car drivers and had distant memories of riding bikes. I don't think either of us candidates minded the teaching-granny-to-suck-eggs thing at all - I'm certainly happy to go through the very basics and give the appearance of knowing it all already, whilst quietly and discretely absorbing the bits that came as a surprise! Then out to the bikes in the car park. Honda CG's, in perfectly serviceable condition, and on with learning just how much I had taught myself incorrectly all those years ago. I had absolutely no method or routine to how I braked, slowed or came to a halt, and very little finesse in going slowly, 'Jesus - How fast do you walk!!!!?' was my reward for going as slowly as I thought I could in response to the request to go at walking speed Anyway, lots of patient practice later. I'm a whizz at emergency / controlled stops, in that my 'normal' stops rely far too much on the front brake, and involve too much fork-dive, but I was able to improve, and lots of repeats were completed to get my brain around it. Then figure-eights and U-turns (simple enough, say I, at this stage). Then back inside for lunch (and complementary cans of fizzy pop) and discussion around road positioning and use of junctions. Out onto the road for real for two hours that felt like five minutes, and the shock of how much wind-pressure there is on your chest when you get to 40mph. I'm going to stake my claim that I got fewer corrective comments than my partner in crime in the course of the ride, though I did get myself into a slightly complicated situation at a junction: the instruction on approach was 'follow the road straight ahead', but the the choice was of three lanes - the right hand one was right only; the centre was ahead only and the left was obscured by queuing cars, so I couldn't tell if it was left-only, or left and ahead. On a Mod2, I will try to think clearly enough to take the left and go with it, but I let my car-driver brain guide me, and went for the centre lane. Fine, but once on the other side of the junction it become a right-only lane into a car park, and now I need to be in the left lane and there are drivers with better local knowledge already there, having crossed the cross-roads in the left lane. So lots of mirrors, and a shoulder-check, and over I go into a (BIG) big gap. I'm told I could/should have indicated left too, and I would probably agree as an observer, but in the moment, I did what I would have done in a car and if nothing else, showed myself there are lots of opportunities to learn here. Day over, CBT completed, certificate issued. I'll call Alan in the week to talk about DAS.
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