I am going for my full licence on Friday, any tips?

[jewjew]

Can you please give me some tips as i am going for my full licence on friday (32 YO + gold licence).

Julian

[red_dave]

Don't speed during the test... I failed one cause of that...

Good luck anyway...

[Felix]

Keep it upright, don't drop it, and more importantly:

R-E-L-A-X

Don't stuff it up by thinking too much.

[Damon Z1000]

Hey, just keep your cool and above all keep note of your speed, a quick question on ausie tests, do the follow with intercom on?

[ty]

As mentioned - relax.
The test isn't all that hard - and you get all morning to practice the things you'll be tested on.
Listen to the tips they give you about getting through the u-turn nicely.
And take the cone weave nice and easy - don't start right next to the first cone, that gets you off to the wrong start.
hth
ty

[icebreaker]

Good Luck!

[James]

Keep your head up and look where you want to go. Ride the clutch and let the rear brake determine your speed and stability.

[Colette]

In the cone weave, it is better to miss a cone than to hit it and try not to put your foot down when doing manoeuvres.

Where are you doing the test?

[Glen]

The biggest issue with most students is being able to slow ride effectively, as James said. Make sure you practise your slow riding, ie plenty of revs, ride the clutch and use the rear brake to regulate speed. This will make the offset cone weave much easier and the U - turn as well. In the morning course listen to the instructor as he will be showing you all the stuff in the test and should put you through the specific test exercises.

Keep your head up through everything, it really is much easier to do the exercises

Practise tight circles before you get there ie body upright, head turned as far as you can, full lock and the bike leaned in. Best way is to keep gradually tightening the turn. You weren't shown this in your L's course but it's good practise for tight turning.

The other main issue is braking. Just remember your level 1 stuff ie Head Upright, Set Up, Squeeze, Clutch In, The test doesn't care about Gear down or one foot on the ground but do it anyway. They will care about anticipating though so practise breaking from a point ie draw a line on the ground and leave your fingers off the levers until you get to the line. When you do your test don't go too fast, 20 - 30k is all you need, probably in 2nd. Get used to what it feels like in a car park etc so you won't have to worry too much on the day.

Last but not least. The most heartbreaking moment for an instructor is when a good student gets through the test with zero points and then swerves the wrong way in the swerve. Listen to the instructor as he should tell you which way to swerve and he should stand on the side that he wants you to swerve to.

Oh and whatever you do don't stall anywhere, hence lots of revs with the slow riding and when moving from one part of the test to the next. You lose points for each stall from the moment you begin the test until after you finish the swerve and recover.

Most importantly, have fun. It's a good course, with a pain in the arse test at the end where your instructor unfortunately has to put a RTA hat on.


Good Luck

[Glen]

In the cone weave, it is better to miss a cone than to hit it and try not to put your foot down when doing manoeuvres.

Where are you doing the test?

Hit or miss doesn't matter from a points perspective. Once you've missed or hit two though you don't lose any more points, so if you have hit 2 simply ride through the rest in a straight line making sure you don't put your foot down, because you will lose more points for that.

[Colette]

In the cone weave, it is better to miss a cone than to hit it and try not to put your foot down when doing manoeuvres.

Where are you doing the test?

Hit or miss doesn't matter from a points perspective. Once you've missed or hit two though you don't lose any more points, so if you have hit 2 simply ride through the rest in a straight line making sure you don't put your foot down, because you will lose more points for that.

That's not what we were told - i.e. that the point loss for hitting a cone is 1 (I think) and 0.5 for missing it.

[Glen]

Hey, just keep your cool and above all keep note of your speed, a quick question on ausie tests, do the follow with intercom on?

Not in NSW. The instructor just observes the students during the road ride component and we stop periodically to talk and change positions. You can really only blow the road ride by ignoring a traffic signal, speeding repeatedly or doing something outright dangerous.

[Glen]

In the cone weave, it is better to miss a cone than to hit it and try not to put your foot down when doing manoeuvres.

Where are you doing the test?

Hit or miss doesn't matter from a points perspective. Once you've missed or hit two though you don't lose any more points, so if you have hit 2 simply ride through the rest in a straight line making sure you don't put your foot down, because you will lose more points for that.

That's not what we were told - i.e. that the point loss for hitting a cone is 1 (I think) and 0.5 for missing it.

You had me worried there for a minute Collette, so I double checked as I haven't done a P's test for a while. Someone told you a porky. There are no half points anywhere in the MOST.

It's 3 points for the first cone, 2 for the second and no more for any subsequent cones whether you hit or miss. Foot down is 1 for the first, 3 for the second and 5 for the third. Therefore if you miss two cones don't risk putting your foot down by attempting the rest

[photomike666]

I sung "Always look on the bright side of life" to myself the whole way through and passed first time.

[Glen]

Stop Press.

Recent changes to the scheme.

The test is now at lunch time ie before the road ride and Road Craft lecture so that students aren't too fatigued. May be a good thing but will allow less time for practise after the road ride

For the road ride the instructor now leads rather than follows the first two riders. What this achieves I don't know but probably makes the observed road ride somewhat pointless. ie how can you observe properly when you're in front.

I think these together with the changes to the course layout last year are designed to make it a lot easier.