Karmin

It can be expensive, but it is cheapish to hire especially until you know exactly what you want. In the UK it is murky and greeny grey a lot of the time but there are some amazing wrecks about. Padi is good and easily recognised, you start off in a classroom and then a swimming pool before being taken out in a small group. It is a different world under the waves

Good Luck on Mod 2 and Congrats on Mod 1!!

Grats!

Generally I hear the Honda CBF is now the one to have, whereas before the YBR was much the same as the CG. My experience with my YBR was the same as Frank's it's great fun little machine

MOD 2 Passed!! Well I took my mod 2 for the 2nd time today, the examiner was Ian at Poole who followed me on his bike. He was lovely very clear over the radio and repeated the instructions as he went, drove all around the Poole and Wimbourne area over decent main roads. Independant session was 'follow the signs to Wimbourne then follow the signs to Poole' which was as I expected I really enjoyed the ride. Had 2 rider faults, 1 for going over the edge of a right hand corner and 1 for going at a junction when the examiner felt I should have waited, but the car coming didnt have to slow down and the gap was large enough, I wouldn't have taken the gap on my YBR but felt safe to do so on the XJ6. I had a real headrush when he told me I had passed! So pleased and can't stop grinning, met my other half at Let's Ride and he brought my big bike so I had my first ride on it to work

For manual Handling in Mod 1 I would reccomend the three point turn much easier to control the bike, plus it takes longer giving you a bit more time to calm down! For the bike though it may be worth looking further afield to find a training school with a lower bike I am using a XJ6 fully lowered and can manage that flat footed at 160cm but I am in Bournemouth with Let's Ride, there are options out there but they are hard to find! Also look at your boots, some have a platform sole that might just boost you a little to make it feel safer. What bike are you going to get once you have passed?

Mod 2 Fail! My Experience - Poole 09:37 22.07.14 Examiner introduced himself to me and went through the paperwork before explaining the conduct of the test, he then made a comment about how he would be following ‘in his air conditioned car’ this put meon my guard due to the tone. I am aware it could have been a comment to joke but the tone didn’t suggest this!, when I then started the xj6 he told me to leave the test centre by the gate which was clearly marked NO EXIT at this point I was unsure if he was testing my ability to follow the signs or was trying to fail me by encouraging me to go out of the NO EXIT, I followed the signs to the Exit stopping at the stop sign before proceeding out the gate marked Exit. When I did this I was told off by the examiner over the radio and reminded to follow his instructions. This really flustered me; I was following the road signs but got told off, which led to confusion. He then had to instruct me to turn around after I took the exit as instructed when he told me to turn left as I was passing a junction so took the following one. We made it out of the industrial estate and although I was looking forward to taking my Mod 2 now felt very stressed and tense as I felt he was looking to fail me, for the independent ride section of the test which he did almost as soon as we were out of the industrial estate he gave me blocks of three instructions over the radio, this was not what my instructor had led me to expect but I understand is another way of doing it, The instructions were not clear in relation to the road, and it was not an independent drive at all, there was no map or diagram that I could have looked at and I took a few wrong turns because of confusion over his instructions. Over the radio the examiner sounded exasperated with me and told me off for going the wrong way even though I thought I had followed his instructions. The independent section of the test ended, the examiner took me through some tricky housing estates with double parked traffic and asked me to pull up as I was approaching a T junction my only option was to pull in on the left just past 3 parked cars taking me a lot closer to the T junction than I would ever pull in normally, I complied with the instruction due to his previous response feeling very uncomfortable with the position I was placed in as it didn’t feel safe, I was then informed that he would now be continuing with the next part of the test, and at this point I was sure I had failed as I had made several mistakes trying to follow the examiners instructions. :/ The test continued, and due to the examiners attitude and confusing instructions I felt I had no chance at all, eventually I was asked to take a slip road onto the dual carriageway, the dual carriageway was very busy with streams of traffic in both lanes, I positioned my bike behind the give way line pointing forwards in the direction of the flow of traffic, a driver slowed down considerably in the inside lane and indicated I should proceed, which I did, so I was failed on this point as the examiner couldn’t see the driver of the car indicate I should proceed, it was a grey are I choose White and he says it as Black, I can't dispute his decision as it has already been made, I do feel however, that if he could not have failed me on that point I would have been failed on something else. The test itself felt like it was engineered to fail me by the examiner, I am quite upset about how it was conducted and in retrospect I should have stopped the test before I left the centre and spoken to him! I am retaking my module 2 on Tuesday the 5th of August and I am hoping for a different examiner who will not appear to make the decision before they have left the centre the one yesterday was covering for the normal examiner who was on holiday, I have 10 years experience driving my car on the roads with no accidents or incidents, I feel I am a safe driver and my instructors who have taught me from Let’s Ride through the DAS have all stated that with my driving all they have had to do is polish it for the test, my instructor who returned after my test had finished was shocked I had failed. The only incident marked on my report sheet was errors regarding this incident and it was recorded as 1 fault (serious)