I posted this on a thread in Reddit, but felt I would share it here too.
CBT
Did this with a place in Paisley [near Glasgow] called Bike It. 4 of us for the day, me, 2 younger guys, and this "old" ned/chav. I actually figured he was younger than me, but alchol and other abuses took their toll so he looked mid 40s.
The initial parts of the day were great. Explanations, etc.
Then, it came to getting on the bike. I listened and watched the explanation of how to get the bike moving, thought "yup, looks fine enough." Kicked into first, added throttle, let up the clutch. Stall.
Started the engine back up and tried again. Stall.
Repeat... I'm moving! Stall. And the bike falls over and snaps the clutch lever.
Once I was able to get moving - and didn't need to stop - I was fine. Slalom, figure 8, etc.
This set up for pretty much the rest of the day where I was nervous with the clutch, just uncertain on how to use it right. But, somehow I passed. I have a feeling it's because I went out on the road with the ned, who was terrible. And he probably distracted a lot from mistakes I was making. However, my road awareness was reasonably good due to 17 years behind the wheel.
It took me a bit to realise [as in a number of lessons] what I had done wrong to begin with, and why. I'm also not sure how the instructor didn't catch the mistake.
Basically, I misunderstood his directions. I was trying to release the clutch slowly the entire time I was moving, rather than waiting until the bike was stable. So, I was dumping it each and every time.
Lessons
I started off with lessons with the same guys. Mainly because they were highly recommended and I liked their attitude.
They'd joke with you when appropriate and politely point out mistakes. Never getting angry [as I'd hope from any instructor, really.] I acquired the nickname "Captain Chaos" from them, because "While 95% of the time, your riding's great for your level, and what we expect; it's the other 5% where I'm almost chewing through my helmet!"
I realised I'd need more frequent lessons than the one every other week I was doing, so put my riding on hold while I saved money. And then money fell on its arse.
8 months later, I finally got back to learning with them, and requested a day's refresher [well, 2 lessons] of clutch control and basic moves. I only needed 1, and was forced out on the road after accidentally proving I could do a U-turn in the width of a single car parking space.
Very soon started towards my DAS with them and sat my theory test. Just before I was ready for my mod 1, I got a job offer for Manchester.
Manchester -> DAS
It was almost 2 months from moving down before I was able to recommence lessons. But with the people I went with, it was a set course of training [although, not back to back days].
Started off on a Saturday, the whole day on 125cc. We pretty much did most of the mod 1 moves, being shown any tips and tricks we'd maybe need. Then onto a road ride.
It was actually quite gruelling, as we went to a block of streets that allowed for weird combinations of left and right turns as the instructor felt was needed, and helping us get the lifesavers sorted for the right timing.
Sunday was a short day. Just the morning, on 500cc bikes, redoing the mod 1 stuff with bigger bikes.
I had my mod 1 on the afternoon of the Tuesday. Started on the 500cc again, as a refresher, then onto Gladius 650s.
Almost straight off, there was problems. One of the guys taking his test that day - for the 3rd time at that point - was someone I can only describe as a fat useless bastard.
We were to move forward in a straight line on the bikes, at very slow speed, just to get a feel how much the clutch could pull. He drifted towards me [due to looking at the instructor rather than straight on]. Without thinking, I pull the front brake to stop from hitting him, and the bike goes down. Fortunately, I took him down with me.
He failed his mod 1 that day, and I later found out he continued to fail it at least 5 times [some people should just give up]
Ultimately, I failed my test that day too. Somehow, I screwed up the slalom [bike didn't turn when I wanted it to], got angry with myself and called a stop to the test, in case I injured myself. [I could have gotten away with a minor]
Resat the test 3 weeks later and passed - got a minor for not turning back in to the box after the swerve. He let me redo the move, because everything else had been perfect to that point.
Mod 2
I sat the mod 2 about a fortnight later, I think it was. [2nd October] Ended up with 4 minors. 3 of which I know for certain when they occurred.
1 was for going 35mph. 2 others for being too cautious around buses. "Are you planning on picking up passengers too?" asked the examiner in my ear...
The 4th was for missing a rear observation. No idea when.
While waiting to tell if I'd passed - although, I thought I'd failed due to a bit of sloppy cornering at one point [but was disregarded due to the level of the rest of my riding] - he grilled me about the buses. Going on about my acceleration and the bike being nimble.
"So, do you want to send off for your new license or just have me do it?"
"... I passed?"
"Well, anyone who rides like that around buses deserves to suffer. Yup, you've passed."
He hands me the certificate, "And hold on to that, you'll need it for the 3rd stage of your test."
While my brain, slightly mush right now, is going "... 3rd stage?" he walks out before I can ask what he meant.
