Hmph! Another cancellation!

[Psychybikey]

My third (and I hope final) attempt to complete my CBT has been cancelled at the last minute.

OK, so it's nobody's fault, but that's the second time I've been all psyched up and this has happened

I've got another date booked but I'm not telling anybody now till after I've done it.

[matavin]

Booked it with another company? For a cbt, id expect a smooth easy good experience.

[Psychybikey]

It wasn't their fault, matavin - the instructor went off sick and the only other one available last night was teaching; it's only a little company, I feel comfortable with them, and I don't want to have to start getting to know anybody else. Also, the only other local company doesn't work evenings or weekends - presumably their clients are all retired or unemployed - so I haven't much choice .

[matavin]

Thats cool. =) i hope you pass soon!

[Psychybikey]

Well, matavin, I have taken your advice. If you see my post about my last attempt which ended in embarrassment, bruises, a stiff neck and a broken bike you will have got the rest of the story. I have been to the other company (they do work Saturdays, as it turns out, but they are close to where I work and I will just take 2-hour chunks of annual leave in order to have some lessons). The instructor gave me a free lesson/assessment, on a geared bike, he took me right back to basics, and advised me to get confident with balance on my pushbike, then go back to him.

We have a playground round the corner with a tarmac football & netball court. So I took my bike there today and practiced going very slowly and doing u-turns, using the goal-shooting circle thing on the netball court as a guide. On my way home I tried a tight circle, the same size but not marked out, on the tarmac in front of a row of garages - surprising what a difference it made to my mind when I had no markings and had a brick wall in front of me rather than a wire netting fence.

However, I did it, so I'm going to keep doing that and go back in a couple of weeks for a proper lesson and see where we go from there.

It seems entirely illogical to me that somebody can get on a motorcycle in the middle of the day, with no experience, and be allowed to ride round unsupervised by that evening. That being the case, there must be people who concentrate on getting you through the CBT rather than actually teaching you to ride.