Scoot!

It is a legal requirement that before you go out on the road on a motor bike, or a motor cycle, or the scooter equivalent, you have to go and complete Compulsory Basic Training (CBT). It is typically a day long course where they go over all the basics of being on a small motored mode of transport. In theory, after a complete day of concentrating and learning, you 'pass' and are free to ride any bike or scooter up to 125cc. Simple, right? Not for me. Miss Adventurous here had to go back for second day! How is this possible? Well, I'll walk you through it. 

The day started with a chat about what you should wear and why, and why some items are recommended and others not (e.g. full face vs open face helmet). They check that you can see well enough to ride (eye sight test of reading a number plate that is a certain distance away) and the first thing you get to do with the bikes is learn about what monthly and weekly and daily checks you should do on a bike. All great, all sensible, and straightforward. 

Next, you learn how to put your bike on a stand, and how to take it off (believe me, it's worth the 5 minutes it takes to learn how to do this) then you get to the fun bit. You get on it and they teach you (or tell you) to ride forward and come to a stop. Then you have to do that all important turn to go back to the start of the queue. If you have ever ridden a push bike, apart from peddling, it's pretty much the same thing. It's very easy to pickup. However, for me, first time round, it took a little bit longer to get over the fear of falling off. All I'm saying about this is gravity is not always your friend.

The exercise that screwed me over is slow control. It's basically the thing you would do if you were stuck in slow moving traffic or doing a tricky manoeuvre of some sort. Going forward, piece of cake. I could ride like that from Reading to wherever. The issue is, you have to do this thing,(if you drive, think clutch control) at a constant speed, without releasing or increasing either the break or the throttle, while doing a figure 8, TWICE, without putting your foot down at any point - maybe 45 minutes after you have first ridden a motor bike. 

It was so difficult. I don't think I managed to do it the first time round at all. I could do the figure 8 at various speeds, but not with the control thing. It just doesn't feel natural to be going that slowly, while going around in circles. Second time around, was rough but not the nightmare that I had endured before. I got it fairly quickly, I just needed to reduce my speed more which I managed to eventually do. Having sorted this out, I also had the pleasure of doing u-turns which, after figure 8s , are fairly easy. Having suffered the trauma before meant things were a little bit tricky to start with. 

We moved on to the joyous moves of turning at junctions, then after that found out if we had done well enough to be taken out onto the road. First time around, I didn't even huddle up for it - I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be going out. Regardless of what I had achieved, I was not confident enough to be on the road with cars and buses etc.

Second time around, I was daring him to say I couldn't go out on the road. Was I the best in the group? Definitely not. Was I the worst? Probably lol. The important thing was I knew what I was doing and every time I did something, I did it better than the time before. I was a lot more confident about all of it, and I manoeuvred the hell out of traffic when we went out. I had one incident on the road which (thank goodness did not result in a fail and) was unavoidable. We were working on our emergency stops and I hit a bump just as I started to break. There were serious wobbles but I controlled my bike and brought it to a stop without falling of  or dropping the bike. It worked out well because I guess I showed I was in control.

Any who, after two hours of driving around with the loudest ear piece I have ever used for a little over two hours, we made our way back and I got my piece of paper. Yes, I had to go and do it twice, yes I was super disappointed and angry with myself for not getting it the first time, but I'm glad they made me do it again. I am so much more confident and felt like I deserved to pass when I did.

I would recommend the company I used because they are straight forward, down to earth guys who are looking out for you.  If you're looking to do your CBT in Berkshire or Oxfordshire look up Lightning Pass definitely recommend them. 

In the mean time, watch out! I'm coming through on two wheels!