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!
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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