Stromble
11th January 2008, 20:58
Just passed my restricted this morning..! :niceone: Thought I'd share the experience...
I booked the test a couple of weeks ago in Orewa for 7:30am this morning. I arrived at 7:15 and the tester lady was already waiting! Keen or what..
First thing she did was look at my bike and ask the size.. "Its a 650" I said, quickly presenting my exemption letter from the LTSA. "Ooh, Ive never had one of these before" she said looking rather excited..!? A quick examination of the letter and we were off on the test.
Anyway, to start off, she gave me some directions.. "Turn left out of the carpark, up the road, straight over the junction, turn left, first right etc etc.."
So off I went, all going good to the first checkpoint. Pulled over and she got out of the car and came to give me the next set of directions... First of all to go to the end of the dead end road and do a U Turn and then another series of directions to the next check point.
So, I set off again, indicating, good balance, lots of mirrors etc.. perfect U-turn at the end of the road, with no feet down (It was a small turn circle too!), back up the road to main road that I had to go straight over, slowed down and looked around, saw a van coming as I approached, so managed to slow down further and balance up to the line so I didnt have to stop. Then looked again and started to pull forward...
Unfortunately, I didnt change all the way down to 1st on approach and let the clutch out too fast in second and stalled the bike....Noooooo :doh:
I was a good front wheel out into the main road, but managed to get both feet down, clutch in, back to 1st start the bike, look around to check no more traffic and cross the road and carry on..
Rest of the ride was fine, short ride upto hatfields beach and pulled in to the rest stop and turned back to Orewa and back to the AA office, but had it in the back of my mind that this little event could be something that would make me fail.. luckily it didnt and it wasnt even mentioned, so maybe not quite as dramatic as it seemed at the time.
Parked up, she said I rode very well and wrote out the little temp licence slip and took my old one. All done.! took a total of 20 mins roughly.
I rode away feeling very proud of myself, but also feeling like a proper idiot for stalling at the junction. But I guess we all have our little experiences.! (or maybe its just me).. Though after riding some 4000Kms on the DL650 over the first 6 months being a learner, it was just annoying! :oi-grr:
Guess Ill be having more practice around town now as most of my riding has been long distance runs.
Anyway, its great to have torn off the L-plate (which only went on for the last week) and to be able to ride over 70K on the open road! (ha).
If youve got this far, thanks for listening, and hopefully it gives a small insight into the test for those who still havent done it, or are thinking of doing it.. If you can take it, take it now.!
Right, now its onto focusing on the full license.. :niceone:
I booked the test a couple of weeks ago in Orewa for 7:30am this morning. I arrived at 7:15 and the tester lady was already waiting! Keen or what..
First thing she did was look at my bike and ask the size.. "Its a 650" I said, quickly presenting my exemption letter from the LTSA. "Ooh, Ive never had one of these before" she said looking rather excited..!? A quick examination of the letter and we were off on the test.
Anyway, to start off, she gave me some directions.. "Turn left out of the carpark, up the road, straight over the junction, turn left, first right etc etc.."
So off I went, all going good to the first checkpoint. Pulled over and she got out of the car and came to give me the next set of directions... First of all to go to the end of the dead end road and do a U Turn and then another series of directions to the next check point.
So, I set off again, indicating, good balance, lots of mirrors etc.. perfect U-turn at the end of the road, with no feet down (It was a small turn circle too!), back up the road to main road that I had to go straight over, slowed down and looked around, saw a van coming as I approached, so managed to slow down further and balance up to the line so I didnt have to stop. Then looked again and started to pull forward...
Unfortunately, I didnt change all the way down to 1st on approach and let the clutch out too fast in second and stalled the bike....Noooooo :doh:
I was a good front wheel out into the main road, but managed to get both feet down, clutch in, back to 1st start the bike, look around to check no more traffic and cross the road and carry on..
Rest of the ride was fine, short ride upto hatfields beach and pulled in to the rest stop and turned back to Orewa and back to the AA office, but had it in the back of my mind that this little event could be something that would make me fail.. luckily it didnt and it wasnt even mentioned, so maybe not quite as dramatic as it seemed at the time.
Parked up, she said I rode very well and wrote out the little temp licence slip and took my old one. All done.! took a total of 20 mins roughly.
I rode away feeling very proud of myself, but also feeling like a proper idiot for stalling at the junction. But I guess we all have our little experiences.! (or maybe its just me).. Though after riding some 4000Kms on the DL650 over the first 6 months being a learner, it was just annoying! :oi-grr:
Guess Ill be having more practice around town now as most of my riding has been long distance runs.
Anyway, its great to have torn off the L-plate (which only went on for the last week) and to be able to ride over 70K on the open road! (ha).
If youve got this far, thanks for listening, and hopefully it gives a small insight into the test for those who still havent done it, or are thinking of doing it.. If you can take it, take it now.!
Right, now its onto focusing on the full license.. :niceone: