Steve1988

Feel the bike in second gear at 35mph, get used to the engine sound and the way the bike vibrates. You'll be less concerned about your speed if you can do this. You will get a second attempt if you are too slow anyways. But keep your head up, for the high speed manoeuvres especially on the emergency stop so you don't miss the examiners hand going up, panic and do something silly like it did Like polecat says just breathe! You'll be surprised how good a couple of deep breathes are calming you down. All the best mate

Passed Mod 1 on my second attempt. First go at it and I was nervous, got to the test centre 45 mins early and ended up clock watching which didn't help at all! Anyways it was my turn... got inside the test area, nerves soon settled after the first couple manoeuvres and I began to enjoy the test. Was all going absolutely fine, and then onto the second high speed manoeuvre and the last excercise of the test, the emergency stop. I made a fatal error and looked down to check my speed as I went through the speed trap. Speed looked good but when I looked up the examiner was stood there with his hand already in the air. Missed it! I'd already got my foot covering the back brake and my hand was still on the throttle. I panicked and rear brake went on first, way too hard, resulting in a lock up. I was in a right state about missing the hand signal, my head was no longer in it and I didn’t release the rear brake. Knew that I’d fallen at the final hurdle and I was absolutely gutted. In the debrief the examiner said I was locked for a good 8 feet the back started to step out but I managed to straighten it up and there was smoke coming off the tyre. Apparently I’d failed it in style. Still, I was gutted it happened and also for the fact that it was on the emergency braking manoeuvre which, let’s face it, you need to get right. By the time I’d ridden back to the bike school I feeling ok about it and fairly light hearted about it all. In my head I know exactly what I need to do and how to do it so I’m not worried about what happened in the test. Second attempt, I was feeling pretty good. I knew exactly what to expect this time and that certainly helped with my nerves. In the manual handling exercise I was rushing it, and I had to readjust myself as I could feel the bike falling away from me slightly. Took a few breathes and carried on. Just take your time with it, no need to rush it. Everything was going fine and soon it was the emergency stop. I talked myself through it, took an early look at the speedo as I came out of the bend, rate of acceleration looked good and I’d been focusing on how the bike felt at 35mph in second gear, gauging it by the engine noise and the way the bike would vibrate so I felt confident. Examiner’s hand went up and I was straight onto the front brake. I was told to treat the rear brake as though one of my testicles was resting underneath it! Great bit of advice Rode out of the test area and parked up. Inside we went for a debrief and I’d passed with 1 minor for the manual handling! Best advice I can give for the high speed manoeuvres is to keep your head up, and get a feel for the bike in second gear at just over 50kph. If you fall short you get another go anyways, so don’t get too preoccupied about your speed. Good luck

That is fantastic! I'd be happy with keeping that as it is!

I've be told the same, got my first 3 hour session on a 500 on sunday, they said it'd be more related to mod 2 i.e road riding just to get me used to the bike. The the second 3 hour session will be slow speed stuff for mod 1. All going well and I have another 2x 3 hour sessions for mod 2. Think I get pre-test training as well. Not sure what my final costs will be though.

You'll no doubt find that if you turn up wearing some decent gear the instructor will treat you more seriously and respect you more for it. I turned up wearing some decent protective clothing and another lad just wore trackies and trainers In my opinion he should have been sent home but the instructor let him continue, just treated the prat with as much respect as he had for his own saftey. Jeans will be alright, i wore some kevlar trousers over a pair of jeans and the instructor even suggested i should take a layer off! I was quite happy sitting in balls soup though Good luck for it!

Passed my CBT today! All began at 7:45 this morning, me and another lad on his own bike. We ended up waited around a bit for a lad who was running late. Suspecting a no-show so the instructor started and went through the importance of quality helmets and gear (which me and the other lad were both wearing) and the bike controls. Next thing we know this horrible looking Peugeot 106 came screaming past and parks up. Out comes Mr Late in all his tracksuit bottoms, t-shirt and trainers. Prat. Does his CBT wearing that and a scruffy looking helmet. The instructor was not impressed to say the least. We started with some manual handling, then basic clutch control. Moved swiftly on to doin laps of the training area where Mr Late got a bit too keen with the throttle when the instructors back was turned. Needless to say he heard it and went bananas threatening to fail him if he does it again! Everything off-road was fine, no real issues. Found the junction work a bit tricky to visualise but after a couple goes quickly got the hang of it. I ended up waiting while the instructor took the other 2 out on the road (didn't particularly mind, sat out in the sun, rang a couple of people to tell them how it was going). Got back and Mr Late got a telling off for lane disipline at roundabouts. Anyways he "dubiously" passed after going back out for half and hour (personally I'm amazed he passed him). While the instructor filled out his certificate he asked if i wanted to have a ride around on the ER-5 they use for DAS since that's what I'll be on next. Loved it! I was surprised to find it just as, if not easier to control than the 125! My turn on the road, followed first which was nice, then I led and got a couple indicator reminders but I'd realise when I heard his radio kick in, stalled it twice but it was fine, didn't panic, followed the correct procedure and kept a cool head when setting off again. I was told I needed to exaggerate moving my head more when I check my mirrors, other than that no quibbles. Best thing you can do is go in with a serious and sensible attitude and wear some protective clothing. You will get a lot more respect from the instructors and they'll have a lot more time for you. I want to thank my instructor Mark at BikeWise in Stafford for doing the CBT today, he was brilliant. Really appreciate it considering it's a Sunday, it's Fathers Day and the weather was fantastic!

I had my first experience of riding in general windy conditions and cross-winds the other day, granted I was only pillion but even then i noticed me and Christina had a natural tendancy to adjust to tackle the wind.

I believe that's correct, all you need is your provisional licence to do theory and harzard perception. And yes both done on the same day, multiple choice questions first, then hazard perception afterwards.

I haven't seen these Respro foggy deflectors before. I'm looking at one on ebay that would have originally come with the helmet, gonna cost about £11 delivered so maybe it's worth a shot for the sake of that much? Yeh my helmet will take pinlock visor inserts, they're just very few and far between. Found one on ebay for £23 delievered.

Yeh see there's a bit of a debate about how good they are. At the moment when i breath out my nose it's fine, but soon as i breath out of my mouth the visor steams up straight away. Still need to dabble with some anti-fog products mind.

Inside of helmets you can get these pieces basically to send your breath down away from the visor. This ebay auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWAX%3AIT, is for one that will fit my helmet and I'm not sure whether to bother getting it or not. Should have come with one but i got it from a show on the cheap and it didn't come with that or the pinlock anti-fog insert. Reason why it was so cheap i guess

What do people think of them? I've heard some say that they don't like them, others that they don't do a lot... but on the otherhand I've been told the complete opposite? What are people's views on them?

If you're local Halfords are any good they'll have a couple colour charts with all the motorbike colours listed and a hole punched through each colour for easy matching. Under the colour patch there will be a name and if I remember right the paint code. They can mix some up for you or you can leave armed with the name and colour code for your bike! Hope this is some use to you

Well done matey I'm really happy for you!

Depends what they mean by a 'rebuild' as well though. It could be that you can't really know exactly what they have done? Least doing it yourself it doesn't matter about time so you can do a good job. To a garage time is money. This is a pretty cynical view though and isn't fair to assume in many cases. But always worth considering I think.

I've no experience with this other than knowing my way around the gears on a bicycle, but from just thinking about it I can't see how putting a bigger sprocket and new chain will help the fact that you struggle to change from 4th to 5th. Surely a bigger rear sprocket will mean you need to be in the higher gears more often. Plus rear sprocket and chain simply drive the rear wheel, not necessarily related to the way the bike changes gear, although i would imagine correct tension would make a difference to gear changes. This has caught my interest, would like to see what an expert thinks about it!

Ok thanks I should probably just wait and see coz it's only about 3 weeks away now till I start training with them lol! But always nice to see how others got on!

Managed to pick up a back protector for £2 at the BMF. No idea what it is, looks a bit like a tortoise shell, with dense foam and solid bits in each section. Certainly be better than the thin layer of sponge the jacket had in the back before!

Has anybody here trained with BikeWise in either Stafford, Shrewsbury or Wolverhampton? I've got a CBT2DAS course booked with them soon and was wondering if anybody can share any experiences?

Hope she's all right mate, a shocking read is that Certainly convinced me (posted about whether wearing all my own leathers etc would be OTT for the CBT and to just go with some 'less serious' clothing).

You're 18.. this is the year for drink. Girls will be around at every other birthday Happy birthday, hope you have a good one.

Ouch! Maybe lots of people fail module 1 there?

If you follow this link http://www.dsa.gov.uk/AtoZservices_Bann ... &TypeID=17 then choose find your test centre it gives you an approximate waiting period from the start of this week.

I plan to give my training centre a ring and see whether I can go down and have a look around and get a feel for what to expect a couple days before doing my CBT, like you this is all very new to me. But this way i suppose you'll be more familiar with the place the people and may help you to relax more.