bennissimo
Member
Hey everyone, I'm new here and have come looking for guidance. So I'm a dirt rider who wants to finally make the move to the street (have recently moved back to Canada and the city). So I got my m1 and booked one of the safety courses. Only available date was near my expiry but I figured it would be fine. Fastforward to the course (this past weekend), the instructor kept telling me I was going too fast. I was riding a cbr125 that was totally stripped - no gauges/lights/etc. So I'm in 2nd, on a 125, not passing or riding up on any other students, but I was going too fast. Okay... I explained to him I was having trouble staying in the sweet spot for speed, seeing as how I had no ways to tell my speed. He told me better safe than sorry and to just keep it slow. Sure. Frankly I can't pinpoint the differences between like 12, and 15 kmh for example. Honest to goodness I was there to learn though, so better safe than sorry it is. Slow and steady wins the race right? And I definitely don't consider myself a Rossi on the street, he pointed out other bad habits I had and I was happy to fix them.
So now comes test time. We had 5 courses laid out and they demo'd them with a rider and explained everything. Only mention of speeds are for the emergency stop course. If you're too fast and complete it you can redo it. Too slow and you can redo it. If you're either and don't complete it it's an auto fail. I think to myself, "okay I'll make sure to stay slow for all the other courses to be safe". My group is up and 2 courses in I see the instructor walk up to me, tells me I've failed the test for going too slow. We're allowed 17 demerit points. I was given 6 the first course and 13 on the second for being too slow. I was totally confused. I'm not an argumentative guy but I explained to him how they didn't mention speed during the explanations, how given the past two days I was trying to keep it slow, etc etc. Told me I was supposed to match the demo rider's speed, I told him there was no mention of that. We went back and forth for a bit but in the end I was just basically told a fail is a fail and that I can schedule a retest with the office for the next weekend. I hate to blame others for my failures but it just seemed like this guy wanted to make an example out of me, bad experience with dirt riders maybe? He kept making half assed jokes about it, who knows. Just seemed ****ing planned given the circumstances. There were people who could barely keep their bikes up that got a pass...
TLDR So now we come to my current problem. I called said office for the retest and they told me there is nothing available this weekend (14/15th) and my license expires the 16th. No available road tests in my area before then either. So what are my options? I've read on the drivetest site that there is a temporary license that can be granted for expired m1 holders, and that if your m1 hasn't been expired for more than 3 years you may not have to wait the 60 days before getting your m2 (this is what I want to avoid btw, I want to get out and ride!). Given what I've read I would expect that I could - schedule my retest, call drivetest for my temp license, then when they get the results I go over to an m2? Or will I have to rewrite my m1, then do my test and I jump to m2, no 60 day wait? Or worst case scenario I have to start totally from scratch, new m1, test, wait 60 days, receive m2?
Does anyone also have experience getting your money back from one of these safety courses? I thought I was doing the smart thing in taking a course but I just feel scammed now. I wish I had just gone to take the test with the ministry.
Sorry for the long post guys I am just in heartbreak and wanted to explain the situation. Sorry if this is in the wrong subforum as well.
So now comes test time. We had 5 courses laid out and they demo'd them with a rider and explained everything. Only mention of speeds are for the emergency stop course. If you're too fast and complete it you can redo it. Too slow and you can redo it. If you're either and don't complete it it's an auto fail. I think to myself, "okay I'll make sure to stay slow for all the other courses to be safe". My group is up and 2 courses in I see the instructor walk up to me, tells me I've failed the test for going too slow. We're allowed 17 demerit points. I was given 6 the first course and 13 on the second for being too slow. I was totally confused. I'm not an argumentative guy but I explained to him how they didn't mention speed during the explanations, how given the past two days I was trying to keep it slow, etc etc. Told me I was supposed to match the demo rider's speed, I told him there was no mention of that. We went back and forth for a bit but in the end I was just basically told a fail is a fail and that I can schedule a retest with the office for the next weekend. I hate to blame others for my failures but it just seemed like this guy wanted to make an example out of me, bad experience with dirt riders maybe? He kept making half assed jokes about it, who knows. Just seemed ****ing planned given the circumstances. There were people who could barely keep their bikes up that got a pass...
TLDR So now we come to my current problem. I called said office for the retest and they told me there is nothing available this weekend (14/15th) and my license expires the 16th. No available road tests in my area before then either. So what are my options? I've read on the drivetest site that there is a temporary license that can be granted for expired m1 holders, and that if your m1 hasn't been expired for more than 3 years you may not have to wait the 60 days before getting your m2 (this is what I want to avoid btw, I want to get out and ride!). Given what I've read I would expect that I could - schedule my retest, call drivetest for my temp license, then when they get the results I go over to an m2? Or will I have to rewrite my m1, then do my test and I jump to m2, no 60 day wait? Or worst case scenario I have to start totally from scratch, new m1, test, wait 60 days, receive m2?
Does anyone also have experience getting your money back from one of these safety courses? I thought I was doing the smart thing in taking a course but I just feel scammed now. I wish I had just gone to take the test with the ministry.
Sorry for the long post guys I am just in heartbreak and wanted to explain the situation. Sorry if this is in the wrong subforum as well.
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