My biking diary....

[Face]

Well, today I started my bike training for my bike test happening on thursday morning. I have not had the best of experiences on bikes so I was understandably quite nervous (crashed on my basic training course two years ago, my ex girlfriend crashed with us both on whilst on holiday and I hired a bike on Friday of last week and had a small slip up where the bike landed on my leg). The morning was pretty bad, bike is ok, is a 125cc Suzuki but you have to slip the clutch a heck of a lot otherwise you stall.

Morning I stalled in some really dangerous places and generally felt quite unstable and nervous. However, got much more comfortable this afternoon. We tried some U-turns but I am still a little shaky on those, but improving I think. Find them much easier to do between white lines in a car park than actually out on the road. Instructor keeps shouting "Stop looking down and stop looking at the kerb". Can't help it though :)

Next update tomorrow after day 2 of my training.

[Scrumhalf]

When I learned how to ride a motorcycle, I learned on a 125cc as well. The bike was so light that it was just like riding a bicycle. At least, I found that riding it was infinitely easier when I handled it just like a bicycle. Things like countersteering were hard to conjure up in the mind, but if you pretended you were riding a bicycle and were trying to avoid a pebble on the road in front of you, the flick of the handlebar came naturally.

So, my suggestion is to think of motorcycle handling just like bicycle handling - don't think too much and let it come to you naturally and you will find it very easy....

[Face]

Well, done day 2 of my training now; didn't come close to killing anyone today (not even myself!), gotta be happy about that; still took a couple of hours to get comfortable on the bike but once I was comfortable I felt quite confident...... Today we covered u turn and emergency stop; the latter is easy enough for me, may be tricky if it is wet on test day. U turns are still a bit shaky however, finding the balance as well as the observations hard to master, but they are improving in my opinion.

We had a kind of mock test today, and I made a few mistakes, some which I could possibly fail for depending on the examiner. But these will hopefully be ironed out tomorrow, they are things which I think I can improve on. Roll on day 3........

[Face]

Day 3 is over. Weather here was so fucking miserable today, windy and rainy. Hope it improves for my test tomorrow, is so uncomfortable in all that wet weather gear. Had a mock test today and failed on 2 major faults, stalling at a junction becuase i didn't have it in first gear, and also put my foot down on the u-turn, damn u-turn! I think if i can manage the u-turn tomorrow I will pass, but its really 50-50 whether i can do it at any particular time.

The other guy I am training with came off his bike today whilst doing the emergency stop, was a bit of a scary moment when he flew off past me, but i guess thats what happens when you snatch the front brake, and it was wet.

Wish me luck for tomorrow guys, I hope I pass. Over and out.