Drivers test

[Rocknroll90]

Took the written-no problem
On to the skills-no road work- Just basic skills

weaving the cones-missed one RATS 12 foot between cones with a three foot offset

stopping-just fine

turned a tight coner ggggrrrrrr

drive straight swerve and stop the cone moved grrrr

any other state do this kind of thing?????

[tw1980]

Yeah Oregon does you almost need to barrow a scooter to pass the test.

[trbig]

I never personally had to take the motorcycle test besides the written.

I will tell you though about the tight turns. Go to an empty parking lot. Rev the bike a bit and start slipping the clutch.. but hold the bike to slow speed with the rear brake. Doing this, you can turn the bikes handlebars clear to the stop while turning. Don't use the handlebars for balancing the bike back up.. use your brake. If you start to lean to the inside of the turn too far, release the brake just a bit. Leaning to the outside.. apply more brake and you'll lean back to the inside. You can adjust with the brake several times a second if needed with just your toe on the brake. Also.. look where you're turning to. If doing a 180.. turn your head as far that way as you can. No idea why that helps.. but it does. This method of slipping the clutch will work on the cones also.

If you practice this enough, you'll find that the motor will act a bit as a gyro, and you can actually pull to a stop, turn the wheel just a bit, and hold the rev with the brake.. you'll get to where you can hold the bike stationary for several seconds without putting your feet down.

And if you practice this a whole whole bunch... Spend $40 and get yourself some new friction discs for your clutch.

Tod

[tarzan]

Washington has a pretty tough riding test.I used a 200cc chinabike.There were 7 people taking the test that day.
Three big bikes in a row failed.
I passed on the chinabike.

[latexeses]

I tool my test on a 185 Honda. Idled the thing down to where it sounded like on of the old one-lunger water pumps.

Rode it down to the dmv and rode the course about every day for three weeks.

Idled through the whole course (cones) one way and then the other, shifted up and down as per instructions, hit the last cone. Examiner said he'd never seen anyone ride the course that slow before. Passed.

[Ivan]

That sounds to be exactly like my test.

When I first got my XS11 running, I went to a church parking lot and practiced the slow and tight maneuvers for hours on end. balancing all that heavy duty Japanese built two wheel battle tank will become second nature after a while.

I also looked up a bunch of riding tips on Youtube. you can get a lot of the ride like a pro stuff there. Kinda like a bad movie that tells the whole story in the previews. That helped quite a bit. I never really did get the whole "friction zone" thing to work in my favor, but it may help you.

Thus, when I took the test, it was second nature. Hardest part was the slow ride between two lines a foot apart. Took me two shots to get it, since I was shy half a second on the first attempt.

Also, in your favor, you know the course now. Go back after hours and practice it.

[fredintoon]

You shoulda known better.

Hi R'n'R,
serves you right for turning up for the test on a 30 year old 600lb superbike.
Go borrow a small dual purpose bike to ace the test on; or better yet, go buy one so you can learn to ride dirt with it afterwards.

[CatatonicBug]

I took the MSF class, and that WAS my test. They ran us through excersizes that sounded a lot like those things, but we were on Honda 250's. I felt like I was sitting on the pavement, they were so short! At the end of the 2-day class, they ran us each through the exercises one last time, and that was our test. Pretty simple when done that way.

Definitely DO NOT take the test on an XS11, unless you've been riding it for years. A smaller bike makes it a LOT easier.

[WMarshy]

Hey I resent your comment... I took my road test on my XS and passes the first time. By the sounds of it, your states put you through a little more abuse than NY though. The "handling" part of the test comprised of two left hand circles into two right hand circles then straight into two figure 8's, all within a space that’s as wide as a single lane with a short shoulder... Thats about enough to make a man dizzy! Then they take you out on the street and have you 5 right hand turns and 3 left hand turns (think figure 8 between two blocks) and your done.

[CatatonicBug]

Hey I resent your comment... I took my road test on my XS and passes the first time. By the sounds of it, your states put you through a little more abuse than NY though. The "handling" part of the test comprised of two left hand circles into two right hand circles then straight into two figure 8's, all within a space that’s as wide as a single lane with a short shoulder... Thats about enough to make a man dizzy! Then they take you out on the street and have you 5 right hand turns and 3 left hand turns (think figure 8 between two blocks) and your done.

Ok, well, maybe I'll edit my comment to a "suggestion" You do have it a bit easier I think though. No real streets in our tests. The whole thing was inside the space of a basketball court. They want to see that you can shift up to 2nd, then slow and stop, while downshifting before you put your feet down. A bunch of REALLY tight "S" curves inside a little box, making sure you're looking where you're going instead of right in front of you. Swerving left or right and coming to a stop while downshifting before stopping was one of them too.

I am glad I took the test at the class though. It made things a LOT easier, and a lot less unnerving.

[Pat Kelly]

Just for kicks I stopped by the DMV and rode my XS with all the touring stuff on it over the course (cones, turns, braking, shifting).
This was on a Saturday when they were closed.
A guy on a CBR600RR was watching me. When I was done he rode-up to me and asked how I did that. He'd been trying all morning and couldn't do it.


XSperience

I gave him pointers and he got it in 2 tries. I wonder if it was harder for him when it counted?

[cywelchjr]

I can't say what they do now, and besides I NEVER took a riding test in CA anyways. I did however take a riding test in both Arizona and Washington, but those were both almost 30 years ago, at the time I moved to WA from AZ when I got out of the army they didn't seem to take any other states tests as being valid so I had to redo both the car and bike driving tests. But both were dead simple back then, just a figure 8, a circle and then straight line upshifting at least once and then down at least once to a stop.

Of course in between those I had taken the motorcycle safety course (there was only one back then) and had to take it on my own bike because they didn't supply them back then (it was required to drive on post even back in 1981), it was fun to watch the guys on new harleys try to pass the course. And the guy on the bmw r90 was really fun to watch, there was something wrong with it and it rose about 9 inches before moving forward when letting the clutch out. He did pass though.

[fredintoon]

Most likely an urban legend

but told to me in good faith. Back in the 1950s in Sydney Australia the bike testing place was on one side of the City and the specialised newspaper stand was on the other. The test was to ride across town and bring back a that day's copy of a specific newspaper. If you got back unharmed, you passed.

[exquized1]

Sounds like the test we have here. I had no problem on my xs but I tried it with my dad's Honda VTX 1300 couldn't pass any of the 4 tests. Try to borrow a buddies little bike under 500cc much easier. Or spend a weekend taking the MSC. Pass the course and take your certificate in to the dmv and get your pic taken.

[Larrym]

Parking Lot Antics Payed Off

Sounds like the road test we have here in Washington state. 4 separate "skill" tests.

I was living on an island when I passed the written test and the road test was in another town on the mainland. (1+1/2 hour ferry ride away..) Instead of driving to the test area where the parking lot was already premarked and all the tester had to do was grab the cones out of her trunk, I and a friend went to an empty island parking lot on a Sunday.

At this parking lot I used the diagrams from the book and set up the course as closely as I could. Those red and blue plastic cups you see at kegger parties work just fine as "cones" and if you run one over it's no big deal. First test was to begin from a standing stop, accelerate forward and make a left turn through some cones, then make another left turn without using the cones, go straight to the end of the course where the goal was to stop with your front tire inside a square. (Masking tape was helpful here.)

I did this first test with little difficulty but the other rider on a full dress Kawasaki Voyager kept knocking over or crushing the kegger cups. (I spent more time dealing with this than actually doing the tests myself.) The bike I had at the time was a full dress goldwing. I had sold my XS standard.

After performing the first test correctly 4 times in a row I moved on to the other tests. Same thing: do it 4 times then go on to the next. Strangely, the other rider gave up and sat on the sidelines after he was unable to do the first test 4 times behind me. Note: He had his operators license and had gotten it by "taking the class which automatically qualified him to get his license."

I had some difficulty with the "slalom thru the cones" test at first. Solved that problem by placing the kegger cups farther apart, practicing, and then moving the kegger cups closer together for the next time. Repeat as necessary.

On the day of the actual test I and the Voyager arrived 1/2 hour early. There were about 6 other bikes there of various sizes and makes. My friend pulled up to the other riders, turned off his bike, and began chitt-chatting. I drove past and took a look at the actual course. I wanted to know just how close I had come to making a mock-up of it. Close enough, I saw. So I positioned the goldwing at the start of test number one and began practicing. Moved on to test number two, three, and four. Then I started back at number one. By that time the other riders had seen what I was doing and were each making their own test runs. Well, all but one rider who was on a suzuki 250 dirt/street bike, easily the best candidate for a slam dunk on this test.

Every rider that practiced the course on that day passed and got their license. The single rider who did not practice failed the very first test. And as a cautionary tale, I no longer ride with that Voyager because he was unable to perform a U-turn with his bike within the width of a ordinary road. In fact his slow speed riding skills were so poor that he just wouldn't drive slow in situations where it was appropriate. A PITA most of the time but downright dangerous way too many times for me.

I also offer a disturbing observation: Many people who I have met who have "taken the course" instead of "doing the road test on the bike they are going to be riding" display poor slow speed riding skills. I haven't ridden with any of the other owners here whatsoever so I cannot speak regarding their abilities. I'm not saying that all people who choose to "take the course" aren't good drivers. Just letting you know what I've found so far.

Please separate the swerve test into a Brake-swerve-brake again. The guy on the harley tried to do all this at once. He didn't actually drop his bike but he came perilously close and caught himself/the bike just before the point of no return. I'm sure his knee was never the same afterwards.