BBC: UK's new motorcycle test centres 'waste of money'

[5hort5]

Millions of pounds have been wasted on a government decision to close down local motorcycle test sites, a report from MPs has concluded.

Erm yer, any biker could have told them that!

Read more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8582141.stm

[Jayneflakes]

Having just done my Module 1 test, I can confirm that riding forty miles for an eight minute test and then riding forty miles home again was exhausting. Being forced off the road by joyriders in a stolen car on the way to the test centre did not do a lot for my confidence either. The road on the way there was under construction and we were sprayed with mud, so when we finally got to the test centre, I could not see out of my visor, my bike was brown and it was pouring with rain.

Thankfully my kit is waterproof, but it was not a great day. All of that expense and trouble for eight minutes is hard to justify. The test centre did have a lovely new carpet with the letters DSA woven into it and the building was very warm, with lots of lovely seats. Money well spent...

On the positive side, swerving around cones was great fun and being on a totally smooth and grippy road surface was a revelation compared to the normal greasy, potholed and worn out roads in Weston.

That is my pennyworth.

It's a stupid test. And what is the deal with doing the swerve at 37kph? Which is 31.5mph, which is breaking the built up area speed limit? It's stupid, stupid, stupid! So there. That is my 2p.

[Sid Squid]

50 Kmh is ~31 Mph - the European standard built up area speed limit. Which is why our test takes place off road.
The Euro test takes place at 50Kmh, instead of doing the test at 30 Mph our clever Government decided that they couldn't possibly change the test to be done 1.06Mph slower but they'd have to spend millions, (of your money, obviously), on test centres so that vehicles would be able to take the test at 31Mph off road.

You really, really couldn't make this tosh up.

Where did I get 37 from? lol!

Anyway, I agree that it is just stupid. No common sense involved in thinking these things up and it put a whole lot of independent instructors and little training schools out of business cos they couldn't afford the get somewhere to practise. My nearest centres now are apparently Carlisle and Glasgow - both nearly 2 hrs drive away from where I live. Thank god I did mine before they changed!

I think its 50kph, which matches the majority of suburban limits in mainland europe - I suspect that is the downside of retaining mph for speed limits over here.

I'm not convinced that the swerve is as badly thought out as it seems to be though. It looks like about a 3-4 foot deflection in path (bearing in mind I haven't seen it live, just on TV). Combining it with a stop is a reasonable analogue to real riding, but the problem for me is that you have to enter it off a bend. Some 125s struggle to cope with getting up to speed in the room available, diverting concentration from the task ahead, and in some cases requiring a mid-corner gear change.

So it is a safety driven insentive by the sound of things? Making it more 'robust' to improve rider skills?

Im sorry, but most accidents caused by motorcyclists (ignoring uncapable chavs on scooters) are due to us trying to drive like Rossi (which no amount of tests will prevent the urge to open up the throttle) or an unlucky accident (birds, road, weather...). Not due to our riding skills.

Its the deaths caused by other drivers which needs to be the focus, if they want to improve the stats. So yes, it is a waste of millions.

Originally Posted by orose

I think its 50kph, which matches the majority of suburban limits in mainland europe - I suspect that is the downside of retaining mph for speed limits over here.

I'm not convinced that the swerve is as badly thought out as it seems to be though. It looks like about a 3-4 foot deflection in path (bearing in mind I haven't seen it live, just on TV). Combining it with a stop is a reasonable analogue to real riding, but the problem for me is that you have to enter it off a bend. Some 125s struggle to cope with getting up to speed in the room available, diverting concentration from the task ahead, and in some cases requiring a mid-corner gear change.

I had to rag the balls of the 125 I took my test on, to get it up to speed. Promoting safety, my donkey?!!

The article claims that the super centres replaced 'older, less well-equipped centres' - not in Shrewsbury it didn't - I was one of the first candidates at the now 'old' centre, in 2006. They closed it last year, big 'To Let' sign on it now, I imagine the DSA are locked into a lease.

[madcockney]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

Having just done my Module 1 test, I can confirm that riding forty miles for an eight minute test and then riding forty miles home again was exhausting. Being forced off the road by joyriders in a stolen car on the way to the test centre did not do a lot for my confidence either. The road on the way there was under construction and we were sprayed with mud, so when we finally got to the test centre, I could not see out of my visor, my bike was brown and it was pouring with rain.

Thankfully my kit is waterproof, but it was not a great day. All of that expense and trouble for eight minutes is hard to justify. The test centre did have a lovely new carpet with the letters DSA woven into it and the building was very warm, with lots of lovely seats. Money well spent...

On the positive side, swerving around cones was great fun and being on a totally smooth and grippy road surface was a revelation compared to the normal greasy, potholed and worn out roads in Weston.

That is my pennyworth.

I can beat that I did over 20 miles by car to the school and then a further 60 odd miles to the test centre. When you add that to the aborted tests that you don't find out until you get there it gets very expensive and time consuming. Still think that the new tests are fairer than the old one, if not time consuming though.