Extra Motorcycle Test Procedures from 2008

By Martin Curran, Kickstart Rider Training, Merseyside

I was at Cardington on another matter, and as this is the only place where they have the layout, I thought this would be a chance to have a look.

The staff couldn't have been more helpful. They seemed genuinely pleased that someone was showing an interest and asked if I not only wanted to look at it, but would I like to ride through it. They suggested that I could do it on my Pan European.

The 2008 test has supposedly been laid out for any size of bike from 125 to Gold Wing. The DSA line was 'How many people do scooter tests?' I don't know what they'll do when a scooter turns up.

The test starts by riding (you can ride or push) 20 yards into a box simulating a garage, stopping the engine and putting the bike on the stand. (Side stand or centre stand). There is a choice of 2 'garages' which are positioned alongside each other. The candidate must then wheel the bike backwards from one 'garage' into the other. (Imagine that with a Gold Wing, no you can't use reverse gear, the Pan was heavy enough!)

The candidate is then expected to take 'effective' rear observations, ride out of the garage, complete a slalom through approx 10 cones and then do 2 complete figure of 8's around the last two cones. I just about got through the slalom, missing the cones by inches (luck not judgement), and then did the widest figure of 8 possible. (The examiner did say that it was down to their discretion whether the exercise had been completed properly.)

The next exercise is to enter a bend, either left or right handed depending on the layout, at 30KPH. (whatever happened to MPH?) The bend is nowhere near as sharp as it looks and should be negotiated with ease by a competent rider.

On leaving the bend the rider must accelerate to 50KPH (32mph - this is why you can't do it on the public road!) and perform a swerve which simulates a vehicle pulling out of a side road. At this point there are speed measuring devices to ensure the rider has reached the required speed. My first attempt was a miserable failure as I only reached 47KPH. I understand that on test, candidates will be given one more attempt. After the 'swerve' the rider must carry out a controlled stop within a box denoted by 4 cones.

The candidate then must take rear observations again, ride out of the box and carry out a U-Turn, again, I just got the Pan round. (I'm sure that's narrower than the roads used for the current U- Turn.)

As I had messed up the swerve by not going fast enough I was sent round the bend again to have another go. This time I entered the swerve at 57KPH, what a difference 10KPH makes. I was countersteering as hard as I could and just made it without hitting the cone.

Somewhere along the line the examiner got me to do an emergency stop, but, to be honest, my brain was so confused by all the manouevres, I can't remember where it came in.

Note: Since the Emergency Stop and U-turn have been done during off-road part of the test, they will not be done during the on-road test.

The two parts of the test are done in one go, the off-road part will be done first. If the Candidate passes the off-road part they will then be taken on the road. If they fail the off-road part, that's the end of the test

The test isn't too bad, the swerve is nowhere near as sharp as it looks on the DSA video. My only complaint would be that from leaving the bend it is very hard to get upto 50KPH. The rider is busy looking at his/her speedo, the cone they have to swerve around and the box they have to stop in. There is too much to take in all at once. I'd like to think I'm an experienced rider, but I did struggle with the speed aspect. First too slow, then too fast. The examiner said that candidates would be better at 52KPH than 48KPH as 50 is the minimum speed. I would suggest that they shouldn't hit 57KPH as that was scary.

The site at Cardington is huge. However it's still not big enough. I feel there should be more space for accelerating out of the bend to 50KPH. I've no idea how someone on a 125 will manage. God help the scooters!

Like most ATBs, I am not in a position to buy/rent a training site big enough to carry out the manouvres so I guess we'll have to improvise.

We can get trainees to practice pushing the bikes backwards, we can do a slalom and figure of 8 on-site, we can find a bend to ride around at 30kph, we can practice emergency and controlled stops but I've no idea where we can practice the 'swerve'. That is going to be a real problem.

The test has been tried out on Examiners, Instructors and willing members of the public, all of whom have, presumably, more than one brain cell. The DSA have timed the test at between 10 and 12 minutes. This begs the question, what will happen when the examiner has to deal with the likes of a customer I had last week. It took me 15 minutes to explain the press to cancel indicators on a CB500! I can see the timings falling apart and so delaying, or even resulting in the cancellation of the following tests.

As usual we have been dictated to by the E.U. or whatever it's called these days.

I fail to see what impact the test can have on accident figures.

We have had two part testing before and it was scrapped as it was found to have no valid use.

If anyone else has ridden through the 2008 test I'd be glad to hear your thoughts.

Martin Curran
Kickstart Rider Training
St.Helens


original article
Extra Motorcycle Test Procedures from 2008