Today after the bike being away at the dealers for week the bike is back from its first service. It ended up being a little more traumatic than I anticipated and a little more costly too at $420. I am now looking forward to getting serious miles on the clock as I passed my US motorbike test last week in Norwalk.
The US motorcycle test is, I feel, actually a bit of a joke in that it is all done on a car park and involves no road work at all. When I first decided to get the bike I went along to the DMV in Norwalk and did the 16 multiple choice questions on the computers (not sure why two of the questions involved seat belts though - I guess it must be a common test for cars and bikes). I walked out with my Motorcycle Permit and went along to the dealers and ordered my new bike and arranged insurance. A week later I picked the bike up - what was interesting was that no-one actually asked if I could ride a bike!
So the day of the test you have to arrive at 8:00 am and have all your paperwork and a helmet. I of course took the wrong piece of paper and had to go back to the bike to fetch the right bit and then had to go to the back of the queue. So by 8:20 am I had been 'processed' and we had to ride to a car park 2 miles further up the road where we then had to hang around with no shade until the examiner turned up.
At 9:00 am the examiner arrived and started to lay the course out with orange cones. We then had to walk the course with him and he told us that he didn't ride a bike and never wanted to and that we shouldn't run into him as that would be a failure!
The course involved a left hand turn, a slalom through 4 cones, a right hand U turn between two lines and then an emergency stop and a swerve and that was it.
As I had been sent to the back of the queue I had to wait to nearly the end - boy was that a hot day. Anyway I managed to get round the course OK and got my piece of paper and then had to go back to the DMV to be processed again. After an further hour I finally got my new license - it was now 11:45. So the whole process took three and three quarter hours and I was actually riding the bike for less than 6 minutes.
I think this was more about testing my patience than my riding abilities.
What was interesting was that one guy turned up to do the test without a bike or a helmet. He managed to borrow them from someone else who was there and he passed. Secondly there was a guy who turned up with his bike on a trailor - did his bike test in the car park and then put the bike back on the trailor - apparently he had never ridden on the road yet.
The whole experience is very different to that of the UK where you are not allowed out on the road without taking a Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) course and then the test itself is all road based and lasts 30 - 40 minutes and is a mix of theory and practice. I must admit I do worry about biking in the US as certainly in Connecticut there is no helmet law so theoretically you can buy a powerful bike never ride on the road take your test and then launch yourself ion the road with no helmet or other protection.
Indeed, motorcycle road tests are important. Not only will these help you make sure that your bike is working well, but also help you get familiarized with the routes and rules in your town or city.
Posted by: Ethan Rehman | November 14, 2011 at 03:26 PM