It looks like they are gonna rethink the new test....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8067212.stm
"The new test was brought in at the end of April and in the first three and a half weeks there were 15 incidents during the exam, with at least one rider left with broken bones."
/Rant on
I saw something on the news this am - they were interviewing an instructor & basically made him look like a fool for daring to suggest that a Learner doing this manouver in the wet was unsafe. They stated that if they had to do it for real in the wet, then surely they must have to learn it in the wet aswell..I would like to see L plate car drivers have to do high speed manouvers in the wet & see how they would fair!
They stated that there were so many bike accidents that learning these manouvers was a good thing, however what they didn't say was that a lot of these accidents were caused by car drivers not paying attention!
/rant off!
dont forget up and down the country training centres and self employed instructors have given up on what they are trained to do because they cannot get people up to the required standard or that the cost for das of being accompanied on a long journey to the nearest test centre is prohibitive,and prob many other reasons. Can you imagine having to give up on a business that you have invested time and money in over the years because of what could turn out to be the government learning their lesson the hard way? will all these instructors ever be able to work in this field again, it is turning motorcycling into an elitist hobby out of the reach of many and encouraging the element who take to the roads illegally endangering all of us!
does anyone know what the views of all of the different political parties are on this issue..... or are they just not bothered?
Now is the time for a "Bikers are Voters" campaign
An all party motorcycle group exists and the Liberals have several "high profile" biking MP's
But we must make a co-ordinated effort to get our message across well before an election is called
If the government had a real interest in reducing congestion and bringing down CO2 levels, they would be promoting bikes, not discouraging them. How can they possibly call themselves green, when there blatantly trying to encourage more cars by subsidizing with the offer of £2K trade in. That money should be going toward the public transport network, not used to try to encourage consumerism. As to where the money will come from some bright spark thought "I know, well charge bikes to park!" yeah, nice move, NOT! Its totally unfair to expect bike rides to do the "swerve test" and not incorporate a similar test on cars. If a car looses control, it has the capability of taking out a lot more innocent bystanders than bikes do, yet its not a problem. I heard an official say "If it saves one life its worth it" so if the swerve test takes one life my question is "was it worth it"?
That is why my instructors told me to hang fire with my DAS and test after passing the new style CBT.....they said the Government will be forced to change it....so that is what I am doing waiting so I don't have to risk my own safety in doing the swerve test...mind you the other day coming back from Hatton to Hilton...I would have passed with flying colours....I had to drop the bike down and back up to miss a stupid woman who just tear arsed out of a junction at me clearly not looking...I missed her by inches...I wasn't scared but annoyed...I acted with instinct....but thinking back now I don't think I would like to attempt such a maneouvre knowing I've got to do it...how can you react like that under such false test conditions...No wonder so many folk have injured themselves...
So the logical extension is that a car test has to include an emergency stop on a wet road. Could be interesting!
Erm... but they do already... if it happens to be raining, don't they?
Same as the bike test... they don't chuck a load of water at you to simulate wet weather conditions... it's just if you're unlucky enough to have bad weather on your test day, you have to lump it.
They already cancel driving tests in extreme weather conditions e.g. snow/ice and presumably the same applies to bike tests? I don't know, as I've never done a bike test... yet
I do the test next Monday (June 1st) if all goes well, should have done it last Tuesday but between the riding school & the test centre the tax disc fell off the bike so they would not let me do it
Will let you all know what happens ... If I am not in hospital !!
Am hoping it stays dry tho, the test centre I am doing it at has had to be resurfaced twice so far & its still holding water in places when it rains.
Well I saw one person fail cos went through speed trap at 49kph & one pass, with no injuries.
I am looking forward to it & getting another days practice Monday morning FOC as was not my fault last week :-)
Have just looked at a video of the swerve test on YouTube and it doesn't look too bad... (in fact, looks like a good skill to have under your belt!)
Anyone currently learning have experience of it?
That is why my instructors
told me to hang fire with my DAS and test after passing the new style
CBT.....they said the Government will be forced to change it....
See - this is the bit I don't get.
How does one instructor "know" that the UK Government is going to be "forced to change" the new test.
Surely the whole thing about part of it being done off-road was so the UK could comply with the Europe-wide legislation i.e. that the manoeuvres be carried out at 50kph.
It was a safety measure to conduct these parts of the test off-road, so that candidates weren't either carrying out the manoeuvres on 40mph roads, putting themselves and other road-users at risk, or breaking UK law by speeding on 30mph roads to carry out these parts of the test.
Yes it's annoying that there are fewer test centres now and that the rolling out of the new test was put back by 6 months due to the new centres not being ready etc, but can the UK Government, within European Law, make a unilateral decision to bin the European Directive and change back from the new test?
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