A Testing Experience

[HanaBelle]

Now see, Im not a whiner, on the whole Id rather take the blame than pass it along...but my encounter with this mutha&#*@ testing officer I met at Botany Downs, Akl, really needs a review from honest bikin folks, so I can work out whether I was stupid and in shock or set-up nastily and really should take the double bazooka degrees and shove a complaint as far internally as it can reach on the end of a ...well, you get the idea....

First, I did pass my final licence test the next day with a different dude. And alls well that ends with me and the Vulcan legal, I spose..but..tell me if you think this is fair, ok?...heres the story

So, um, onna borrowed EL250 I cruised over in the rain (argg but I ride daily, so ok) to Botany for the testing. Lil young chicky sitting there sweating for her car test tells me the local kids all know there is One Bad Egg in the testing team here.

Great. Big mean limping old guy giving me subtle grief over signing the form (a lemon hint!), and it got worse from then, really. Leftrightleftrightleftright bullshit in the rain from 100 yards behind me (ever tried peering into your RVMs to see an indicator in those conditions), but ok, and at least one sneaky evil speed sign trap (70km zone in open country, then 50km stretch, then more very open country but no speed sign change back up, uh huh, you didnt get me on that didya...

Didnt get me on the vertical mountain climbing bit either, despite the not inconsiderable load (me) and the coughing ancient 250, even if I had to chop it down into first to get the bike to actually continue up the road...

And then...the psychological primer warning ringing in my head "If you go more than 5 kms *under* the speed limit, you will fail"... and having noticed but not grokked the shifty eyed slidy look he did (evil hint!) while adding "but all speed decisions are yours to make"...I swallowed the set-up hook-line-and-locked-up-drum-brake-sinker...

So a few minutes later, we hit an 80km sign and about 50m down the road (having accelerated to 75ish, doh) I powered into a long tightening left curve, running down, on slick seal, and it is wet, right...whoops..

So I made it, anyway, around at least half of the ever increasingly tighter corner UNTIL I moved to avoid that piece of seal sprawled across the lane in front of me with the gravel sticking out and the lil holes here and there, and just then the corner tightens some MORE...ohoh..

...this was somewhere up the back of Botany downs?? Pete from Red Baron said he knows the corner..it aint speed signed and it should be because I realise Im a wussy pansy baby biker but Im wondering if its even an 80km corner in the dry?

Well, I didnt make that tightening, not with the end of the slight swerve I was in to correct from the holes avoidance and fished all over the lane with the back wheel sliding TWICE..and survived, corrected it, got under control, blah blah...

Failed on the spot (obviously) but I also got the distinct impression he was disappointed I didnt fall off! Really nasty creepy yuck...

I did yell at him just a teensy little bit when we got back to the AA, something about tricks and stupidity on his part, but then got all shaky at the might-have-beens and rode back to recover the next morning and pass the test as aforesaid...cost me an extra $200 so Im thinking hes a one man personal revenue collector...it appears the local kids know his rep...and I can bite him when the young kids and immigrants he's otherwise forcing into similar difficulties have zip ability to do so...what do you think?

He maintains shoving me into a primed-for-wrong-choice situation on seriously wet roads was acceptable in order to ensure my ongoing public safety, and while I see the point, I think I feel endangerment should not be a part of public testing...just as a policy principle..

Oh, amusingly, the dude the next day told me off for riding in the right hand wheel track.."you need to be in the middle of the road or preferably as far left as you can get"...maybe BRONZ needs a nomination process for testers who have actually ridden a bike??

Hana

[James Deuce]

All I can say is I'm pleased you didn't fall off or hurt yourself.

[spudchucka]

He maintains shoving me into a primed-for-wrong-choice situation on seriously wet roads was acceptable in order to ensure my ongoing public safety, and while I see the point, I think I feel endangerment should not be a part of public testing...just as a policy principle..

Whatever choices you made were your own. If the conditions were that bad then perhaps you should have postponed the test untill the conditions were more suitable. If the tester was a grumpy old git then I'd say thats another matter but as far as the road conditions go, its up to you to drive appropriately and if you lost control, (even momentarily) then it was appropriate that he failed you.

[Hitcher]

maybe BRONZ needs a nomination process for testers who have actually ridden a bike??

I would have thought that competency on the vehicle in question would have been a mandatory requirement for any tester. Also competency with road laws and the road code?

Congratulations anyway, Hana. Shame about the agro.

[rodgerd]

If the tester was a grumpy old git then I'd say thats another matter

Quality of testing has degenerated massively since it stopped being a job for the cops, and became one for any officious plonker the LTSA sign off on. There's one in Wellington, for example, who is known to fail everyone the first time around, on the principle no-one can be good enough to pass their license on the first shot. Another's known for failing women. Period.

[spudchucka]

Quality of testing has degenerated massively since it stopped being a job for the cops, and became one for any officious plonker the LTSA sign off on.

A lot of those officious old plonkers are ex / retired MOT traffic cops. Lou........

[vifferman]

Quality of testing has degenerated massively since it stopped being a job for the cops, and became one for any officious plonker the LTSA sign off on.

Indeed. The "officious plonker" my son got for his restricted car licence test was one of that ilk, the kind who have a small bit of power over people and think they're some kind of god. Thank goodness the one he got for the re-sit was more human and less of a dick.
I don't know that things have changed much over the years, though. The MOT guy who tested me for my car license was a sadistic and Hitlerian type, who had me performing manoeuvres in the Austin 1800 (LandCrab) that would have been impossible in a Mini. Three-point turn in a lane about 8 or 9 fett wide? Yeah, right! Back into a small path at an acute angle to the road? Dream on! :spudwhat:
Thank goodness the cop who took me for my bike license was human: "That your bike in the carpark? Nice machine! Meet me on the other side, and we'll go for a blat!" He tested me thoroughly, but didn't play on my nervousness and treated me fairly, unlike the mini-Hitlers my son and I both had, who marked us down for 'sins' we weren't even guilty of...
There's a big difference between following the subscribed test parameters and using stretching those same parameters for some perverted power game.

[James Deuce]

Huh hh huh unnn hunh - he said perverted.

[750Y]

...isn't it amazing what a bit of power can do to someone...

[wari]

WEll ... at leaste you hava story to telll the grandkidds eh ... ?

BAckin my day when ...

COngratulations bytheway :spudwave:

[jaxda]

Good to hear you did get your licence in the end HanaBelle I am also going for my next stage shortly and as i live in Botany i am curious as to which office you went to for your test. Is it the one on the cnr of Chapel and Kilkenny rd's?

[HanaBelle]

Whatever choices you made were your own. If the conditions were that bad then perhaps you should have postponed the test untill the conditions were more suitable. If the tester was a grumpy old git then I'd say thats another matter but as far as the road conditions go, its up to you to drive appropriately and if you lost control, (even momentarily) then it was appropriate that he failed you.

*yawn* Youre a cop, right?

[jrandom]

*yawn* Youre a cop, right?

Yes, and as unpleasant as it may feel for you at the moment, everything he said was entirely correct.

That doesn't change the fact that your testing officer was mean and, arguably, unreasonable. But Spud didn't say anything indefensible.

We're all instinctively handing out sympathy here (and you certainly have mine) but don't bag someone for adding balance to the discussion.

In any case, well done on getting the license in the end.

[HanaBelle]

Good to hear you did get your licence in the end HanaBelle I am also going for my next stage shortly and as i live in Botany i am curious as to which office you went to for your test. Is it the one on the cnr of Chapel and Kilkenny rd's?

Chapel Road, and to the oafish old sod with a limp...pray you get one of the nice two...and no matter what deliberate pressure is put on you, do take spudchuckas advice!



Hana

[MikeL]

There are, of course, two sides to every story. We want better standards of driving, but complain when we fail our test for what we see as minor faults. However I think there are some issues which need airing. Standardization and consistency of testing procedures would be a good place to start. At the moment it's a lottery...
One question I would like a reaction to: Is it unfair to fail someone solely on a "fault" that even good drivers commit all the time? My son was failed for no other reason than that he did not keep his hands all the time in the "10 to 2" position on the steering wheel.