Restricted test tips

[Brett]

Booked my restricted testin for tomorrow, what are the main things that they try and catch you out on?
Any main pointers??

[pyrocam]

relax. thats the biggest thing. if you stress out you might do something dumb.

oh and also. they MAY ask you at the end what hazards you saw. so keep an eye out for things you can tell the guy.

[Brett]

Im not too stressed at all, done about 10 000kms of riding in the past 6 months, so have got used to the zxr quite well. Just dont want the bugger to pull a quicke on me and fail me.

[Monsterbishi]

+1 on the Relax, before you travel to the test, make sure your bike is wof'd and up to wof standard, and you've got adequate protective gear. Don't forget to take your licence with you, be polite to the tester, even if they're evil.

[parsley]

If you don't know the area where you're doing the test go for a bit of a drive round before. When I did mine the instructor followed in a car, so before we left he told me the route to take. If I hadn't known the area I would have worried about getting lost - just one less thing to worry about.

Actually, that might be an idea for a sticky thread - descriptions of the routes used at different testing stations. There aren't that many that do bikes so it shouldn't be that long a list...

I did mine at the AA shop on Quay Street in Auckland.

[DMNTD:Me]

relax....they MAY ask you at the end what hazards you saw. so keep an eye out for things you can tell the guy.

From memory that was one of the things I nearly ballsed up...wasn't warned re the questions to come afterwards.
Very very simple test itself though...very
So as above and look forward to the next stage being completed

[Gremlin]

Just did mine about a week ago.

He drove behind me, and I had to keep an eye on his indicators to see where to go (ie straight through a roundabout, he had no indicators on, but don't forget the exiting of it)

I think he was looking at:
- Balance - not weaving out of control, looking confident
- Speeding - I cheated on this, instead of changing around 10k, I was changing around 5k, no power so no speeding
- Looking for potential problems - identify, and react. He got me on this, but I had already engine braked, so I didn't need to use the brakes...

You really have to accentuate your every move, no with your eyes. Physically turn your head and right, I was glancing left on roundabouts when going through, he picked on this.

My tester also told me to keep more to the left... I mean really, I told him cars try to lane share, he shrugged it off.

Basically: Be in control, and careful, courteous and looking for danger. And err... don't split to the front of traffic lights...

You have been riding a fair bit, you should do fine, relax is the biggest tip. Stops you speeding, sorta like a Sunday stroll...

[cowboyz]

Dont forget the stupid stupid stupid indicating out of roundabout rule. I went through about 3 or 4 roundabouts on my test and he mentioned that I didnt use my indicators "enough" when exiting roundabouts. Christ, you have a whole 0.000004 of a sec to flip indicators from one side to the other. He passed me anyway, even though I took a wrong turn during the test and had to backtrack to find the tester again. Oh, depending on the testing officier, watch the distances or gaps that you pull into traffic. If you have spent some time on the bike it can be tempting to slot into a gap that the tester thinks is too small for you to slot into. I tried to wait for gaps that were big enough for the officier behind me to follow.

And headchecks. Make sure you turn your head.

I am sure it will be all good. The test is relatively easy. If you get some grump or an officier thats having a bad day then just roll with it.

[bane]

And headchecks. Make sure you turn your head.

great advice - also move your head, showing your using your mirrors, looking for hazards, scanning the road.

Dont speed... DONT PANIC.... remember it's "mostly harmless"