[Djinn8]

Is the absolute load of shite. I've never come across a group of people so petty and money hungry as driving instructors.

A few months back my Grandad died and he left me £5000 in his will. I thought I would put this to good use and get my motorbike licence. I went to my local school and got a quote for how much it would cost. Around a £1000 was what was quoted to me.

I passed my CBT and a few weeks later went for my first lesson. It was a total farce. Me and the instructor didn't get on. He didn't want to teach me, so he wasted my time, gave me no feedback and when it came to doing mock exams at the test center he told me to sit to one side so he could focus on the two other students. When I got back to the school I put in a complaint and requested a different instructor. Complete waste of money.

After that things went better, my new instructor was a good teacher and an all around decent guy. However he was the co-owner of the school and it seemd to me that he had an interest in making sure I was renting the school bikes as often as possible. So while I was booked for 3 lessons before taking my mod 1 test, instead I ended up taking 6, at least 2 of which were excessive and really bumped up the costs.

After completing the first phase of training I was moved up to the big bike catagory. This was to be four days of training with both driving tests spread throughout. I passed my Mod 1 with no problems. Reached the point of taking my Mod 2 and was getting nothing but positive feeback from my instructor.

The day of the test came around and I failed. I was a bag of nerves and I made a total pigs ear of it. I thought I'd picked up a whole bunch of serious faults, but when we got back I was surprised by the result. For all my bad riding I'd only picked up one serious. If he had called me out on anything else I would have nodded and accepted the results, but this had me stunned. I failed because a car stopped and flashed its lights at me at a junction to let me pull out and I took the offer - something that is universal accepted, but that the highway code says otherwise. It was disapointing and I was a bit flabergasted, but I felt like I deserved the result due to shoddy preformance in the rest of the test.

A month passed and I resat the test after another 2 days training with the school. I was more confident this time and had a better understanding of what was expected of me. The ride was much better although I picked up a few minors for missing the odd mirror check or whatever. But when got back I was told I'd failed again. This time the instructor failed me for not slowing down on my approach to an empty mini-roundabout. At first he claimed that I hadn't noticed the roundabout at all, but changed his tune when I asked whether he saw me indicate or not. I honestly think that he made a mistake here, but was too pround to admit the error.

The bike school were pushing to book me in for another 2 days training, but I was already over budget for lessons, having had almost twice as many as origionally quoted. £120 a day + test fees is not cheap. I decided that I'd have to find another way and went shopping for my own bike. I picked up a Honda Hornet and got it taxed and insured to be ridden under supervision. However when I called up the school to book my next training day they took exception to the fact that I wouldn't be renting their bikes and gave me the boot. I called around other schools to see if I could book a few days with them, but they all turned me down bluntly saying that I was a spent pot and that they only take students if they are paying in the thousands, not for the odd day here or there. With no other option I was forced to just go riding about on my own for practice, even if it was illegal.

At first I just drove around my neighbourhood, but as my confidence grew I started going on longer trips out into the country. Over the next few weeks while I waited for my next test I covered around 300 miles and never had any incidents.

The day of the test came and the route I got was as complex as it comes. It had every nightmare junction and confusing multilane roundabout available. Roadworks every mile. Tricky overtakes on busses and lorrys. And I absolutly NAILED it. I didn't make a single mistake. Didn't miss one observation. Got every awkward lane choice right...... and FAILED! When I asked why, the instructor sucked his teeth and said I'd clipped the markings on a mini-roundabout. I was so stunned that he'd fail me for something to trivial that I didn't even have the sense to argue the matter and just walked out.

After that I started going riding with my Dad. He's been riding bikes for over 40 years and is into the touring scene. I wanted him to follow me around and point out where I was going wrong. A couple of hundred miles later his only responce was that he's hard pressed to say anything bad about my driving at all.

Yesterday I sat my test again. I asked my Dad to come with me this time. I was feeling pretty defeted after my last one and expected to fail. That feeling only got worse when I saw that I had the same instructor as the last time. I'd love to say that I passed but if you've ever read one of my posts before you know that's not how my stories end. What's strange though is I think the instructor was activly trying to fail me. He gave me conflicting directions over the radio such as "take the third exit, following the A360", when the A360 would have been the forth exit. At one point when we pulled up to the side of the road to test my start/stop stuff, where usually we'd be parked up for a few seconds, instead he waited quite a while for a car to drive by and then instructed me to set off when it was in my blindspot - which was really malicious and could have been dangerous if I'd acted on his instructions. In the end he failed me for been in the wrong lane at a roundabout and for being too close to a car's rear when waiting at a junction. My Dad asked him what was the required distance from a car was in order to meet the requirements for the test. The instructor just told him that he not there to give a lesson. Cocksucker!

And with that my insurance has becomes invalid becasue i'm not able to present my licence within the agreed upon time. There's no more money left. I've spent over £2500 on bike school and the DVLA and I've got nothing to show for it. This was my way of getting over the abuse I suffered from my therepist (see previous post). I've very triggered at the moment. Definatly pretty crazy. I ended up emailing some demonologist all last night talking about how I'm the target of some satanic cults efforts to summon a demon. Ehh... It's complicated.

i do hope you get your licance.

that will be cool!

I am wondering, which bike do you have more time and experience with? Your own motorcycle or the rental. If it is the rental I suggest using it at the exam if you are most comfortable.

This all sounds like a farce I agree - and very expensive. Doesn't seem right to me.

[Inthetrees]

Something I have always wanted to do myself. Best of luck on the process.

[fishin fool]

I got mine many years ago and it is still valid.
Not even sure how they do it these days.