Class 6 licence exemption

[waitoa485]

Hi guys. totally new to this.Decided in june 08 to get my bike licence with petrol prices getting so high. I travel 120km a day mon - fri to get to work and back. It was costing me $90 a week in gas even with a modern economical 1.8 litre car. Anyway i sat and passed my learners class 6 but because i work shift work, i applied for an exemption so that i could ride my bike between the hours of 10pm and 5am. A week later i received a letter from LTNZ saying that because of my age (38) and the length of time i've had my other licences (1,2,3,4,5 and endorsements p,f,r,w,i) they had waived the learner and restricted period and i could sit my full licence straight away!! There were 2 conditions. 1- that i only had one chance to pass, and 2- I had to sit it by the end of the month which was like 3 weeks away! I had to get heaps of practise in as the last time i had ridden a bike was about 20 years earlier! I wonder how many of you are aware of these exemptions? Just thought I'd put it out there as well as having a bit of a boast LOL.

[DingoZ]

Had the same offer when I applied for exemptions for my riding hours because of my job.

Declined as had not been on a bike for absolutely ages. At times I wish I had taken them up on the offer, but at other times not...

Don't know your situation, but it's an avenue to explore if you can get some practice in, before the full test. Pretty easy are the tests as long as you don't ride like a complete idiot during them. Keep to the speed limit and indicate and head check....Mostly is common sense...

My advice - go for it.

[Sparrowhawk]

I'd say go for it, but maybe pm Qkchk, she's an LTNZ approved instructor, and does pre-test coaching.

[CookMySock]

[....] because of my age (38) and the length of time i've had my other licences (1,2,3,4,5 and endorsements p,f,r,w,i) they had waived the learner and restricted period and i could sit my full licence straight away!!

WTF? I'm stunned they did that - clearly your licenses don't mean you know about riding a road bike. I just applied for the same thing and they said "no" - go figure! And I have 16,000kms open-road touring under my belt in the last 7 months on a 650, and I'm older than you, and I have 20,000hrs commercial driving... They just said to go do a defensive driving course and get it in three months, like anyone off the street could. Oh well, one month gone already. DDC here we come. yawn.

Really, we have seen some fairly near-random results from them posted on this forum.

I'd say go for it. What do you have to lose..

Steve

[Tank]

they had waived the learner and restricted period and i could sit my full licence straight away!! There were 2 conditions. 1- that i only had one chance to pass, and 2- I had to sit it by the end of the month which was like 3 weeks away!

Thats exactly the same as they did to me - with the same two conditions (although I was told if I stuffed the full test I would still be allowed to ride my 800).

I don't think it has anything to do with the classes of licences you had - more the fact that you ride 120km per day.

Assuming that the majority of that is on the open road they (and I'm quoting LTNZ here) "Don't want learners doing 70km on the open road as its dangerous" Thus they want you on your full a.s.a.p for your own safety.

[marty]

one of the guys at work had exactly the same option - which he passed, and is now happily fanging around on his full (from nothing 3 months ago) on his drz400sm.