Now you can’t book either of these until you have both your CBT and your theory test pass certificates, these are both required for the on-line booking system. So shortly after passing my theory test in late-June, I logged on to book the Part 1. The earliest date I could get at a sensible time was 5th August at 14:50 – wow, some waiting list eh? I booked that anyway so I had something anchored in my diary to aim at. I figured a late afternoon slot would mean I could take the whole day off and get a fair bit of practice in first with my instructor so I was nice and relaxed and recently practiced.
In the meantime, I did make a further two days riding on various weekend dates. All of these rides were on a bike suitable for the ‘direct access’ route, in this case, a Suzuki GS500. Each days training consisted of the instructor, Keith with two students following him in radio contact. What he can see in his mirrors is amazing, you couldn’t get away with much! The rides consisted of on road tuition to take us over Gloucester to be near the test centre, then practice using various cones doing many of the manoeuvres expected of us in the Part 1 test, although we didn’t seem to practice the ‘at speed’ manoeuvres of emergency stops or obstacle avoidance, which was starting to concern me. I was starting to settle into the on-road driving and no longer felt I had to look at the RPM counter every time before moving off!
The motorbike school can book the actual test centre track on a Sunday to practice the Part 1, so I was having some of that! The last of the days training was with me and another ‘mid-life-crisis’ hopeful, Gary, actually using the test track. When we finally got on for our one hour between the two of us, we each went through the whole test in the same sequence as we would on the day with Keith using as close to the ‘official’ wording as the instructor would, so a ‘mock test’. I was watching carefully as Gary was put through his paces, then came my turn. I found the slow speed manoeuvres easy enough and was remembering to pretend that I was on the public roads by always checking both ways behind me before moving off and a lifesaver check before changing directions etc. So far so good! Then the ‘at speed’ manoeuvres. For this you had to accelerate down the length of the area into a turn marked by bollards, then pick up speed coming out of the turn to at least 50 kph going through a speed measuring gate, then either the emergency stop when indicated, or the obstacle avoidance around a cone then back onto the original line and a controlled stop between two cones.
There wasn’t much room from the end of the corner to the speed check gate and I took a few attempts before I got up to the required 50 kph, modest though that speed is in reality, then because I was concentrating so much on getting to speed by the speed gate, to then do another manoeuvre was a lot in a very short space of time. Suffice to say that my first speed stop would have failed me, I put on mainly front with what I thought was a touch of back and could feel the bike ‘fish-tailing’ merrily away. Keith smiled and said ‘look behind you’ and there was a very nice back skid mark! Next attempt, I left the back alone completely and used only front and stopped in a shorter distance, but fully under control.
But I did struggle with the obstacle avoidance. At the first attempt, I was so preoccupied by the speed gate that I was on the obstacle cone before I knew it and simply rode in a straight line straight ‘through’ the imaginary obstacle. Next time, I clipped a cone and knocked it over. It was only on the third attempt that I managed it, albeit at a speed below the required 50kph – so not great.
To be fair, this final practice session was excellent as I learned what I had problems with and I knew what to do to do it properly, so I could now work away in my mind on visualising the correct process. I tend to learn far more from my mistakes and taking them away and ‘internalising’ them, then when I come back next time, I am fine first time as I have been through it so many times in my own head.
So the day came and we both met Keith and set off on our school supplied Suzuki GS500’s. Keith put is through manoeuvring practices near the test centre until we had the slow speed stuff down pat. Then riding on public roads with speed humps and where traffic allowed, using the speed humps to practice obstacle avoidance.
Gary had his Part 1 test first, around lunchtime. I was of course watching closely as in my opinion, Gary was better at this and almost anything about biking except that he always forgot to cancel his indicators! He was doing the ‘let’s pretend we are on a public road’ checks well (these can really catch you out and they will fail you if you miss this more than a couple of times). The manual parking was fine, then he started his cone slalom and that went fine. Then straight into the figure of eight. Now we were told it didn’t matter how wide you went on the cones as long as you did the figure of eight two or three times until told to stop by the examiner. I have to say I thought Gary was pulling his first figure of eight unnecessarily tight, then just at the start of the second iteration, disaster! He somehow lost the slow speed balance and put his foot down. We all know that that is a ‘major’ and meant failure. The examiner still took him through the rest of the test, but the outcome was already decided. He came out looking completely gutted. He always managed this part of the test with ease and possibly let nerves get the better of him or maybe was so pre-occupied with the ‘at speed’ section that he screwed up the easy slow speed part! As I wasn’t on until later, we rode back to the school to drop Gary off then back to the test centre for my turn.
I could see that Keith too was gutted at one of his students failing and was concerned that I shouldn’t be ‘spooked’ by Gary’s failure. I wasn’t. I was nervous of course, but I kept telling myself ‘you know how to do this stuff, just go out there and take your time, think everything through until YOU are ready, think, but above all, have fun!’.
My turn came and I was briefed by the tester. Keith didn’t watch and stayed in the test centre. I felt like a kid again, skating out to his first hockey match while ‘Dad’ couldn’t bear to watch! I was ushered in to the test ground and told to ride into one of the marked parking bays and park up. I did this. He asked me to manoeuvre the bike by hand into the other parking bay, so just a case of look around, take the bike off the stand and walk it backwards in a circle so that it is back end in in the other parking bay – does anyone really fail this bit? I doubt it!
Then the slow speed stuff. He positioned me at the start of the cones and told me what he wanted, the usual slalom through cone until the last two, then figures of eight around the last one until told to stop. He indicated I could start when ready. I sat there and had a good think and visualisation. About ten seconds later (I think the examiner was wondering if something was wrong) , I did my over the shoulder checks then moved off. The slalom was easy enough, keep the bike ‘growling’ and control the speed with dabs of brake and clutch. Nice and slow, then into the figure of eight cones. I deliberately went wider on these, but not so wide that I was taking the piss. I used the brake to keep my speed down and managed the figure of eight fine and was told to stop.
Then the slow ride to stop between cones, basically how slow can you ride but stay in control, maximum is walking speed. Again, I waited ten seconds or so from the time he said I could start until I did so. Usual traffic checks then off we went, engine growling and speed controlled with clutch and brake. It went really well and I stopped exactly where I should. I had always enjoyed that bit.
Then the set up for the U-turn - a 180 degree turn within the confines of two lines (about as wide as a normal road). I did my traffic checks and the over-the-shoulder lifesaver before the turn and managed the turn well within the lines, nice one!
Then he positioned me at the start of the high speed manoeuvres. The first run was a ‘sighting run’, basically I had to get around the corner, through the gate at 50 kph min and a controlled stop between two cones. Off I went and quickly got the bike into third before I hit the curve, kept it in third and accelerated hard out of the curve, glance at the speedo, but mainly going by the engine note that I now knew to be 50 kph. Through the speed gate and a leisurely controlled stop where indicated. That went great and no comment from him on speed, so I knew it was right.
Then the emergency stop. Same again but once through the gate, watch for him to raise his hand then come to a controlled emergency stop with no skidding. Off I went again. The speed felt good as I gunned it going into the speed gate, glance at the speedo, engine note good, watch him – his hand went up. Front brake only as I applied first pressure to get the tyre to flatten then progressively squeezed more on while pretending to touch the back brake (they expect to see you use the back as well) when in fact I was barely resting on the pedal. Boy, did I stop quickly, but it was by far the best emergency stop I have done – lovely!
Then he sets me up for the final run which is obstacle avoidance. This is my weakest. I repeat the process, feel good about the speed and shift my attention well before I hit the speed gate to the blue cone, I shift my weight and hove the bike over a bit, pass the cone easily, then back the other way to come back to my original line with a nicely controlled stop between the two cones – THAT IS HOW WE DO THAT!! Oh, pleased with that.
He then tells me I can exit the test area. This is the final ‘gotcha’ as many people are feeling so goo at finishing that they take straight off without doing any traffic checks, then hey presto, another minor that could add up to failure.
Well I am not sure how many ‘minors’ you can incur on the Part 1 and still pass, but once I have parked up and shut down he tells in front of Keith the good news that I have passed and had no minors at all – basically a clean sheet! The only comment he made is that I was using the brake a lot on the slow speed stuff, he couldn’t give me a formal fault, he was just mentioning that I should be able to manage it without much brake. I asked for the speed at the gates and he had recorded it as 51kph on both occasion – fluke or skill, I was happy either way! He wrote out the formal pass certificate and off I went, the proud holder of a Part 1 pass certificate. I was VERY keen to get this one out of the way as I really had it fixed in my head that this was the harder of the two practical tests and really didn’t fancy a retake.
Next step, book my Part 2, which I was hoping now to get a date before my holiday to see my buddy in Canada on 20th August.
