Balancing act

A blue-tailed damselfly in the garden this afternoon.

This morning I had my motorbike module 1 retest (I hit cones before and failed right at the very start). The examiner was really lovely, and I told him about my shoulder issues as manual handling is the first exercise and he just said take as long as you need, put the bike on the stand and rest if you need to. Then he allowed me to align my bike better to start the slalom Yellow cones in extra 4) and figure of eight (blue cones). Nemesis #1! No cones hit but thought he'd called me over but he hadn't so I had to go back and do another half figure of eight. In the extra (3) of the test centre taken on my training day when we got to go in, you can see the green boxes at the top, and exercise 1 is to ride in forwards and then move the bike to the second box so it's ready to ride out. Then between the first two yellow cones and continue to slalom until reaching the blue cones and complete two figure of eights around them. It's an instant fail if one touches any cones, puts a foot on the ground and there's no second attempt allowed.

At this point I spotted he was using the right hand circuit layout and not the left. I hate the left as the final exercise, nemesis #2, means the hazard avoidance is on my least favoured side (my instructor said subconsciously the right collarbone is a factor). Extra 4 shows the left circuit lay out. The right just has the middle section on the other side but they actually always have both set up.

Then slow ride, and U -turn between the white lines at the top right of extra 3.

Then a misunderstanding when I was supposed to ride to where he was stood and rode off round the circuit! He was so nice and just told me to relax and breathe! My controlled stop was a bit juddery but the front wheel was in the blue box and I didn't stall!

Then the emergency stop followed by hazard avoidance. To pass the speed camera has to read 50 kph (32 mph), so the bike needs to be doing 35 mph (it might not sound that fast but it feels it in the fenced area) at the first red cones, roll off the throttle to start the weight transfer to the front wheel. Remember life saver checks after emergency stop. Check! Then the first hazard avoidance went a bit awry as I was too worried about hitting 20 mph for the curve and then headed the wrong way, so that was deemed a misunderstanding! You can see in extra 3 the blue cones I need to go through and then into the blue box. But then still need to remember the test starts and ends when you get on the bike and off the bike and people have failed for dropping the bike parking up.

Well, when he said I'd passed I jumped in the air! He was so lovely, and smiley. The right examiner, right direction, right choice to change car as I wasn't struggling with arthritic pain when I got out the car. Just so happy. But when I got home I was so energy depleted I felt like Beau (extra 2).

That's three of the four tests done now. Just the module 2 which is the road ride (similar to a car driving test).

When I told Dad he said he wasn't sure if he was pleased, but I reassured him the 650cc I take my test on is way safer to ride than my 125cc.

And there endeth my long entry! Sorry!