Went to the DMV today take my off street motorbike license test.
Got through the paper work side of things pretty quick (No, Freddy does not have her license yet). I then sat outside next to my bike in the testing que, not another bike in site…… There were a few people milling around. After about 10 min we stuck up a bit of conversation, they were taking a bit of effort to tell me how hard it was going to do the test on such a big bike.
Really there was no need, I had been down twice to run through the course and I was not all that confident in passing. Its a big bike with a long wheel base, and I was super worried about hitting a cone with the back wheel. I had to go from hard lock to hard lock at walking pace to get around the cones. At the end of the cones is two 1 foot wide lines in a 10 meter parallel circle, you have to ride around it twice, keeping the front wheel inside both lines, back wheel does not matter. Then, after that, you come back though the salame with the cones.
After that test, you ride up staying inside some straight lines and then around the circle twice, then back down the lines again.
I was most worried about the cones, and my new ‘friends’ were not helping very much. One guy was saying that he borrowed a friends smaller bike for it.
The instructor came out in due course and after the formalities were done, he said, well, its a big bike, you might be alright, we will let you take a few goes at it to warm up if you like………
I was sweating like a …..well, what ever it is that sweats a whole bunch.
Anyway, we lined it up, and, applied the technique, and off we went.
Slip the clutch, ride the back brake, hold the throttle rock solid.
I made it through the cones!!!!!!!!!! Round the circle. If you dab a foot, you fail. I made it twice round, and then back through the cones!
Pulled up not sure if I had breathed at all the whole time……
‘Well, you look like you can handle it’. He said. ‘Now for the next test’
The straight lines were easy, the circle is hard, back down the lines and that was it. He wrote pass on the form.
I walked back to the office to finish the paper work, the guys just about gave me a round of applause. ‘That was impressive’ was the comment….. They have no idea how much of a fluke it was!
According to the guy in the office I should have my car AND bike license in about 3 weeks. Yah.
The family came into work to have a tour of the place and meet a few people. It was a good hour or so by the time we got through the factory and the two floors. They seemed to really enjoy the whole visit, and I sure enjoyed showing them were I work and some of the people I work with.
Terry and I did the loop tonight. I put a fork brace on last night (to help with the test mostly), and I have to say, now that I have passed the test, its better than I thought it would be. The handling is just so much sharper than what it was. The annoying thing is that I feel it is still twisting. I have a new front tyre, I will see how it goes with that on, but Im sure I can feel it twist still.
Anyway, Terry loves the curves and I let my hair down a bit, we had a really great carve up of the loop. The foot pegs lost a bit of metal off them…… It was a nice end to the day.