OhJay

'coz car drivers have a long, well established history of always indicating correctly... No wait From your description it sounds like you're doing exactly the right thing. Only question I'd ask is what's the arrow in the left lane? Is left lane left only coz you mention the arrow in the right lane pointing right. If you're going straight over don't indicate right, the guy coming out of the road you're going in to will get confused and wait for you unnecessarily and he'll have a legitimate gripe.

conga rats And unfortunately the best advice is just to relax. Relax your arms (do the birdie song dance in your head, flapping your arms like that you have to be relaxed) and don't grip the bars with a death grip! Perversely, the bike will feel like it's fighting you less if you relax your grip a little. It'll soak up any unevenness in the road and carry on rather than your feeling every single one and trying to correct for every single one as you go along... There were a couple doing their CBT's on the day I went for my lesson last week and she had been gripping the bars so tight all day she was developing blisters across her palms.

Sounds about right to me. Place I'm at is £35 an hour on your own bike, £40 if you're on their 125 and £50 on their 500

Don't start worrying about it now. Stressed and tense is more likely to make it worse You can't make a tit of yourself, you can't fail. Relax, listen to what the instructor tells you, and enjoy it Yes, you'll make mistakes, none of us could ride perfectly first time, just don't let it affect you too much Let us know how you get on.

If you see this before you head out: Good luck If it's after you get back: How did you get on?!?!

luck

That's purdy!!!

What the hell is that? Want more pics of this, looks crazy

I'm in Wokingham but not a fully qualified biker yet, just don't want you to feel lonely or ignored

Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) - Big and Rich

You know my name - Chris Cornell

Daydream Believer - Monkees

Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, would always walk barefoot. This gave him really thick, tough skin on the bottoms of his feet. Due to all his hunger strikes he was very frail and the body breakdown products gave him really bad breath. By my reckoning, this would make him: a super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis

Not sure whether this goes in here or in meets Mrs and I are heading up this weekend, passes to all 3 days and camping. Heading up Thursday so we're there for all of Friday. Shouldn't imagine it'll be too bad getting in on Thursday but getting out on Sunday could be .... "entertaining" (mind you, I got an e-mail from them yesterday saying due to demand they're opening the campsite on Wednesday! ) Camera coming with so if you're really unlucky expect pics. Anyone else going and fancy a beer there?

Viva la Vida - Coldplay *coughJoeSatrianicough*

Clear visor with a reactolite style pinlock that goes a very strange blue in the sun but works very very well.

George, my racing snail, has been really struggling of late so I took his shell off to try and reduce weight and make him more streamlined. It's not worked... If anything, it's made him more sluggish.

Behind Blue Eyes - The Who

With right handers suddenly your throttle is a lot closer to you and your clutch is a lot further away so you feel you can't get the same fine control on either of them that you can going left. I find it harder with left turns for some reason. If you'd asked me a couple of months back I'd have said I'm scared of right handers 'coz I'm more nervous about leaning that way because that was the side I fell off. Doing the figure 8 stuff now I can get the right handers no problem at all, I keep putting a foot down on the lefts though

It's to do with the difference in speed between the engine and the wheel. If you dump the clutch then suddenly the two have to be rotating at the same speed and they're both going to have to give something to get there so at that moment the wheel will be moving at a different speed to the road going under it, if that makes sense? As it sorts itself out the road and the wheel will pull the engine up so they're all happy again. If you use the throttle to get the engine up to the right revs before letting the clutch out then the difference will be that much smaller and it will be much smoother. Or you can let the clutch out gently to get the engine revs picking up before there's enough drag to affect the wheel. Look up heel-and-toe to see the same principle in a car but they have throttle and brake on the same foot so have to start tap dancing in order to blip the throttle to get the same effect.

I think turning them away's a bit harsh, as long as you're inside the law you should be OK, but I would agree with turning up fully kitted out. It'll give a better impression to the examiner. If you turn up kitted up, considerate, looking sensible they they're not going to be looking as closely or as hard for anything to mark you down on. If you turn up in shorts and flipflops then they'll be looking closer and not going to give you the benefit of the doubt for anything.

I was just thinking "OK, he's rather good" and then I got to 2:21. he waves with his left hand. That's ALL throttle!

Can't add much more. When I phoned my local school they did an assessment ride out with me (on new year's day!!!) and said they didn't think I was suitable for an intense course and they reckoned about 12 weeks of lessons to get me ready. He said I'd picked up a few bad habits which I could get away with on a light 125 but would lose against a bigger, heavier bike.