Today was just like another CBT as we had a chap there doing his for the first time. It let me get used to riding a bike again after being on Scooters scooter. After the normal exercises on the car park, it was out on to the road. The chap that was with us immediately ran into confidence problems as he had only just recovered fro a nasty pillion accident and so had to stop. So it was me and the instructor riding here, there and mostly anywhere for the rest of the day. We had some work to do getting rid of the bad habits I'd acquired on the CBR125. One was turning into minor roads under proper contol, rather than throwing the bike round the corner. No other problems except that I was on a Honda CG 125. It’s a crap bike with an awful gearbox and underpowered even for a 125. At one point the thing cut out and wouldn’t start. When it did, it kept cutting out again when I select first. The Suzuki VanVan would have been better, the one I did my CBT on, it was that bad,
Day 2 –Tuesday.
Again on the CG125, was with the DAS instructor Aiden who is an ex DSA examiner. Along with another chap, Paul who was also doing the DAS, we spent the whole day riding around the Gornal roads. The bike problems got worse throughout the day, affecting my slow bike control. I felt I was fighting the thing all day. One time I stalled the thing in the middle of the Cinder Bank roundabout in Brum. My U-turns were crap. Hill starts also. Kept getting the gears wrong and starting off in second. On my late lamented CBR125, I could tell when I was in first as the gear lever would not descend any more, likewise with the VanVan, but with the CG125 in first, there was a lot of downwards slack. Had to keep flicking up in neutral to be sure of first. If I was a better rider though, I probably could have kept track of the gears through the engine sound and torque and also going down the box better when coming to a stop. All this left Aiden in doubt whether I was ready for a 500. This I found very worrying, as I felt sure when I got off this piece of junk and onto the 500, I would be fine. At the end of the day it was decision time and it was very borderline, but Aiden decided to let me loose on the 500 to see how I got on. Needless to say, I finished this day with morale at rock bottom.
Day 3 –Wednesday.
Was on the GS500. Much, much better. More like my old CBR125 with a lot more power. We went through the CBT exercises again and some others to practice slow bike control. Everything was spot on. I had no problems at all on the GS500. Then it was out on the road again. This time we went to Wolverhampton where the test would be taken. Aiden took us on the scenic route and we had a nice blast out in the country. I was up front and Aiden was talking me through positioning going round bends and giving other valuable advice. This was great. I even started hanging off the bike slightly in the corners. Not something I consciously intended, but found myself doing. Riding with my visor open due to it being hot and a big wasp landed on my eyebrow and kept me company for a bit. Had to do a quick look over right shoulder to get rid of him. All too soon though the fun was over and it was onto the serious stuff preparing for the test. We spent the rest of the day riding round the test routes, practicing controlled stops and U-turns. All our U-turns though that we did so well on the car park, went to ratsh*t. Needless to say it was fixation of the kerbs. I ended up dropping the bike doing one, breaking the right brake lever. It was still serviceable, so we were ok to continue. It was a very tiring and stressful day and wits were starting to fail towards the end. This lead me to punt Aiden up the rear at a junction when I thought he’d had gone. The most heinous bike crime of all, hitting another biker and even worse your instructor as well. I felt terrible about it, but it was put behind us and we finished off the rest of the day. Finished this day on much higher note and at least knew I had the potential to pass the test. If not this time, then at least eventually. Had a mishap getting off the bike at the end the day back at Streetbike., though My left leg cramped up and went from under me and the bike fell down it. Didn’t say anything about any injury as I wanted to finished off the week.
Day 4 –Thursday.
Started with a brief spell at my request on the car park getting the U-turns sorted out. Again they went fine, until Aiden put a plank down to represent the kerb. Again they went out the window, but it was a valuable exerise in getting us to ignore the kerb and look where you wanted the bike to go. When we got back to Wolverhampton, the U-turns were, if not perfect, at least acceptable. This was another tiring day of practice where our faults were identified and worked on. Mine were observations, lifesavers too late at junctions and rear observations not emphatic enough to be noticed, and leaving my indicator on when I got distracted by something at a junction.
Day 5 – Friday.
The day of the much feared test. The test was at 2pm, so that left us the morning for Aiden to put us though some mock tests. Being an ex examiner, nothing but perfection would satisfy and we were picked up on lots of minors. The Streetbike philosophy is to get you to level beyond what the examiners would expect, so the actual test was less stressful than Aiden's mock tests. I did fail the test however with 2 minors and a serious error. The minors were; too many lifesavers at one junction and one a little late at another. The serious fault was pure numptiness.
There was no excuse and the examiner called it exactly right. I was not expecting to pass first time anyway, but having got so close accept for one stupid mistake was absolutely gutting. Next time should be a breeze though... but with me you never know!
Retest is on the 26th May at the same place. That is if my leg gets better. Spent all last week with it bandaged from hip to toe and on crutches. Nothing broken though, just severely swollen and bruised.
Just got to rest it and keep it raised. Doc’s worried about DVT setting in and clots as the swelling is restricting the veins.
Still this what I’ve got to look forward to riding.
Bought and paid for and even found some affordable comprehensive insurance. Just got to pass the test and I’m born to blat.
I did more or less exactly the same thing on my first test and took the wrong turning at a weird little junction in a housing estate. Made an even more dumb mistake by following a line of cars through a red temporary traffic light on my second (it was third time lucky in the end) so good luck and I hope you get it next time. 
