Passed Mod 1 - Woop. Thoughts

[TeamMCS]

Hey guys,

Only passed my theory last week and I unexpectedly managed to get a Mod 1 booking for today (~3 days notice). Thankfully, only having 3 days notice meant I wasn't panicking as much as I usually do

I headed down to Yeading in the scorching sun. They'd split the course up into two sections on the site. On the left they have the slalom, parking bay and figure of eight. On the other they have the emergency stop, U turn and Hazard avoidance.

The first thing I thought when I arrived was how dam big it all was! This almost evaporated any concerns I had. There's so much space you could do the circuit in a car. Whilst I was waiting for my test a lady was doing her DAS, she must have used a good 10 meters (if not more) to do the figure of eight on each cone!!! She nearly went around the second yellow cone!.

My turn came rolling around, parked in the right bay. Walked it into the adjacent bay then went off on the slalom and Fig 8. All went fine, bags of room - literally loads. I'd been practising in half the space. I'm pretty sure I actually did 3 fig 8's

Anywho, next bit rolled around. The hazard avoidance. The circuit was a little odd. The corner becomes progressively sharper as you near the straight which means you end up slowing down (or get ballsy). Despite all the advise saying, "Leave it in second" my CBR125 just can't reliably reach 32 so I had to change up. I completely floored it and went at the "hazard".

Speaking of the hazard, for those of you worried. It really isn't much of a turn and you don't have to suddenly straighten up. Once again, there's bags of space. The only problem I had was getting the dam bike up to speed in time.

Thankfully I nailed it, just. 50kph.

I continued on to the U turn, nothing fancy. Actually a little tighter than I imagined but still plenty of room. The next manoeuvre was the slow ride - yes that's actually quite slow! I'd say slow walking pace -very nearly overtook him thinking he was going to speed up! It's also quite a long walk so make sure you practise that.

Finally came the Emergency stop. This was fairly easy but unfortunately I couldn't get the bike up to speed the first time around. Knowing my bike can't reach 32 on second I chose to change up mid corner - sadly that killed my acceleration. Missed it by 1kph. Second time around I really gave it the beans. Still only managed to hit 53kph!! Throughout the test I must say I didn't look at the speed-o, I was more concerned with simply going as fast as I could. The second time around I changed up a little bit later which must have been the difference.

Overall I would say the larger bikes will find the hazard avoidance and emergency stop fairly easy due to the power (no need to concern yourself with changing up too early, just stick it in second and floor it). The little bikes pretty much nail the cornering though.

Now on to Mod 2! That's something I'm concerned about Good luck to those preparing for both

[edit]

Just thought I'd add. I've had no official lessons, I did this on my own bike. To practise I got myself a tape measure and a bunch of CDs and just stuck them in a local car park (yes I look like an idiot). It's quite effective. As for practising the hazard avoidance, sadly you're SOL. Both myself and cobz tried to avoid pot holes, drain covers and speed bumps - that could work but you'll be speeding - which isn't great.

Speaking of which, the hazard avoidance practical should be done at 25 to keep it within the speed limit of a public road. You need to practise so you end up speeding if you are not careful (or worse, come off!). It's not something I could practise when all was said and done.

[Kempie]

Well done mate hopefully i will be just as good this wednesday as got my mod 1!!!! Congrats again

[polecat]

Well done, Nice write up,it took me right back