A Testing Experience

[HanaBelle]

Yeah... that too

Thats mucho tacky. AND...if jrandom is to be believed, apparently my friends are too busy being "community service minded" to form such rankly hormonal and cave-personish desires...besides, theyre (mostly) girls! (Not that this by itself means "totty" is not their particular police-type drawcard, but the odds go down, statistically speaking)...

Hana

[F5 Dave]

There are always some hilarious test stories.Like Finn I heard of some chap going for a licence & got there, apathetic cop (traffic in those days) told him to basically ride around the block & come back to where he was standing. Goes off, falls off out of sight, dusts himself off & returns to get a licence.

Another friend was told to follow a cop in a car. “how will you see me to test me?” Oh I’ll be looking in the mirror says old cop. He followed him & gave him the fingers a few times when he realised he wasn’t looking. Passed test. Shortly after becomes cop (following in daddies footsteps).

When I did my test I got balled out for not following the street directions he gave (he carried on in the right direction so I had to turn around & follow him on the route till the next stop) I explained this was the first time I’d been to Kilbirne but he couldn’t fail me as I was able to catch up with him + had done well at the basic course they had in the carpark (this was when the traffic cops were doing it in the 80s.

I took my car licence in peak hour Welington traffic. This 6ft quite-a-bit bike cop gets out of the building & groans when he sees the 850 mini. One of the last bits was an on-ramp before the tunnel which is basically a give way & cross a couple of motorway lanes to get into the middle, else you wouldn’t get to the tunnel lane. I realised the only way to get this poor car across the lanes & into the middle from a standing start was; max throttle, flailing revs & a reasonable amount of assertion. I was worried that it was a touch aggressive (& somewhat mechanically unsympathetic) but he later said he’d waited 10 min sitting there with timid learners.

Having ridden in Taxis driven by immigrants taking corners in brakey-jerky sections & thinking this guy shouldn’t have a licence let alone a Taxi one, is our licensing tough enough? How much is left for the learner to learn on the road unsupervised? What about the ones that don’t get better or seemingly get worse?

How could we test (or train for) high pressure/stress & emergency situations?

[jrandom]

Thats mucho tacky.

Yup, you got us pegged.

"totty" is not their particular police-type drawcard...

Don't pop our fantasy bubble. We KNOW about those police station girls' locker rooms.

[HanaBelle]

There are always some hilarious test stories.... is our licensing tough enough? How much is left for the learner to learn on the road unsupervised? What about the ones that don’t get better or seemingly get worse?

How could we test (or train for) high pressure/stress & emergency situations?

Well, I know the answer to that last question - but we've been there all day...

Regular licence re-sitting has potential? I drove for 25 years but couldnt tell you half the nancy lil rules without swotting it all up again for the tests. And its useful to have to adjust all those bad habits youve picked up to fit the "standard".

IMHO, tourists shouldnt be given room to drive without testing either (but then the resident angel was run over by one recently on New North Rd so I dont like em anymore Practical and theory, like Hitcher suggested in another thread. Good little earner for whomever-but-not-us-policemen likes the revenue. Unfortunately, with the current waiting times for testing appointments, dont think it could be done on existing resources.

Hana
I'm not a guy, Im just a freaking lawyer. Sorry. :sly:

[HanaBelle]

Don't pop our fantasy bubble. We KNOW about those police station girls' locker rooms.

...whatever, they still wont let you watch...

[aff-man]

this guy sounds like a prick. I did my full in the wet and i swear the fastest i went anywhere was like 45 (except on the motorway where i did like 80 odd) the only thing he couldv'e got me on was following to close on the motorway and eh said it but luckily didn't fail me because i had a guy right up my ass and he was boxing me in. That 5km/h under the speed limit doesn't count when in wet conditions cause you're meant to alter your speed to these conditions.

[gav]

Sorry, but I tend to think an inexperienced rider on a unfamiliar bike going for a driving test, should involve a route that is going to be difficult. Ifif you fail, maybe you arent ready for your licence or should spend more time riding the bike you are going for your test on.
So what happens if you do your test on a dry flat road, and first time you ride in the rain and come to some tightening downhill off camber corner are you going to stop and complain to someone that this road is too hard and unfair? (Congrats on not crashing though )

[HanaBelle]

Sorry, but I tend to think an inexperienced rider on a unfamiliar bike going for a driving test, should involve a route that is going to be difficult. Ifif you fail, maybe you arent ready for your licence or should spend more time riding the bike you are going for your test on.
So what happens if you do your test on a dry flat road, and first time you ride in the rain and come to some tightening downhill off camber corner are you going to stop and complain to someone that this road is too hard and unfair? (Congrats on not crashing though )

Hey! Im not a dry weather weekender, I did NOT stop and complain about facing a wet road and a bitch of a corner and I resemble the implication *sniff*. I complained about the general shittyness of the set-up being told I would flunk based on *speedlimit* rather than conditions, and, besides, Im all zen about it now so phhht.

There is a difference between giving someone a fair test that does put them through their paces and electing yourself Chief Eliminator of Women Bikers at the level of dangerous-test-situation-creation.

Peace, love, and chainlube.

Hana

[spudchucka]

*yawn* Youre a cop, right?

No shit Sherlock!!

[spudchucka]

Don't think they like the name 'cop'. Some of the policeman i know don't anyway.

Doesn't bother me at all.

[Bob]

Having read the various posts here, it sounds to me like you do not have set standards for your test, or indeed testers?

Over here in Blighty, any tester must have passed a rigorous set of examinations. Likewise, any test circuit is put together by the relevent agency and must contain a number of elements - one of which is a set of variable limits within one stretch of road.

You cannot be failed on any old thing the examiner fancies. There are set "Major" and "Minor" faults - these are set in stone and cannot be 'dreamed up' by an examinor. Any "major" is an instant fail - you are allowed a small number of "minor" faults.

I am also fascinated by the "do less than 5kmph than the limit and you fail" comment. This does not take into consideration weather - if a tester was forcing you to ride to the limit in severe conditions, then that sounds very off - but as someone said, if the conditions were so poor, should the test not have been postponed?

Maybe I am reading what has been said here wrong, but if you've got set standards, then this sort of thing should not happen.

(That said, when I passed my test, I am sure the examiner wanted to fail me - at one point we had to pull in and then I had to pull out when I felt it was safe - to this day I swear he was rocking forwards to make me pull out before I was ready)

If you have got set standards and routes, then the examiner was within his rights to test your bike control where you went over the line (lack of vehicle control being a "major" fail). But it does sound like he was in "one of those moods" that day.

Well done on passing though...

[Her_C4]

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

Congratulations Hana - and bloody well done you for handling the wrought resulting from the day and getting back out there the next day to do it again!!

[AMPS]

I would have passed you just because you didn't bin it.
I met more ex-cops than ex-MOT testing, but then you do find the occasional strange person in every occupation.
Lou

[sAsLEX]

this guy sounds like a prick. I did my full in the wet and i swear the fastest i went anywhere was like 45 (except on the motorway where i did like 80 odd) the only thing he couldv'e got me on was following to close on the motorway and eh said it but luckily didn't fail me because i had a guy right up my ass and he was boxing me in. That 5km/h under the speed limit doesn't count when in wet conditions cause you're meant to alter your speed to these conditions.

I failed my license for slowing down for wet roads and not accelerating fast enough?? Now I did the test in my parents 2l mitsy and got to speed a hell of alot faster than my 1300 Sunny would of, and the paticular bit of road aint the safest in the wet (as proved by the cops). But hey the guy was renowned for failing Males first time around.

[F5 Dave]

Bit of topic of bikes here, which is odd for me esp. when the subject is cars; My dad taught me to drive a car (in aforementioned 850 Mini) but decided to pay for some lessons. The driving instructor asked what I’d driven before & then informed me that I would have to 'be careful' as this was a high powered 1200 Toyota (station wagon on CNG!). What a dork, even at my lowly experience it didn’t take me long to work out the Mini would have Dicked it.

He then insisted that I use the shuffle method on the steering wheel (don’t cross your hands over -you will get confused). Even though at that age being fairly well familiar with sliding things through clenched fists , it made the whole process erratic & jerky & limited your ability to turn a steep angle quickly. I ignored that advice as soon as I finished the lessons & haven’t been ‘confused’ about the matter since. Turkey!
This was a weird experience; at 15/16 I was brought up to respect elders & thought an instructor would be some sort of expert. Fortunately when I did my riding course a couple of years later this was indeed the case.

Oh yeah, after the last lesson he asked what my dad did for a job & I said Dentist, so he then says that he felt I needed more lessons & my driving had gotten worse & surely my father could afford to pay for it.

Piss off Noddy. Wish I could meet this plonker now.