klingelton

passed my mod 1 yesterday. Took it at the wakefield test centre and the examiner was a lovely bloke who immediately put my nerves to rest! first off, park in the bay before you start your test with the bike facing toward the road so you don't have to do any pushing or pulling around. rear observations are a must before setting off. Listen to the examiner. if you have any questions, ask them. you won't be failed for being stupid, but you will if you do the manoeuvre wrong! I was dreading the figure 8, as in practice i always did something wrong! in the actual test though, the words of wisdom from my instructor were ringing in my ears "imagine there's an 80 year old granny noshing you off. it's great unless you look down!" so head up, look where you want to go, and feather the clutch using the control brake to slow you down if you're going too fast. Where i had been practicing the fig 8, there wasn't a great deal of space. my instructor had said if i can do it there, i can do it anywhere, and he was right. the tarmac is incredibly smooth and a pleasure to ride on! so i man handled the bike, did the slalom where i remember thinking "these cones are much bigger than i expected!" and remembered not to knock any down as the examiner had complained of a bad back so didn't want to pick any up! fig 8 completed i went to join the examiner and began the slow ride. rear observations and steady away over to some cones where i stopped to do the u-turn. he explained the manoeuvre then i went ahead and did it. rear observations, moved off, another quick glance over the shoulder before focusing approximately level with my rear indicator. the bike spun round - u-turn complete. it wasn't my cleanest u-turn, but there's plenty of space for it, so i was in no danger of overrunning. the instructor then pointed out on his drawing and pointed to the cones which he wanted me to ride round for the controlled stop. I asked him to clear up which cones he meant and which way round i was going. he did. yet more rear observations and we're off. nice steady corner before accelerating to approximately 50kph. controlled stop done. rear observations and another u-turn (tighter than the marked one!) and we're setting off for the emergency stop. round the bend again and accelerate to 53kph. hand goes up, roll off the throttle and apply the front brake gently. adding more and more while adding a little rear to keep the back end in check. I thought I'd taken a little too long to slow down. another u-turn to face the right way and off for the swerve avoidance. I don't understand why people worry about the swerve avoidance. I think it's the easiest of all the tests and the most fun! more rear observations and off round the bend. accelerate to 54kph and a gentle push on the left handle bar lurches the bike left. immediately counter this with a gentle push on the right handle bar and the bike jumps right. nice and smooth! the way i built up to this is by riding my 125 on roads and practicing what it feels like to counter steer at speed. grip the tank with your knees and push the handle bars, swerving all over the road. it's the same theory. the examiner told me to move my bike over to the gates and he would let me out. rear observations, move and await the examiner. before leaving the test area, i did another rear observations and a good check to make sure there was no other traffic. reversed my bike into a bay and turned the ignition off. picked up the keys and followed the examiner inside where we had a short chat about what bikes we were interested in, what attracted me to riding and in a typically british way - what the weather was like. He offered me some tips about removing the liner in my textiles and getting some wicking long johns from go-outdoors so they don't stick to your skin! He then said he was looking forward to seeing me in the next couple of weeks and going for a ride for mod 2. If you're nervous about Mod 1 - don't be. The examiners are not there to fail you, they're bikers as well! They just want to see that you can control the bike. Don't worry about the occasional wobble, as long as it's not too bad, you've nothing to worry about. i had a couple of little wobbles and recovered them, that's more important! Finally, have fun with it. it is quite good fun! 04/06/2013 mod 1 passed with 0 minors.

Went for my mod 1 test this morning and fortunately, I passed first time with 0 minors. Feeling quite chuffed!

he's on drugs

if anything as well, you can practice stripping and reassembling the carb.

im in the same boat as you mate. I'm looking at the kawasaki er6f, fazer 600, xj6, sv650, or a bandit. i'd love a street triple, but i don't think my budget will stretch that far. i'm 6' and a bit portly as well and prefer the more upright seating position. i've kept my options open as i don't have the largest budget it the world and i don't think i'd be upset if i got any of the above bikes. my advise is, if money is no real object, get the one YOU want, not what your mates say you want. which one would you go into the garage and look at and say "that's mine". That's the one you need to buy. oh and you will never do that with a Chinese bike! (not that they make adventure bikes yet)

i use the muc off stuff. seems to be the only stuff i can reliably get my hands on.

Yeah, I'm watching it. The onboard camera is frightening!

for gods sake?

LOL! That'd be no issue for Moo - ever!! And as for the whistling sound - I think if it was a legs-open cuiser jobbie you'd more likely have queefing not whistling HAHAHAHAHA!! utterly horrific!

multimeter and patience. there will be some youtube videos on how to fault find electrical gremlins. check the obvious stuff as well - has your battery got charge, fuses. I personally deteste electrical faults.

I suffered from this quite badly when I started riding. It's gone now, it's because you're using muscles that don't often get used. Also tight legs loose arms etc will all help. I'm really just re-iterating what's already been said!

I have a 125 while I do my tests. The experience (for me) is invaluable. on slower manoeuvres on the bigger bikes, I've had no troubles and nailed all but the fig 8 first time. However, you will quickly find that a 125 is way under powered, especially if you take it on the open road. You're sometimes at the mercy of other traffic as a regular family saloon will probably pip you off the line at lights if they give it beans. In short, you will become incredibly fed up with a 125 very quickly. having said that, they're forgiving. If you cock up a gear change on a 125 (dump the clutch) you will pull a little wheelie (!) do it on a bigger bike and you may find the thing runs away with you! so, a 125 is excellent, but you will get bored with it and crave something more powerful, not necessarily to go faster, but to give you that little squirt of power at the lights, or overtake a granny doing 40 in a national speed limit area. The YZF125 is a damn good looking bike, but under all that pretty fairing, it's a 125.

good stuff. i will be having a look at my brakes this weekend i think. but i will treat myself to new pads. Mine's a daily ride and needs to be just so.

the best defense is defensive riding, not high vis.

where in yorkshire are you? perhaps I can come over and help swear at your bike...

cool, thanks for the tips. It seems that we've come to the same conclusions regards to the fig8. when i was cocking up to start with, i was looking at the cone, once i found things to look at in the distance, i did that much better. Plus that, the school I am with only have a small space to practice in. My tutor said that if we can perform the manoeuvres there, we can easily perform them in the test area. I just hope my nerves don't get the better of me and i hold it together long enough. Again though, congratulations on your pass. onward for the mod2 now! hope you get that done in short order.

congrats mate, any advice for me, i have my mod1 coming up in a couple of weeks... When I did my lesson on the weekend, the biggest struggle for me was the fig8. every other test I managed first time no sweats.

mine did something similar couple of weeks ago. was filtering through some traffic and the damn thing cut out on me when merging back in to pass a traffic island. wouldn't restart immediately (which is annoying because i'd passed a friend and told him to enjoy his wait). after 2 mins or so, it restarted and it's not missed a beat since. I was pretty low on fuel (about 1/4) and was thinking maybe the injectors just got a big gulp of air instead of fuel...

Haynes manual helps avoid pitfalls. Grab a Haynes manual!

oh and on top of that, this is exactly how anti-monopolies works against the consumer. sky are unlikely to drop the price of the sports package and if you want all premier league footy matches, you're going to need to subscribe to BT vision. consider my piss boiled on this subject!

I did a bit of research. you can sub to BT sports if you have sky or BT vision/broadband. If you're a virgin customer (like myself) you're out of luck. I hope BT sort some kind of deal out with virgin and soon.

I commute daily to work in all weathers. I re-lube once a week and when i put my bike away after rain. i do a thorough clean once a week. A brand new chain can stretch a little in its first 1000 miles of operation, and i agree fully with buying the best tools you can afford. it saves stripping bolts and screw heads due to incorrect size and cheap tools. halfrauds have a 50% off their professional grade tools at the moment, these come with a lifetime guarantee. compared to others i've bought, these seem pretty decent to me (prepared to be shot down lol). im building up slowly a nice set of tools as i attempt each job i need to do. Also, i will stress this point. Do NOT run your engine in first gear while you have hands/fingers/hair/ties ANYTHING that can be caught in that sprocket nearby. one slip and it's bye fingers/head/neck.

so - the inevitable question. how do i get BT sport? do i now need to chuck £18 a month on a sports sub package on virgin or something?!

Get a nut and bolt that will fit through the circular rivet doohickeys. Tighten it up until it rotates. If it binds, spray copious amounts of brake cleaner in there while rotating. It should rotate smoothly with little effort. Repeat for all rivets.

He's the total package. Enthusiastic, happy to be able to race at the top level and a great rider. He has sliders on his elbow... Wtf!!! Anyway, this season is going to be exciting.