New Test - First biker crashes!

[igbell]

Yep in this day and age unless you own your own island and have your own laws, it is a case of becoming couch potato and playing life online.

[Iceman]

+1 then! :

[steveo]

just read this, i think it is really stupid that you have to do such a dangerous manuver on a test, it takes the piss, as a biker i would dread having to do that if the time ever comes that i need to, i would rather just ditch the bike than try and swerve, because i think if you did, it would or could make things a lot worse, i.e if i was in a situation where i could not get out of a head on with a car i would rather ditch the bike than suddenly change direction and maybe hit another car or a pedestrian making things alot worse. i would rather scratch my leathers than die or kill others.

[kez_kitten]

i want to do my bike test soon but that rather puts me off, the idea of trying to swerve doesnt particularly appeal to me,

[igbell]

The one thing you have to take into considuration here is they were doing this in the rain, which makes things worse, also we dont know about the ground they were doing it on, do trucks or buses drive across it at night when the bikes arent there??
I know the Swindon is a newly built test lad I dont know about others, are they new or reused car parks or such??
Also have these people had sufficent training on this and in these conditions??
I must say I do think the car test in Finland is very good, 3 years to take a test and also you have to do all weathers and skid pan days the lot, hence why they have better rally drivers than anybody else as they are taught to drive like a rally driver from the age of 16.

[Iceman]

I've got the new test centre built next to my house so will have to watch out for this new test!

[igbell]

So that means you live round the corner from me then Iceman, we will have to meet up then.

[xl1000va6]

All the DSA test centres are purpose built and use all weather surface, so the wet weather shouldn't make any difference. The test pads are for the exclusive use of bike tests and cannot be accessed by any other vehicles day or night. The problem is that novice riders are being asked to carry out a hazardous manoeuvre that has only really been tested by experienced riders. I started training for the new test on Wednesday and the first rider to attempt the manoeuvre crashed. They looked down at the speedo to make sure they were up to speed and then grabbed a handful of front brake when they saw the cones. Both things they were expressly told not to do. Novices panic, when people panic they grab stuff, when people grab stuff they feckin' crash......

Keep an eye on the news early next week, tomorrow sees that first tests being conducted at 'casual hire' sites and VOSA testing stations. These do not have high quality surfaces and are used by HGV's during the week.