Modern Vespa

£300 sounds wrong, I did my course on the school's bikes a around £100 per day.

I do like Jim's idea of the training day, would definitely be interested.

Dessa, I'd definitely practise but I found that the LX was very easy to do U-Turns and Fig-8's on so I wouldn't worry too much

Best of luck!

It looks fine but my road is an ice rink, so I left it at home, very reluctantly though.

okay .... you're serious, right? i want to do some advanced rider training, and it would be fun not being the only scooter there.

Moi! Central London is looking almost normal, but my street is still iced over so I had another workout pushing the bike down to the main road. No sign of tonight's promised rain/sleet yet - hope I get home before that arrives.

after a Completely F**king Horrendous experience on public transport today, i am taking the scooter to work tomorrow come hell or high water. i've just walked all the way home from Finsbury park because some stupid little adolescent thug stabbed one of his peers on a bus (not fatally, i'm told, thank goodness) and everything was full stop. and that was just the return journey - the trip in this morning was even worse

Can I plug LAM, who did sterling work in getting me to Advanced standard? They run two monthly meetings from Bromley and Banstead, and you can arrange to meet an Observer for rides outside these times too.

www.L-A-M.org

There are one or two *rs*h*l* Observers who don't 'get' the scooter thing, but most are open-minded and willing to learn.

And if they put up with Jim they can put up with anyone

Yes I am serious. I am also a bitty nervous. Bitty. Bitty.

Yeah I get it. I did email them a while back and they seemed open to having scooters join them. Bromley is a right pain to get to... At least ELAM is a fast blast down the A12 8)

Hey I made top of page 36!

I think it's the size and what you do with it. No point in having the right equipment and not knowing how to use it.
Ted Kennedy is a good reference for this.
Great Senator but a lousy date.
Regards
Billy-no-scoot

It took me an hour to get to Bromley - so I mostly did the rides from Banstead. LAM happily took me on both the X9 and the Fuoco. Lots of interest in both machines.

The ELAM mob are very friendly - they did the LondonBikers machine control day last year.

The Kent mob (KAMG) are also great.

All of them will happily take scooters - the only major requirement is to be able to do the National Speed Limit. LAM normally operate the 'pot-luck' system, but you can stick with one observer outside of that if you want. ELAM and KAMG assign you one observer - but of course you can change if there is any 'problem' (there rarely is).

Huge fun, and worth every penny. Cheapest advanced training you can get, by far!

since i got the interloper my biggest problem is not exceeding the national speed limit

We have 3 types here in general terms, as you say the humps (or 'sleeping policemen') go all the way across with only a small gap at each edge. The cushion as you call it is 2 pads, 1 in each lane. We also have what I was referring to which is 3 pads, one to the left of each lane and a third which straddles the centre line.

My riding line was to the left and allowed me to travel without riding over bumps and without deviating from my course. Am I making sense yet?

My hour lesson was £20 (is that not about the price of a pint in London? )

So in total I was only £130 all in (£30 theory, £20 lesson/mock test and £80 test)

sorry guys I'm a bit slow here, what's IAm or ELAM???
I'm sure it's lovely!

they are brands of cat food

Am I making sense yet?

Yes!

8)

right,just read the rest, you're all on about advanced training it looks like, and I'm still trying to get rid of L plates, that's what it feels like wondering if the LAM or whoever will take scooters! see!!!

i'm so fed up with using public transport, just slightly ok with it as TFL HAS given me a day off
purely my street was still icy this morning, no way I could walk let alone push Velma out to either main roads, which were perfectly fine.
I'm so annoyed, £5 a day nearly on that stupid day travelcard
I can buy 10 days' worth of petrol with that money
and a hat at Accessorize

the training price I gave you came from several training schools, none of them offered 1 hour at those small prices.

jim and kate, how would this sunday sound for a little west london u turn bonanza?

re: speed cushions, are you allowed to go around them, not over them? on a bike?

I MISS VELMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

re: speed cushions, are you allowed to go around them, not over them? on a bike?

Yes.

Behave.

Institute of Advanced Motorists

East London Advanced Motorcyclists

If the roads are clear, then of course. Perhaps jimc would know a better place to do u turns. Traffic in West London can be quite fierce of a weekend.

If you go to Hendon, I guarantee you can find space to practice those turns. It has wide, wide, mostly empty suburban streets away from the main drag. I used to go to the British Library Newspaper Archive there, rode my scooter there up the Edgware Road many a time (significantly more difficult than the actual test).

(Confession - I failed the first time because I made a major mistake in the first five minutes, so major I knew I had failed for the remainder of the test. The second time I had a clean sheet. So keep going....)

WM did you get the email I sent yesterday with the EPS file for the sticker?

Doh! Yes, thank you!

Firstly - I'm hoping to out on a long ride on Sunday, weather permitting, and the 15th is the Fred Hill run from the Ace to Pentonville prison - I'll be attending that and helping marshal it. http://greater-london.mag-uk.org/

Second - I was thinking of riding out a bit further and finding an empty industrial estate or something to give loads of room for slow riding practice. I don't know N/NW London that well - but Dessa could just lead us out somewhere. We can give some practical criticism/encouragement/praise on the road riding, and find somewhere to practice slow riding, controlled stops, and tight-radius turns. I expect we could all benefit from such practice!

I need to get miles on the scoot so may take a recce this weekend. There's a big industrial estate in Bounds Green, and one in Hendon itself (memories from being lost).

thanks jim sounds fun too

alex's work in Charlon has a big car park that is virtually empty on sunday and as many of you are south of the river etc that could work
i don't know such places around here, unless we rode to Hendon's quiet street itself

what about next sunday 14th?
please God let it NOT turn into another "picking a date furor"
I could book the test for the next couple of days (i guess everyone started canceling the tests with the snow) but I'm not ready yet and can't do with losing £80, so maybe the end of the month I will be taking it

Wonder - now reveal what was the terrible error you made that failed you first time round

A serious, serious, error because I pulled out from a minor road to turn right, pulled out much too quickly, causing white van travelling along a major road to brake. My head went look left, look right, pull out. I did not look left again. I therefore missed a serious hazard.

I did the rest of the test with the certain knowledge I had failed, and made no other mistakes.

My instruction was very sorry but he said he had to fail me. It was the kind of mistake that gets you killed, and the acme of the test is to ride safely.

(taking notes here)

It's a fine line. Over-cautious and slow - possible fail (though not a certainty). Too confident and causing *anyone else* to change speed or direction - certain fail.

The real trick is to dominate the road you are riding on, and assume you are invisible at the same time. Every few seconds you should be checking far ahead for potential hazards, near vision for minimising already recognised hazards, mirror checks both sides, and speedo etc.

Do a life-saver every time you change position in a lane. You don't have to be a nodding donkey though! It does help to exaggerate the shoulder-check if there is following traffic - it gives them a clue if they are alive and awake that you might change road position or speed. Do NOT think of the examiner as 'following traffic'. Also they will almost certainly not be riding in the 'correct line' - they will be choosing a line to observe you best. They may well get in your blind-spot going round a roundabout for instance - so make sure you do that left life-saver when exiting.

Always, always, cancel the turn signals. Miss this more than twice and it might well be a fail.

Younger 'orrible Ed got his licence with 10, yes TEN minors, but the examiner was kind enough to say he was obviously an experienced rider and might have made some of those because he was on the test and was trying to please rather than just ride safely.

Ride your own ride, and be judged on that - it's very fair that way.

That bears out what I've thought for a long time: the examiners are duty-bound to fail a candidate for the 'Majors' but use their experience to judge whether or not someone is competent to ride/drive.
I suspect that most of them would rather pass their examinees than fail them.

a moment of superlative muppetry on my part this morning:

because the pathway and the sides of my street are still solid sheets of ice (made all the more trecherous now by the addition of a thin film of water), boyfriend helped me move the 'Loper down into the street today before he left. I put on the U-lock because i wasn't planning to leave for about an hour.

Fast forward to one hour later: load up the 'Loper, gear self up, prepare to push the beast out into the one tiny narrow pathway of clear pavement. Nothing doing - rear end slides out on the ice, i barely keep my footing. Spend 10 sweaty minutes scraping ice off the pavement so I can get out to the clear section of road. Scoot moves forward about 3', then the rear wheel hits what i assume is a patch of ice, won't move. More sweating, now aided by swearing. I end up clearing half the damn street .... still wondering why the wretched scooter refuses to go anywhere. Action is replaced by cussing the 'Loper's fat arse, wishing I had my wee ET4 back, turning the air blue with all the swear words i know.

I sit on the curb, defeated, wondering whether i should go get a blowtorch to ensure Complete Removal of All Traces of Ice from Roadway, when a nice bloke driving a delivery van points out to me that i still have the U-lock on the front wheel.

bless him, he didn't point out to me what a total arse i was, though he had every right to. instead he said 'I've got six bikes meself darling, happens to me all the time.' what a star.

Dessa, I failed my test the first time round, for putting my foot down in the U-turn: i failed my damn test :[. apart from that, I had only one minor fault

i've since found out that if you do put your foot down, you can ask the examiner if he'll let you attempt it again. He/she is under no obligation to do so, but the nicer ones will, apparently - they know that the test is a stressful situation and that people are prone to screw up maneuvers that they normally do perfectly well.

As Jim said, it's also a good idea to exaggerate your mirror checks - normally i don't physically move my head when i'm checking my mirrors, but i did for the test, so the examiner was in no doubt that i was checking them. I'm sure i did look a bit of a nodding Donkei but rather that than failing for 'lack of observation'.

Nearly 15 minutes to get to the main road this morning - super slippery. I got stuck within ten metres of the clear stuff and just stood there until a kind woman in sensible boots gave me a push

(Obviously I was wearing sensible boots, for riding a scooter in - for walking on ice, not so much.)

Looks like Portsmouth by Vespa this weekend unless there's a great big thaw because the GP800 is going nowhere.

On a positive note, for the first time in ages I was thinking "I'm glad I've got an ET4!" rather than "I wish I had my Granturismo back!"

I won't stick my oar in on the latest pick-a-date because I don't think I have a free weekend until mid-April!

Anyone fancy a swift pint in Soho tomorrow evening?

Classic

When i first got a PX i spent at least 30 blood boiling minutes in the sweltering heat fully kitted trying to get the thing to kick over, I tried everything inc bump starting and rolling it down the hill etc etc all to no avail. So i got on the phone to the guy that used to fix my bikes, still shaking with rage and frustration and asked him why this bloody thing wont start, to which he replied straight away 'have you turned your ignition key on fully?'.... OH BOLLOX! I felt like an absolute TIT. After I stopped swearing, he told me that if he had a pound for every person he knew that had happened to he wouldn't be fixing bikes for a living.

We all make mistakes genie but some are more stupid than others

More extreme weather heading Londonwards, possibly:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/se/se_forecast_warnings.html

oh for Gods sakes.......!!!!!!

I rode Velma this morning no probs, just a few metres down my street making sure I was riding on the tyre marks and all good to go once on West End Lane

Genie - whoever hasn't done that before throw the first stone!!! hehehe
the most embarrassing time I've done that was when I was leaving yoga, Shirley was parked on her own outside the "zen centre". Off I come, 2 weeks in the first scooter I ever had, took it off the stand RIGHT when the teachers and some other "zenists" are leaving, all to find me struggling to hold the bike upright and finally let go of it on the ground
everyone volunteering to help as if I was a drunk madwoman with Alzeimers or something, till one of the (around 5 people there by this time) people points to the u lock on the front wheel, I wanted to hide in the topbox.
Possible reason I quit yoga.
oh maybe because I just got bored

thanks for the tips, I'm feeling confident, might book my test for a week's time, providing I'm able to practice this weekend, if there won't be more stupid ice and snow

Dessa/WM - my fast hard ride this w/e has changed the goalposts to make it impractical for me (pissed off, you bet), so if the weather and roads are reasonable I'm good for a Sunday critique. Not early mind - preferably only just the last vestiges of 'morning'. Take in a pub, natch.

Dessa (the important 'to be tested' one), can you make Sunday?

goody, yes I can!
we could either go around Hendon or down to Charlton on the only big empty car park I can think of (mind the distance ratio! obviously I need to get out more! )

PM me your address, I'll try to be there by 12:00 midday, we can take off in any direction.

If you are hoping to do the test at Hendon, it might be worth your while downloading the test routes and looking at them carefully on an A-Z.

Not needed for Sunday though, the aim is to provide some suggestions to look 'smoother' and some slow control somewhere.

Dessa, me three. Ping me your address.

jim is right, you can check out the test routes pretty easily. I have em on pdf...