failed my m1 exit test. how to rebuild confidence? | GTAMotorcycle.com

failed my m1 exit test. how to rebuild confidence?

iblastoff

Well-known member
EDIT: ended up passing a year later!!!

kinda embarassed to admit i failed the m1 exit test after reading so many posts here on how easy it is.

i took the RTI beginners class and mostly rode a suzuki tu250. i didnt know any better at the time but the specific bike I rode had a really lousy clutch to it. you had to basically let it out the entire way before it ever started engaging and by that time i would constantly lurch forward when starting off. not by a lot but it wasnt comfortable and smooth as i would have liked. i stuck with the tu250 though because that was the bike i initially wanted to buy as well. i didnt think it was the bikes issue at the time and just felt like i wasnt totally getting it.

it also didnt help the very first day of on-bike lessons the day ended at 3 o'clock instead of the advertise 4:30. so thats a solid hour and a half i paid for and could have used more time practicing.

it wasnt until the very next (test) day i got onto a different tu250 and the clutch on this one was WAY better. it would start engaging where you would expect it to but now this bikes shifting didnt work at all. you basically had to really force it to get into gear 2. basically the learner bikes dont seem to be well maintained.

anyway on this day, it also started pouring rain during the emergency brake training. i had done it multiple times just fine before the rain. but then the shittiest thing happens. i start heading straight down the exercise path in the pouring rain and anticipate the braking. for some reason i dont know if i was thinking about the rain or whatever but i must have hit the brakes too hard and ended up locking the front wheel which basically made me fly off the bike!

i bruised my throttle hand pretty bad but decided to keep riding. and of course didnt end up passing. i ended up going to the hospital cause my hand had started swelling a lot. found out i had a scaphoid fracture and have been currently in a fibreglass cast for the past several weeks. talk about having a terrible experience on bikes and i havent even been on the road yet.

anyway im not blaming RTI for my own failure. in my class, 11 of 19 still managed to pass (although most of them already had extensive riding experience as well). i definitely struggled with slow riding (although im putting this one on riding the bike with the lousy clutch on my first day) and gear shifting.

for slow riding, i just couldn't tell what putting on some slight back break while moving in the friction zone actually did. it didnt feel like it was giving me any extra stability at all. every time i would go through the slow moving exercise (basically weaving through a very tight path drawn on the ground), 50% of the time i would either nail it just fine (although probably due to luck more than anything) or mess it up hugely on other attempts. i didnt feel like i was getting any better.

gear shifting just didnt come naturally to me at all. i felt like i had to memorize an extensive list of things to do very quickly in succession. on paper it sounds easy (get the bike going, pull the clutch in, lay off the throttle a bit, kick up the shifter into 2nd, smoothly release clutch and apply some gas). on a moving bike it just never felt comfortable to actually pull that off.

at this point, i still want to ride but i have no idea whether im actually cut out for a motorcycle. i've been thinking i'd just rather get a scooter instead which should be infinitely easier to ride.

anyway yeah thats it. tough to admit all of this stuff but just had to get it out!
 
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Well flying over the handlebars is one way to fail the M1 exit... (atleast you did it with style) Will RTI allow you to re-take the test? or give a discount on another course?

and don't sweat it, **** happens in life. Being able to actually post about it is pretty big of you. As long as you learned something from the experience.
 
Well flying over the handlebars is one way to fail the M1 exit... (atleast you did it with style) Will RTI allow you to re-take the test? or give a discount on another course?

and don't sweat it, **** happens in life. Being able to actually post about it is pretty big of you. As long as you learned something from the experience.

oh the falling off part didnt happen DURING the test, it was before it haha. but i still got back on for the actual test. at that point though my hand was hurting too much for the throttle and just didnt do well at all.
 
Ages ago I made pretty much the same mistake in the emergency braking test and ended up on the ground. I hadn't been nervous about the test to begin with, but after 30 or 45 minutes of them telling us not to be nervous about the test, I got nervous about the test. It was all my mistake, but nothing was damaged aside from my pride, and I came back and aced the retest a week or two later.

I had been riding for about a month before I took the course so I didn't have any trouble with clutch control or low speed maneuvers, but I can definitely see why some people would run into difficulty. I can't remember exactly how long we spent on the friction zone exercise, but it couldn't have been more than 30 minutes. To be honest I think some people would be much better served if they spent a few hours doing just this exercise on their own before the course.

My suggestion is to simply get out and get more practice. It might be hard to find someone willing to lend you a bike to practice on, but that would allow you to spend as long as you need to get comfortable.
 
If you really still want to ride....heal up and just do it. Only practice will make you more proficient.
 
If you look back you will remember that many of the later exercises have 90 degree turns in them just so you can keep practising the slow speed stuff.

Traffic behavior, the big figure 8 (accelerate gear down then do the curve at the end) and my people usually add in 90 degree turns in various exercises to let you continue to practise it.
 
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Will RTI allow you to re-take the test? or give a discount on another course?

Google says they do free retesting, I think all of the schools do.
RTI seems odd with the different bike choices, it seems like a crap shoot to get a good bike compared to humber where everyone gets the same bike. (though still chance for a crap bike)
Doing my m1 exit in August and got me nervous now. :<
 
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So much to respond to.
> The TU250 is a great beginner's bike, good choice. But only if the clutch cable is adjusted properly!
> What you experienced is normal: shifting is not at all intuitive. It takes a very long time for it to be automatic and smooth. Say, 10,000 Kms?
> Why are you embarrassed by failing? 8 out of 19 failed. That's over 40%. People who say it's easy are either deluding themselves or grew up on dirt bikes.
> Relate the above to RTI and ask them to give you an hour or two of private lessons. You may well have to pay but they will make sure you get it.
> Sounds like you were too gentle with the back brake. It is key.
> You have injured yourself. That is good. You will respect the bike and take appropriate care.
> If you stick with it you will be greatly rewarded. Don't deprive yourself of a lifetime's pleasure.

Thanks for the post.
 
Definitely see if you can do a free retest. I know that was the deal when I did mine at Humber. If you failed your first time, you could come back just for the test portion the next Sunday and try again.

You might consider doing Trail Tours. http://www.trailtours.ca/ I did it a few summers ago with my wife and it was a blast. She actually insisted we go back a second time. You can do a full day or a few hours depending on how much you want to spend. Definitely helps your skills in slow speed and low traction scenarios. That, and it's a lot of fun!
 
anyway on this day, it also started pouring rain during the emergency brake training. i had done it multiple times just fine before the rain. but then the shittiest thing happens. i start heading straight down the exercise path in the pouring rain and anticipate the braking. for some reason i dont know if i was thinking about the rain or whatever but i must have hit the brakes too hard and ended up locking the front wheel which basically made me fly off the bike!

anyway yeah thats it. tough to admit all of this stuff but just had to get it out!

Don't be too hard on yourself - sounds like the bike issues got in your head a bit. I took the course almost 30 years ago (yikes) and I dropped the bike in similar conditions.

Heal up and get your head sorted - try again when you're comfortable.
 
Make up your mind about riding a motorcycle after the retest. Where else can you ride and practice for several hours with instructors for free/steep discount. Don't waste the opportunity to get back on the horse.
 
kinda embarassed to admit i failed the m1 exit test after reading so many posts here on how easy it is.

i took the RTI beginners class and mostly rode a suzuki tu250. i didnt know any better at the time but the specific bike I rode had a really lousy clutch to it. you had to basically let it out the entire way before it ever started engaging and by that time i would constantly lurch forward when starting off. not by a lot but it wasnt comfortable and smooth as i would have liked. i stuck with the tu250 though because that was the bike i initially wanted to buy as well. i didnt think it was the bikes issue at the time and just felt like i wasnt totally getting it.

it also didnt help the very first day of on-bike lessons the day ended at 3 o'clock instead of the advertise 4:30. so thats a solid hour and a half i paid for and could have used more time practicing.

it wasnt until the very next (test) day i got onto a different tu250 and the clutch on this one was WAY better. it would start engaging where you would expect it to but now this bikes shifting didnt work at all. you basically had to really force it to get into gear 2. basically the learner bikes dont seem to be well maintained.

anyway on this day, it also started pouring rain during the emergency brake training. i had done it multiple times just fine before the rain. but then the shittiest thing happens. i start heading straight down the exercise path in the pouring rain and anticipate the braking. for some reason i dont know if i was thinking about the rain or whatever but i must have hit the brakes too hard and ended up locking the front wheel which basically made me fly off the bike!

i bruised my throttle hand pretty bad but decided to keep riding. and of course didnt end up passing. i ended up going to the hospital cause my hand had started swelling a lot. found out i had a scaphoid fracture and have been currently in a fibreglass cast for the past several weeks. talk about having a terrible experience on bikes and i havent even been on the road yet.

anyway im not blaming RTI for my own failure. in my class, 11 of 19 still managed to pass (although most of them already had extensive riding experience as well). i definitely struggled with slow riding (although im putting this one on riding the bike with the lousy clutch on my first day) and gear shifting.

for slow riding, i just couldn't tell what putting on some slight back break while moving in the friction zone actually did. it didnt feel like it was giving me any extra stability at all. every time i would go through the slow moving exercise (basically weaving through a very tight path drawn on the ground), 50% of the time i would either nail it just fine (although probably due to luck more than anything) or mess it up hugely on other attempts. i didnt feel like i was getting any better.

gear shifting just didnt come naturally to me at all. i felt like i had to memorize an extensive list of things to do very quickly in succession. on paper it sounds easy (get the bike going, pull the clutch in, lay off the throttle a bit, kick up the shifter into 2nd, smoothly release clutch and apply some gas). on a moving bike it just never felt comfortable to actually pull that off.

at this point, i still want to ride but i have no idea whether im actually cut out for a motorcycle. i've been thinking i'd just rather get a scooter instead which should be infinitely easier to ride.

anyway yeah thats it. tough to admit all of this stuff but just had to get it out!

Hey OP...

Don't be so hard on your self.. This is why we take the course so if mistakes are made we learn from it.. I had almost the same issue. I was trying to go through the cones slowly and for the life of me I just couldn't and at one point I popped out clutch to fast with hand on the throttle and BAM!!!
Bike went flying in the air and I went face first in pavement... I got up and when asked if I was ok I said yes I just needed to get that out of the way before I'm riding my own bike lol
Anyways made the joke as my ego was bruised and I was the only one to fail the test :( I didn't look at it as I fail , I looked at it as I just need more practice and sure enough went the following month and passed...

There was even another guy on the first time he left in a ambulance , then I saw him again the next test I went to do and he did the same thing on the same bike as his first try and again left in a ambulance... Now I suggested to him that just maybe riding was not for him as he agreed he was just way to nervous..

Just thought I would share the story as you are not alone..

Good luck if you choose to try again!!

Cheers
 
You shouldn't be embarrassed. You actually sound quite sensible for a younger rider and I'm sure you'll be fine next time around. Manual gear shifting either in a car or on a bike is an acquired skill and it takes time. I learned to drive in a manual shift car and that definitely helped knowing what a gear shift sequence might be on a bike. Still, it takes a little practice and you're probably overthinking things. You should take a step back and realise that you have already learned some valuable lessons.....you learned how to fall...and get back up again, you learned what not to do, you learned about clutch adjustment being important. You just need a little more confidence and that will take a little time and effort on your part but it sounds like you know that. With practice you won't need to overthink the shifting process and can concentrate on other things instead.
 
Just go out to shiatsu parlour , get a rub down with full release.. That will bring your confidence back up to respectable levels


"If i was educated, I'd be a damn fool"
 
I have to admit I failed my first M1 exit test also. I found I was lacking the confidence in the group. During the class I was constantly stalling. I had a horrible time with the extremely stiff clutch. Since I ave difficulty with a manual car I had issues telling when I had to shift and never got to the sped I had to be in the test. I was the only one in my group to fail. When I did it the second time it was me and the instructor in pouring rain. I pact iced for a few min then it was test time. I found that I was more comfortable doing it the second time around and I was successful. I did not go through RTI but I had a free retest. I could also comeback and practice anytime before the retest to prepare.
 
Y'know if you are serious about getting confident either take the motocross course at Motopark in Chatsworth or just get someone to drive you up there for a weekend and learn at your own pace.
Dirt experience will make you a way better street rider.
http://www.motoparkracing.com

You'll come back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Question for you tho....do you ride a bicycle?? If not why not. It is a good entry to motorcycling
 
RTI does offer one free retest - I completed the course a few weekends ago. The instructors were quite confident that everyone in the group would pass, and we almost all did - one person dropped the bike at the end of part 8 (8 of 8) when trying to stop, and that's an automatic fail.

For some, it comes naturally, especially if you have had some prior experience. For complete newbies (I admit I was one - have never been on a bike before that weekend), it took some work but practice really is the key. It's not an inexpensive solution, but consider redoing the course - 2 more days of practice, and hopefully no rain! Don't get intimidated by the bike or others who seem to be miles ahead. I also found that I started to stumble a bit as a result of "overthinking" some of the manoeuvres.

Unfortunately failure is a big part of learning and gaining experience. At least the mishaps came in a parking lot with the school's bike, and not on the road with your own. Get back out there and give it another try.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience (and to everyone that has commented.) Lots of great stories of easy passing and amazing rides but it is of equal importance that we hear from those who weren't successful on their first go around...

So! May I make a suggestion? Do something you enjoy the day/night before the retest; it will help to take your mind off the testing in the short term and may get you to loosen up a little. A really good 'B' movie usually does the trick for me-- "Airplane" has been a long time favourite but I am sure you have something that you enjoy that could take your mind of your fears of the riding test.

Take a private lesson if you feel it will help-- do not be shy about asking . (I had to get a "coles note" version on the new licensing for the M1 from a 'recently hatched' 16 year old as I had forgotten review a part of the section. The young man didn't hesitate..nor did his girlfriend who jumped in and corrected him (correctly, I should add..) on a couple of points.
("Did you forget we was here before? Didn't you study the book like I told you??") It was killing me not to break out into laughter. Good thing I commented on his Bad Brains T-shirt and got to chatting..)

When it came to the test I just did it (15 minutes...) and started on a report that I had to finish. I wasn't perfect but I did manage to do quite well. The waiting was the hardest part; I was grateful for some work to do during the time that I sat around waiting for the marking.

Keep up with the healing (rest and better nutrition) and come back and let us know how you're doing.

:)
 
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It's not a test. It's an evaluation. Did they not suggest to you to redo the course or retake the test after seeing your progress on the weekend? If you suspect that your bike is not maintained or not working properly, ask the demo rider to use your bike for the demo. They'll soon show you if its the bike or you. Most of the bikes are going to have a wide variance in clutch and brakes after the abuse they take on the course, but they should be generally well maintained. One of the reasons that schools suggest you use the same bike is for the consistency in the controls. If you want to know how fast to do a particular skill, then check out the demo riders speed. They get mildly laughed at or kidded, if they don't get zero on the evaluation, and their goal is to get exactly in the middle of the expect time.
 
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