June 21, 2008
Wine and Motorbikes (not together)
I was told off last week by one of my army of three regular readers for not having written anything in ages. Well, I've been busy.
I took the WSET Intermediate Wine-tasting course over the past nine weeks at Vinopolis and now I'm waiting to get the results through - I reckon I've passed, but I was surprised by the wide-ranging nature of the questions. Thanks to the training (ahem!) I've been drinking a lot of wine recently. If I pass, I'll have the equivalent of a GCSE grade A-C in wine-tasting.
Even more interesting...
cajoled by Giselle and Simon who want me to join them on a two-wheeled adventure later this year, I took the past week off work to attend a Direct Access motorcycle training course. I trained with Metropolis Motorcycles at Vauxhall, who looked after me very well from the outset.
The first thing I had to do was pass the theory test, which I nearly messed up because I got the dates mixed - in the end, I had to skip the half day's revision of the Highway Code that I had planned, as my test was at 11am on May 24th - luckily I checked the date and time at 9am, which just gave me enough time to dress and get over to the test centre at London Bridge.
Theory test achieved, the next step was the Compulsory Basic Training, or CBT, which is a one day lesson/assessment of roadworthiness on a 125cc motorbike. Despite haiving bought a decent helmet and some proper gloves, I was even shakier on this and didn't reach the required standard on my first attempt. Now, if you consider that this really is a basic test of motorbiking competence, then you'll realise how shockingly bad I must have been.
As I was travelling the next week (a 36 hour stopover in Lisbon, which seems a lovely place and needs to be revisited ASAP) the only day I could retake the CBT in time for the Direct Access course was Friday 13th - happily, despite the ominous date, my confidence and skill levels were much higher and I was duly given a piece of paper declaring that I had successfully completed the CBT. Phew!
My Direct Access course started the next day, so there was no chance of having a rest - equally, what I'd learned on the CBT was fresh in my mind, which was obviously advantageous.
For two days four of us - Mark, Michael, Ezekiel (Zeeks) and me - trained on 125cc bikes again. There was lots of riding around cones in a playground, followed by 'block work' which involves riding on local roads practising observing, cornering, braking, signalling and generally getting used to the bikes. Everything was done under the watchful eye of an instructor called Dave. I was the only complete novice (the others had quite a lot of riding experience) so I was learning something new pretty much every minute. By the evenings I was exhausted, although it was encouraging to me to learn that all four of us were dog tired on the Saturday and had early nights.
On the Sunday we rode over to Chingford and I had my first experience of riding at 50mph. On a 125cc bike, that was quite a hair-raiser! I was improving fast, but U-turns were still a problem. Luckily, I'd forked out for an armoured jacket and some motorcycling boots on the Saturday, which made me a little less scared.
On Monday and Tuesday there was not training, but I borrowed a 125cc bike as part of the Super Six deal I'd signed up to and was able to practise on my own. Because I had passed the CBT, I was allowed to ride on public roads with L-plates.
I met up with Simon on the Monday evening and he gave me a lesson - all the time, I could feel my confidence building and I was starting to enjoy it. Simon reckoned I wasn't too bad, but was able to give me some pointers on how to improve. He also had me do an emergency stop (sorry, controlled stop as if in an emergency) and I tried some U-turns, the latter still being problematic.
On the Tuesday, I practised U-turn after U-turn until I could manouevre the bike on quite small roads (the back of my block of flats has a parking area that could have been purpose built. That's all I did, as I wanted to have a bit of a break.
On Wednesday, we had a ride around central London on the 125cc bikes, being observed by another instructor called Andy. As that went well, we made the move up to 500cc machines after lunch. Once again, I was struggling.
I didn't find the bigger bike any more difficult to handle, if anything it was easier. The problem was still the blimmin' U-turns!! As one of the set piece manouevres, failing to perform a U-turn is instant failure on the test.
Something just wasn't clicking. I was using too much throttle, sometimes too little. My clutch control was shocking. I finished the day very frustrated, knowing that if I didn't fix the problem the next day, the instructors would put me in for a restricted test on a 125cc, whereas full test would allow me to ride on any sized motorcycle.
On the Tuesday, we split into two groups - Mark and I were testing in Greenford, while Michael and Zeeks were going to Guildford. Dave M took Mark and me to the test centre and we spent the day getting used to the local roads, including sections of A-roads, which involves riding at higher speeds - and Dave getting frustrated when I failed to accelerate up to speed quickly enough. I always thought that many bikers were aggressive, but I've now learned that they need to accelerate away from traffic lights and junctions in order to avoid causing pile-ups.
In the mid-afternoon, after some good riding, we practised U-turns again. Mark was knocking them out perfectly. I was still rubbish and it was not looking ood for me. We rode back to Vauxhall, to the practice playground for a last chance remedial lesson in manouevring. Dave was almost beside himself as I tried again and again unsuccessfully to pull the bike round in a controlled fashion. I was both extremely frustrated and over-heating in all my gear - all week I'd found the protective clothing to be extremely hot.
Then Dave explained the clutch control to me in a different way and something clicked into place. I pulled off a decent U-turn with minutes to go before the end of the day. Dave walked over tto me and kissed my helmet! I did a few more turns before we called it a day. I was on for the next day. Phew again! The trick, it seems is not to move the clutch during the manoeuvre. Epiphany.
Friday was test day. I arrived at Metropolis hot and sweaty like I had been all week. Then Michael told me something invaluable: my jacket had a removable winter lining!! I quickly removed it and immediately felt the benefit. And I stopped sweating!
An hour later, we were back in Greenford riding round possible test routes and practising the set pieces. Emergency stops and U-turns were easier and easier.
Mark's test was before mine and while he was out, I pulled off six more U-turns. There was a real chance I might pass!
Before my test started, I learned from a gleaming Mark that he had passed, which added to my confidence - we'd been riding round together for the best part of a week, so I knew I wasn't too much worse a rider than him.
I almost ballsed it up on the second corner, which I took too wide (don't know what I was thinking) but managed to rally myself and the rest of the test went almost like clockwork. I PASSED MY BIKE TEST!!
Thanks to the trainers at Metropolis - Tia and Keith for the CBT, Andy and Dave for the full test, my new problem is working out which bike to buy. I want to tour Europe and visit friends that I haven't seen for some time, so in the longer term I'm probably looking at one of these:
Bring it on!!
Posted by dompannell at June 21, 2008 4:44 PM