Advice for those trying to pass R-E Test

[Revelations]

ahh i see it may be coming from the top down...if that was the case, the observation and signal part are still in the wrong side of the lane i believe

[ddoth]

Yes and no, could go either way really
But following MILO you'd observe (mirror) THEN indicate (signal)

[Dirty Sandchairs]

May as well post in here now that I've passed.

For the o-turns.. my advice is:

- Use the rear brake a lot, it def helps stabilise the bike.
- Go slow.. not too slow though.
- Head looking at where you want to go.. you NEED to do this as it helps a lot.

For the emerg. stop:

- Left indicator on once you have completed it.
- Get into 4th gear and go about 45

General riding:

Just relax.. take it easy and treat it as if it's your instructor behind you not an assessor. Ride as you would normally... headcheck constantly.. watch your speed and plan your road position.

The test itself is really not that hard.. so go into it as calm as possible.

I know that may be hard.. but when it's over you'll be thinking what was I stressing about

Goodluck & ride safe.

[Revelations]

it really depends on the bike re: heavy rear brake. For eg, the cbr125 love heavy rear brake, the yammy scorpio only needed to feather it

[thro]

^^ you'll probably find that due to the position of the bars, etc.

More upright bikes are much easier to ride/turn at low speed without needing to jam the brake on as much.

If you want to get an extreme illustration of this, ride around on a road trail then go to a sports bike.

[_KC_]

Does anyone know how tight your U's are supposed to be on an RE test...(In Metres)?

[Dirty Sandchairs]

Originally Posted by _KC_

Does anyone know how tight your U's are supposed to be on an RE test...(In Metres)?

not sure in metres, but it's a residential street width (1 lane each way).
however, I did mine in a carpark between the parking spaces on each side.

[ItDepends]

That's good to hear- I've been practicing my u-turns in a new subdivision and although I started off doing them at t-intersections (more room for stuff ups) - I can do them in a straight street without hitting either curb. I'd be interested in knowing the exact distance as well though if anyone knows it.

Also- the e-stop- it needs to be (in the dry) within 12m?

Cheers,

Daniel

[_KC_]

e-stops is 12mts in the dry...

Got those down to a fine art but am having a mental block on the U's... It was all good on what I thought was a 'normal street', then the instructor takes me to a 'narrow' resi street and I don't make it....now I'm all over the place (thought he reckons my U's are fine)...

[Stephan]

Originally Posted by thro

^^ correct. the diagram will get you killed by people passing you as you turn... i mean you can headcheck, but whats to say that some dude on a bike isn't going to go for the gap...


edit:
erm... if its american, it doesn't make sense at all - i'm presuming the traffic is coming on from the bottom left in my statement above.

This diagramm shows left hand traffic, eg Australian or English.

[_KC_]

I did the RE test at Willagee yesterday and am pleased to say that Sikpupy keeps his clean sheet as I passed!

The background – did a 2 hour session with Sikpupy on Thursday to get used to his GN250 and to try and get my shithouse u-turns sorted. Well, 2 hours later, I was confidently knocking out u’s in about a lane and a half…… +1 to Sikpupy (Perth Street Bikes - View Profile: SIKPUPY) for some great tips and a good explanation of the physics of u’s. Worked a treat…

The below links details three routes that seem to be used a lot, and I went over each of these in the cage to recon the speed limits, bike lanes, merges, etc…etc.. but of course I ended up on a different route!

http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/foru...ssed-re-58702/
http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/foru...-advice-53159/

Another great resource for learners is the following UK site that covers most everything and has good illustrations Motorcycle Riding Techniques




The test - I had a bloke called Peter for the test and the route was as follows – (Map Attached)

Note - No Park or hill start.

*Out onto Stock
*Left onto Garling Street.
*Right onto Bowen Street
*First left onto Weatherburn Way. The E-Stop where done on this street (blue dot). Loads of room and time to get set up for the stop. – Hand signal to start and just stop when you get to the bike.
*Along Bellamy Street
*Right onto Ladner Street
*Right onto South Street and all the way to the lights.
*Left onto North Lake
*First left onto Le Souef Drive
*Turn around and then left onto Reid Street
*Left onto Saw and left again into the cul de sac. This is where I did the u’s (6). It is a wide street and easy to knock these out.
*Following the same route back, left onto North Lake
*All the way down to Leach and left onto Leach and home.

I couldn’t remember anything the guy said to me. He’d give me a set of directions and 10 seconds later…gone. It was that bad that on the first e-stop I drove straight past him as I was waiting for him to drop his hand! Eh whoops… stop when you get to the bike. I think he saw the funny side of it….

Anyway, I passed...

[Dirty Sandchairs]

aha just sounds like some nerves.

but nice work on passing the test.

best feeling ever..
stay safe!

[Fozzy]

Well I did my test at city west.

Blue line was with the instructor following me
Red Squares are where he made me stop
Red/Black Line is where I did O Turns and E Stop
Pink Line was me following the Instructor back to the centre

[Dirty Sandchairs]

following the instructor? how come

[Fozzy]

Because he was satisfied with my riding, So instead of giving me directions he got me to follow.

[frances]

Joondalup Route:

I had a 20 minute test and I ended up having to do some real emergency braking because an ambulance flew out of the hospital an onto the roundabout that I was about to go through! Slightly sticky start but after that it was fine. I went to a side road called Queensbury (just off shenton ave) and did my O turns and emergency braking there. Only thing to look out for on that road is when you turn on to it, a side road on your left comes up very quickly and if you haven't turned off your indicator, they pick you up for it.

Queensbury was good for O turns - the road is reasonably wide so its not too tight but typically cars kept coming so I had to pull over.

Then turned right onto Joondalup drive and took the first left to do the hill start - very simple. Then headed back to the licencing centre along Blue Mountain Drive, left onto Moore Drive and that takes you all the way back. Just have to watch out for the sudden drop in speed from 70 to 50 just after the first set of lights on Moore Drive.

The test was pretty good, I had an assessor called Steve who was pretty lenient and after the first initial stuff up after the ambulance and not being able to get my bike started straight away, he let me carry on and said that he wanted to see what the rest of my riding was like - all in all, very fair.

[shaunkent]

My pointers are check any road and turn your head fully so the assessor can see you, watch your speed, dont go through orange lights (i failed my first test that way), emergency braking can be tough but be light on the rear brakes and remember squeeze the front brakes soft then hard

[shaunkent]

Hey all i just posted and im going for the big bike license soon, can anybody give me some good pointers that the assessors will be looking for

[thro]

^^ R class license = exactly same as RE, except you're on a bigger bike and the assessor will probably be a little less tolerant of mistakes.

If you've done your time on a 250 and had a little bit of practice on an R class bike, you'll be fine.

[shades]

Originally Posted by kyliejane

just a couple more things from doing my test this week.

if you stuff up your o turns and put your foot down DO NOT STOP!! i was nervous as hell and shaking and put my foot down a couple of times and just kept going and going until he told me to stop and i still passed.

ALSO just to clarify. if you are turning at an intersection onto a road with two lanes and you need to get into the furtherest away lane it is NOT illegal to cross the two lanes in your turn. i.e. turning right at an intersection straight into the left lane. i asked a few people about this before my test with mixed answers but decided to play it safe in my test. when the test instructor did this himself i queried him and he said it used to be marked down but not anymore.

Turning into the far lane is legal, and I have seen it done on the streets by cars a LOT. As driving practice goes, I think it is a really bad driving practice, so I avoid doing it myself. Why? Because if there is a give way on the far lane you turn into and that person decides to go, instant accident. (Note that the diagram I saw did NOT have a give way lane, but I believe this still promotes bad driving). Always assume other drivers are going to screw up on you, so give them room to stay out of your way and stick to your lane where possible. Also, if you are unable to maintain your lane in a turn, should you really have a license of any kind?

You may find a test question on this, and it is totally legal to turn into either lane as long as you are turning from a single lane initially, and presumably the two destination lanes are just simple lanes with no additions.

The R-E test made me laugh, as it shows the legal give-way situations for vehicles, but you know in real life you would actually get totalled in an accident if you tried it that way, by some other driver who doesn't get your "legalness". Commonsense sometimes prevails.