First I take the written test (well on a computer)...the questions are essentially pointless but the answers are all misleading. Such:
"If someone is tailgating, you should:"
Now the book says specifically "move to the right and slow down, encouraging the tail gater to pass." My answer choices are "speed up", "pass the car ahead", increase distance between you and the car ahead", and "move to the right." I went with "move to the right"...turns out there supposed to always be a car ahead of you when you're being tailgated. :icon_rolleyes:
93% is well ahead of passing, though, so I bite my tongue and move on. Riding test. This lady expected me to listen for her driver to honk the horn (100ft away, my helmet on, moving 30mph...like I'm going to really hear that), and look in my mirror to see if the driver's turn signals were on. Honk twice, signal left, I'm supposed to go left. Honk once, signal right, I'm supposed to go right. She then fails me because a light turned yellow while I was waiting to see if the drier's f%$king signal light was on for that intersection. Since they couldn't go through the intersection she said I ran a red light and failed me. She then tells me "don't worry, you can re-take the test" like it's easy for me, or the driver I'm supposed to supply them, to get off during business hours and drive the thirty five f%$king miles to the dps office every day...and she tells me that they'll be open late tomorrow like everyone within forty miles won't be there to try and get their shaZam! done.
What a crock of shaZam!.
:icon_twisted:
Grandfather claus :flipoff:
Oklahoma went from an operators license to the standardized class structure license 90 or 91 all I had to do was go sign a piece of paper stating I had been riding for 2 years.
My wife was going to take the MSF anyway, in OK if you take the MSF the riding portion is waived, go take the written and get your license.
yeah they need to just go with something like that...let us sign a waiver...anything. Hell I'd be happy as hell if they'd just do an obstacle course. Trying to ride around downtown lubbock, a part of town I'm 100% unfamiliar with, while trying to look in the mirror to see if there's a blinker on, is just dangerous...to myself and others.
Just really pisses me off because the lady only wanted to go home...
i got my endorsement in AR. i took my safety course, passed the written test and didn't have to take a driving test. good thing cuz i don't own a bike. :laugh: then when i moved to OH, i just had to retake the written tests to get my liscense transfered. :dunno_white:
I'd take the msf course but I'd have to wait 6 weeks and spend $400. I'm not about to say I wouldn't learna nything taking the MSF course I'm confident I'll not learn enough to find it justifiable.
In Ohio all I had to do was pass the written test for my temps. Then I took the street test, which consisted of four passes on a cone obstacle course. Really easy, especially on the light and nimble gs. When I was doing it there was an old guy on a harley full dresser watching me. After I schooled the course 100%, he left. :laugh: That stuff they had you doing sounds difficult, glad I only had to weave through some cones.
Quote from: makenzie71 on March 12, 2008, 03:28:55 PM
First I take the written test (well on a computer)...the questions are essentially pointless but the answers are all misleading. Such:
"If someone is tailgating, you should:"
Now the book says specifically "move to the right and slow down, encouraging the tail gater to pass." My answer choices are "speed up", "pass the car ahead", increase distance between you and the car ahead", and "move to the right." I went with "move to the right"...turns out there supposed to always be a car ahead of you when you're being tailgated. :icon_rolleyes:
93% is well ahead of passing, though, so I bite my tongue and move on. Riding test. This lady expected me to listen for her driver to honk the horn (100ft away, my helmet on, moving 30mph...like I'm going to really hear that), and look in my mirror to see if the driver's turn signals were on. Honk twice, signal left, I'm supposed to go left. Honk once, signal right, I'm supposed to go right. She then fails me because a light turned yellow while I was waiting to see if the drier's f%$king signal light was on for that intersection. Since they couldn't go through the intersection she said I ran a red light and failed me. She then tells me "don't worry, you can re-take the test" like it's easy for me, or the driver I'm supposed to supply them, to get off during business hours and drive the thirty five f%$king miles to the dps office every day...and she tells me that they'll be open late tomorrow like everyone within forty miles won't be there to try and get their shaZam! done.
What a crock of shaZam!.
I don't communicate well recently, so let me get this straight:
You're supposed to provide 1 motorcycle to test on, 1 car, and one driver to chauffer the DMV dude around BEHIND you on open roads, for a test ?
And from your description, it sounds like there is not a planned course either, but a "I'll honk and you try to swap lanes while keeping me in sight and making sure you don't loose me in the process" ?
WTF ? This is the test ?
Sounds like a recipe for a wreck to me, not an education experience. :( Good luck mak.
Biggest problem with DMV's roadtesting bikes is that 99.9% of the testers are not riders. Recently a tester in Oklahoma was fired because he got sideways with the wrong person and actually said he found every reason possible to fail sportbikes because he hated them. Here they give the rider a little radio receiver and clip it to the helmet and call instructions out that way. One of my co-workers wives was taking her test she took the left turn she was told to take and she assumed that meant veer left at a ramp and the asshat didn't tell her he wanted her to go right until it was almost too late. She wound up binning it when she went to correct and the front end washed out on gravel built up in the cebter of the road.
State law says your visor only has to cover your eyes it doesn't say you have to close it completely they fail for that even if you have safety glasses on underneath which are acceptable eye protection if your helmet's visor is not completely closed you fail, putting down only one foot, If your a habitual dirt rider do not stab your foot down and let it slide ina turn....fail.
I could go on and on but these douches administering the riding test are completely unqualified.
Oh and $400 for a msf course seems kinda high, they get away with murder down there.
In NY you gotta take the road test basically the same way. The woman that administered my test told me ahead of time where I needed to go. Basically take the first left, go to the stop sign make a left, then at the next street take a right and pull over to the side of the road. At that point she got out of my dad's truck. Instructed me to do my circles and figure 8. Once that was done she told me to head back to the starting point following the same route backwards. Took about 5 minutes.
Quote from: Absolute Rescue on March 13, 2008, 05:32:04 AM
In NY you gotta take the road test basically the same way. The woman that administered my test told me ahead of time where I needed to go. Basically take the first left, go to the stop sign make a left, then at the next street take a right and pull over to the side of the road. At that point she got out of my dad's truck. Instructed me to do my circles and figure 8. Once that was done she told me to head back to the starting point following the same route backwards. Took about 5 minutes.
Why was she in your dads truck?
Cali is a good state for doing the test in, as is washington state.
Both states do it in parking lots and in WA, the guy sees you practice and sees that you do fine, but you dont do well in the test cos well, he's showing you random sheite, he would pass you cos in the real world someone usually isn't waiting 10 feet in front of you pointing left or right at random.
CA test is all pre planned, drive here through this and stop. Then light goes green, then go and turn left and stop etc etc. The guy just observes you.
Yea, government work. Its as Idiotic as its easy, and the dumber you are, the better you make out.
Cool.
Srinath.
In GA it's all done on a little obstacle in a parking lot. A couple of swerves, emergency stops, and a curve at speed and you're done. And you can fail like 50% of it and still pass :cookoo: I saw a guy almost wipe out on both emergency stops and he still passed.
Our test is hard and you have to take a hell of alot of tests to get a motorcycle on the road, well CBT basic riding skills, then a written theory test - pretty obvious, you have 35 questions you have to get 30 right, pretty darn easy if you do abit of revision with a theory test cd.
Practical test lasts around 40 minutes, you ride, followed by an examine, he talks to you via a radio, you can't talk back but he can talk to you, (this same system is true for when practicing as well your instructor speaks to you via a radio earpiece but you can't talk back) they tell you whether to go left or right pull over etc etc.. So you do alot of riding round doing a mix of duel carridgeway, roundabouts, junctions, different speeds and traffic levels. Then you do your manovers usually an emergency brake, hill start, turn in the road, sometimes a swerve. Then when its over you get a score i think your allowed 10 minors or something like that, which is minor things like forgetting to cancel a signal promptly after a turn so they are very picky about the minors, majors include things like pulling out in front of traffic basically dangerous mistakes which are automatic failure.
Least they speak to us via radio and you dont have to wait for a honk then look behind to check which way they want to go lol - do they not do manovers and stuff with you? Sounds like the tests over there are a sham pretty much pointless and what they do do is to a poor standard.
There's nothing standardized here. I'm about to head back out and do it again but I'm going to ask if my route can be pre-planned...if they say no then I'm going to do the whole thing at a crawl because that's the only way I can at least semi-safely pay as much attention to the officer behind me as I am to the real world in front of me. If it's a no-go this time I'll probably get irate. I've been riding a decade without a license, maybe I'll try again in another.
You had to have a vehicle and driver that the test administrator could follow behind you with.
Quote from: makenzie71 on March 13, 2008, 12:46:16 PM
There's nothing standardized here. I'm about to head back out and do it again but I'm going to ask if my route can be pre-planned...if they say no then I'm going to do the whole thing at a crawl because that's the only way I can at least semi-safely pay as much attention to the officer behind me as I am to the real world in front of me. If it's a no-go this time I'll probably get irate. I've been riding a decade without a license, maybe I'll try again in another.
Make sure they cant flunk you for 'walking the bike'.
Cool.
Srinath.
Good point, they may require a minimum speed.
It was a different test lady and this one was quite a bit more relaxed...she wasn't uptight like the state trooper chick was. I passed, she still marked a few things off because she couldn't see my head turn to check my right of way, but oh well. I don't care...I passed.
Congrats!!!
congrats on the passage. woot for you !
i'm now wondering what made you decide to get it , after 10 years of no M 'dorsement ?
did you use the maggot? O0
damn straight I used the maggot!
I've always had encouragement to get my license...family saying it's the right thing to do, officers handing me warning after warning for no M endorsement (that ship can only sail so long), progressive telling me I have to pay more for no M endorsement, etc. Simple fact is, though, that it's never been convenient to do. In Gruver I could only do it on Thursdays but I could never arrange for a legal bike, a legal driver, and a legal car to all be there at the same time. In Lubbock it's just been hectic until now and I had to update my license anyway...so I figured I'd just go ahead and do it. I just wasn't aware that doing it was going to involve me taking off work four days and inconveniencing my brother in law three of those days to accomplish...I probably would have said to hell with it.
Of course it really irritates me because not a single thing I was tested for was anything that made me a rider. Anyone can drive around the block a couple times but that proves very, very little.
Funny testing anecdote: When they tell you to take a turn as fast as you feel you can safely do so, they are LYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:laugh:
Sweet I wonder if they'd fail someone for a 50 degree lean angle and a knee puck on the ground :icon_twisted:
I was about there, just no pucks. I grabbed a bit of asphalt with my knee armor though :icon_rolleyes: That's what got most of my points taken off. Something about unsafe handling..............f%$king bullshit, I handled that Buddha Loves You perfectly :icon_mrgreen:
Oh yeah congrats mak.
Quote from: spcterry on March 13, 2008, 08:24:12 PM
I was about there, just no pucks. I grabbed a bit of asphalt with my knee armor though :icon_rolleyes: That's what got most of my points taken off. Something about unsafe handling..............f%$king bullshit, I handled that Buddha Loves You perfectly :icon_mrgreen:
lol i can imagine that, or when i did my msf, we were working on the 2-1 panic stop, shifting from 2 to 1 AND hitting brakes at same time. that day i did my first ( and only stoppie) :icon_twisted:
Quote from: makenzie71 on March 12, 2008, 03:28:55 PM
First I take the written test (well on a computer)...the questions are essentially pointless but the answers are all misleading. Such:
"If someone is tailgating, you should:"
Now the book says specifically "move to the right and slow down, encouraging the tail gater to pass." My answer choices are "speed up", "pass the car ahead", increase distance between you and the car ahead", and "move to the right." I went with "move to the right"...turns out there supposed to always be a car ahead of you when you're being tailgated. :icon_rolleyes:
I failed my written test in PA the first time. The questions were misleading, but I mostly blame the failure on the old guy that sat next to me and farted a foot away from my face when they asked him to leave as he wasn't even taking the test. I'm not even joking, I could feel the wind.
After I got my permit it was smooth sailing - Pennsylvania has to be the best state for the MSF: the BRC is free and they test you with the class at the conclusion, after drilling every movement that will be on the test. There's no road component, but honestly the clutch control and low-speed turning without putting your foot down stuff is probably the most important part anyway, and they test that pretty thoroughly.
OR - like it's WA and Cali buddies is another nice state to do MSF in. They have sweet little 250cc cruisers as lender bikes for the two riding days (second of which they test you on). Lots of obstacle courses and weaving. When they say "stop as quickly as you can w/o dropping it" they mean it. Think I managed to pull down from 25 to 0 in 11', skidding both wheels. Hit a few cones, but passed. All parking lot and no roads. (Wish I had a course around here I could spin my GS through, work on weaving and swerving).
Glad to hear you passed in tx though. They should really standardize this stuff.
congrats mak :thumb: