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Count yourselves lucky, I've got my 7th try at the practical test in Japan on Monday. To be fair, the first 4 were basically just practice to figure out what they're looking for (taking the test is only slightly more expensive than a lesson at the school, where the instructor is kind of a dickhead and the course is too small to practice anything beyond the obstacles), but they're extremely pedantic about procedural stuff. On the one hand it's nice that they only want to pass extremely competent riders, on the other hand I'm probably over a grand deep at this point after lessons, transportation (only test site in the prefecture is at least 2 hours away by public transport), and test fees. I've got a good amount of experience on smaller bikes before, most of my problem is just not being able to find much info about the test online, and only being able to understand a portion of the feedback I get. The cops realize that and are nice guys, but still don't give me an inch of slack when it comes to scoring. I have a friend who's been riding for ten years, including two in Japan, and it still took him 3 tries to pass the foreign conversion test here... and our prefecture is actually pretty lenient by Japanese standards. I got my foreign car license conversion squared away in one go at least, which the guy said I was the first to manage in about a year (another friend has since managed to replicate the feat). I considered a school, but they cost over two grand and with my level of Japanese I just wouldn't get that much value out of it, if that's even possible. Bought "More Proficient Motorcycling" to go with the original that I already have, thanks for the recommendation way back when, CA. Last time the examiner said I was really close to passing (got an unfamiliar course and didn't know the proper kabuki-show of changing sides of the lane at one intersection), here's to hoping...
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Jul 27, 2012 09:30
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 18:20 |
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Finally passed my 普通二輪 (中型) [Normal two-wheeled, mid-size] practical yesterday!  Most of the difficulty was the language barrier and paucity of English-language info about the test, although they're also extremely picky about lots of tiny procedural stuff. Technique I finally settled on for passing: booting it in the straights (despite my instructor telling me there was no such thing as too slow, was gigged twice for not going fast enough), braking hard before turns (have to take them within 50cm of the corner/centerline), and over-exaggerating all my head checks to the point of absurdity. Right when I was about to do the "enter oncoming lane to avoid parked car" obstacle I had a car coming the other way, so I pulled over, waited for it to pass, then redid head-checks and completed the maneuver. You've got to share the test course with people doing their test for cars, semi-trucks, and bulldozers, which can be a little tricky at times. Still got to sit through a 3-4 hour safety lecture before I can get my license. All told, probably will have spent $1200-1500 on getting my bike license here, which is still like half what most Japanese people who go to riding schools pay. I had a fair bit of experience on 125cc bikes (and not enough Japanese to get a ton out of riding school, even if I'd wanted to pay that much), so just did a few a la carte lessons at a school until I couldn't improve any more, then took the practical a bunch of times until I could figure out what they were looking for.
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Aug 4, 2012 08:10
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Skreemer posted:Two things: Luckily for me there was at least an English-language version of the 100 question written test I had to take beforehand. But not being able to understand all the feedback I was getting from the instructor or examiner made it a lot more difficult than it should have been. I passed on my 8th try, but 5-6 of those were basically just me figuring out through trial-and-error what they wanted. The safety class is going to be all Japanese, but apparently I haven't seen any Motegi MotoGP adverts, but I'm in a small city in what's basically the Kentucky of Japan. I'll make a note of that and let you know if I see any that I can get my hands on though. I was able to find a couple from a few years ago on Yahoo Auctions (kinda the eBay of Japan).
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Aug 5, 2012 11:30
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What's the rationale behind having to shift down to first while stopping? In my lessons/on my test we never had anything like that, was standard to procedure to switch feet once you were at a stop and shift down to first then. For the e-stop the instructor said to avoid even clutching in until the last minute, to take advantage of engine braking.
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Aug 11, 2012 03:03
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JollyRancher posted:The instructors were adamant about shifting down into 1st when coming to a stop so you can accelerate out of problems. Intersections and cornering were highlighted as the two most dangerous places for motorcyclists. If you're not in 1st as soon as you roll to a stop you can't escape the Soccer Mom who will roll over you in her SUV at a stop light. Ah, fair enough. I know about the hanging out in first at a stop so you can make an escape thing (I used to stop in neutral, because my first bike had a really stiff clutch that sucked to hold in for long amounts of time), guess I didn't think of immediate danger once stopped.
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Aug 13, 2012 00:19
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Grimes posted:Oh my god I'm terrible This is kind of a repeat from either the old MSF thread or the general questions one, but my instructor wanted us to take the slalom in 3rd and give it little spurts of throttle between each cone. I think the goon consensus was that was kinda weird, so I went back to doing it in second at a more or less constant speed.
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Aug 20, 2012 01:16
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I am terrible at motorcycling even by the standards of someone who is having trouble. I'm seriously shocked at how much trouble I had with virtually everything. I kept accidentally giving the bike gas on the throttle when doing the slalom or even turning and I loving ran my bike into some shrubs. I was fine and so was the bike, but it almost seemed like an exclamation point on the day of "Oh my god, I'm bad at this and I don't know if I'm ever going to be good at it."
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So, another Japan update: I previously took a few a la carte lessons at a smaller school to get the hang of the CB400, but now that I've passed the practical test down at the driving center, I now have a brief safety class to complete before they issue my endorsement. The school I'm taking it at is a lot closer to where I live, the course is also a lot bigger and the instructor is a shitload better than the crotchety old man with the thick rural accent I used to have. Today he put us on a simulator, pretty standard at Japanese schools from what I understand. I've played a motorcycle racing arcade game once, but this was leagues more realistic. It was pretty detailed; for example, the bike would get "buffeted" by the wind if you were passed by a semi, but the feedback was still kind of weird and I had a hard time getting used to it. After my first trial "lap" I was doing okay though, I managed pretty well on the city and expressway driving levels, although teacher said I ought to increase my speed a bit. Apparently he thought I was going to ride like a total maniac because I'm foreign, glad I didn't live up to that reputation, at least. The other thing about the simulator is it's basically every worst-case scenario at once, so it's kind of fun to predict how everything on the screen is trying to murder you. To be honest, I'd love to just dick around on one for an hour or two riding like a total knob. Be even sweeter if there was multiplayer or I worked some kind of drinking game into it. My classmates are a shy 38 year old woman and a scraggly looking dude who is a straight-up bosozoku-in-waiting. The only way he could have been more squiddy is if he had taken off his helmet and stood up on the seat while on the simulator, revving madly. Instructor seemed to realize he was a lost cause when he tried to outrun a car to merge onto the expressway, then came to a complete stop on the on-ramp when he couldn't get past the guy... when he sped up on the fog section and barely managed to shoot between a pair of immobile semi trucks, it barely got a reaction out of the teacher. I think this class is basically an "everybody passes" thing, which is kind of a shame because there are some real shitheads (see: bosozoku) on bikes in this country. The lady crashed twice; once she got T-boned by a homicidal car that just decided to make a "gently caress YOU" turn in front of her, the other time she came out of the tunnel before the bridge and was too far to the left, crosswind nailed her against the guardrail. Again, tester didn't seem to hold it against her. Come to think of it, I probably did the best out of the three of us, and that was my first time riding a sim. After that we went upstairs and watched two safety videos (no gore, surprisingly). The first one was on  LaserDisc , which I haven't seen since elementary school. It covered some basic scenarios that basically boiled down to "don't ride like a bell end and be aware of you/other driver's blind spots". The second one was about riding two-up, although new licensees aren't allowed a passenger their first year, and have to wait three years to take a passenger on the expressway. I swear I could see a poo poo-eating grin on the guy's face in the latter video whenever he did a maneuver that was intended to almost shake the passenger loose. The dumpy-looking woman on the back seemed terrified most of the time. After that we adjourned, there's some sort of practical element tomorrow and after that I should be able to go down to the driving center and get my license issued. Not really that excited anymore because my [redacted] contracting organization isn't letting me drive right now. It's not legal but they're basically banking on it being too much of a pain in the rear end for me to fight it. I'm guessing I might be on the road in another month or two. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Aug 20, 2012 |
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Aug 20, 2012 16:26
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Grimes posted:I don't know if it was my bike or what (Honda Nighthawk) but shifting up was goddamn hard. It was literally hard, as in I had to loving crank my foot up to not end up in Neutral from first. Is this pretty typical? When shifting, do you typically lift your entire foot up? Maybe typical on MSF bikes... my CB400 yesterday at the motorcycle school had the same issue, although maybe not quite as bad. Now have class graduation certificate and "passed the written and practical" certificates in hand, all that's left is to go down to licensing center and get endorsement issued
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Aug 22, 2012 00:40
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An observer posted:Here is my Ridiculous MSF Getup I'm sure they've seen worse than a Canadian tuxedo. Protection-wise, I mean. 
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Sep 25, 2012 11:52
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Sagebrush posted:On the other hand, one province over in Quebec you have to spend your whole first year riding with another person as a chaperone (following you on their own motorcycle). Not sure if that's too far in the other direction but it does seem safer than the Ontario way. That seems... incredibly inconvenient. Do you need to prove you were riding that whole year, or can you get the license, sit on it for a year, and then start riding normally? It's annoying because I fall into this category, but in Japan you can't take a pillion your first year on normal roads, or your first three years on expressways, which is probably in everyone's best interests. Well, I'm kinda iffy on the expressways thing, but still. Surprisingly there's no beginner's mark for motorcycles like they have for cars, so I guess you have to get pulled over (or into an accident) to get caught...
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Nov 27, 2012 06:04
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Abe Froman posted:After passing my MSF last July, I finally ventured out on the freeway today. I wasn't bothered by the speed, but man, the wind on a naked bike, it felt like I was going to fly off, especially when I turned my head and the wind caught my helmet. Hope it gets better the more I do it. Don't forget earplugs!
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Jul 12, 2013 01:31
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HiggsBoson81 posted:Experience on a manual car isn't really that useful, or it wasn't for me. I've driven a manual for 15 years and all that did was have me trying to never use the friction point to control the power to the rear wheel because that's not a thing you should do in a car. A little OT, but as someone who's very comfortable riding bikes but wants to learn to drive a manual car, any tips?
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Nov 18, 2013 01:43
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OSU_Matthew posted:Buy a dual sport! Yeah, this. I'm 6'1" and my XLR250 fits me perfectly. I was teaching my friend (5'10"?) how to ride it and he couldn't flatfoot it.
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Nov 20, 2013 11:02
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Teaching my neighbor/co-worker the basics of riding on my XLR250, in preparation for his trip to Vietnam later this month. He's planning to rent Minsks (125cc two-stroke Russian dual-sports) with his friend, which actually mirrors my own introduction to motorcycling, albeit I had a fair bit of experience on 4-speed 125cc step-throughs previously. Got him fairly comfortable with starting out in first/second/putting his feet up at our apartment complex, then took him over to a nearby industrial park and let him practice third, turns, and figure-8's. Was wet so I decided not to have him try emergency stops that time. What would you guys recommend I teach him next?
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Dec 3, 2013 11:40
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Blackdawgg posted:Have my BRC scheduled for next weekend. I'm excited to get on some bikes and have some fun. I have no motorcycle experience except a handful of times riding a 49cc scooter. Expensive though $185 with a dealers discount. Costs as much as the rust bucket Suzuki GS I bought to fix up. I'm doing mine Thurs/Fri, it runs $225, which is pretty standard for Florida (it's also mandatory to get an endorsement, you can no longer take the test at the DMV). Been riding for several years (just finished up a 3 week trip around Japan), have a Japanese license, but still pretty excited to be filling in the gaps in my knowledge and picking up an unrestricted endorsement. I said I wasn't going to get a bike here (moving to Australia in Feb) but I brought all my gear back with me and there's currently both a KLR and an F650 on Craigslist that are pretty attractively priced...
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Aug 31, 2014 21:08
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Update: the only other student for my class was a no-show this morning, so the instructor and I banged it out in 5 hours. DMV appointment is on Monday.
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Sep 4, 2014 18:55
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Angryboot posted:Did you actually learn anything from the brc? I'd imagine everything here is kids play after the licensing test you had in Japan. From the riding part not really, as the instructor said, completing the MSF is basically "I know how to ride around in a parking lot (hopefully) and not look like an idiot". I think he said there were some changes coming either this year or next to make it more applicable to real world riding though? I'd made a habit of practicing slow stuff on my own when I was in Japan, so once I got used to the test bike (a lot lower than I'm used to coming from a dual sport, but also a 250 single) it was pretty straightforward. I definitely did my best to undersell the instructor on my skill (something I have a habit of doing, especially to myself), but after he saw me ace the box he goes "Were you messing with me?" and we skipped ahead to the next activity From the classroom content, I would have passed it as-is walking in (have read Proficient Motorcycling a few times, as well as hang out around here for years), but there were certainly a few items that were either new to me or I could have stood to brush up on. The most mindblowing part of the day was as we were setting up, one of his former students rode up to say hi... in full gear (well, street shoes, but whatever). In Florida, that is basically like seeing a unicorn.
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Sep 5, 2014 00:52
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M42 posted:Somebody in my msf class got a rash from a loaner helmet M. Night Skymall posted:Why would you want to wear a loaner if you own a helmet? Borrowing helmets is kind of gross anyway. I will be the devil's advocate here and say that a full face helmet is not ideal for the MSF (harder to communicate with your instructor, unlikely to need the chinbar protection in a parking lot) and you're not wrong to consider the loaner. I would still probably prefer my own full face, but that's a personal preference.
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Oct 20, 2014 03:01
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nsaP posted:I started to wonder how much money the MSF makes on drop outs when 3 of my friends signed up and 0 of my friends actually attended. The place I went to didn't take any kind of deposit, so it seemed like no-shows were common. I had a class to myself because the other dude supposed to be in it didn't show up.
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Oct 20, 2014 13:42
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 18:20 |
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:That's crazy. You have to pay around $150 in advance here and people still don't show up. I'd always demand payment up front if I were them. Yeah, it seemed like a terrible business model to me, but also so obvious that he must have tried it and had sign-ups completely dry up or something.
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Oct 20, 2014 15:35
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