Ok day 3 and hours 3 and 4 are finished!
Today after checking in at the front desk I finally got my schedule for the rest of the month. I only had a schedule up to today so was figuring I would get this and thankfully it is for the entire month. If everything goes well my last actual lesson will be on 26th and test will be next day on 27th. Unfortunately even if I pass on the 27th I wouldn't be able to hop right on over to pick up the W400 and go out cruising the entire weekend. First I'll need to take the certification that I passed to the license center for my prefecture which unfortunately is not open on the weekend and is also like an hour drive away. Plus that following week just happens to be what they call 'Golden Week' here which is usually a holiday for a lot of places.
On to lesson 3 report! Today was a new 'sensei' teacher. Much younger guy maybe late 30's early 40's. He seems pretty nice as well thankfully. No bike was pulled out yet so I asked for #7 blue which was the one with good battery that I seemed to do better with yesterday. He seemed to laugh a bit at this maybe they know the #6 I had on first day is a bit more janky I wonder. I also ask about the better looking red/white ones and he confirms those are only allowed for students that have reached a certain point and the blue ones are reserved for the absolute beginners.
Previous instructor never said anything about it so I had been getting on the bike then with my foot pulling up the kick stand. This guy instructed I should put the kick stand up before getting on the bike and likewise put it down after I get off. To be fair with my boots I had been struggling to get it down from a sitting position.
Off we go do some of the same rounds around the track as I had the previous two days. Definitely feeling a bit better in getting through the gears and not accidentally pressing the horn when going to switch on the turn signals. Still far from perfect. Maybe better isn't the right word but comfortable? I still stall a few times here and there. But I think throttle control and clutch release is getting better.
One thing I don't think I mentioned before is that this course is shared by a number of others doing lessons for various things so it is not just us out there. You have trucks (not huge American semis but still decent sized ones) doing their rounds, large fork lifts (!?), students going for regular car license and of course others doing bike license. So there are a number of times when we need to stop to let others go or wait for someone stalled to get going. Of all three days so far today seemed the most crowded on the course.
One new thing was added to todays lesson. Braking at a designated spot from a speed of 40kmh. There's a designated stretch on the side for just the bikes to do this. There are three lines painted at the end and you have to brake and stop just before the middle line (3rd line if its raining I'm told). We go over to this brake test and he has me get off and watch him do the brake test once. Then tells me to get on and make a full circuit around the course then come in to this lane get up to 40 then brake when I pass the cones and stop at the line. First time tells me to do it slowly just to get a feel for it. I make the round around the course (which was also first time I rode solo not following anyone) line up and get in the lane then brake. Seems ok? Tells me go around now do it faster also this time no real problem but I wasn't checking to see if I hit 40. Has me go around do it again make sure I hit 40 then do the brake check. This time I do get it to 40 and still the actual brake thing doesn't seem an issue? I'm not sure if this is supposed to be harder or not but we end that there.
Next back to the hill stop and starts we did day before. I botch it the first few times but third is more smooth and that was it for that today.
Then rest of this lesson was spent on the balance beam where i struggled yesterday. Today I continued to struggle. But at least today I was able to get to practice this a lot more doing it over and over for the rest of the lesson. They also have a white line painted one lane over that isn't raised up off the road like the actual balance beam. Feels easier to control it straight down the painted line than the beam itself for some reason. Towards the end I was able to successfully get over the actual beam once! I will need to master this in order to pass but I still have 15 hours of lessons to go so hopefully will get it in time. This was only the third lesson/hour that I had ever rode a bike to begin with though...
But that was it for actual riding today.
Lesson 4/hour 4! This was going to be on a simulator I'm told so not actually riding. Great a bit of a break! I wonder if all of the two hour lessons are one hour riding then one hour something else? I kind of hope not I didn't really get much out of this next hour and would rather more seat time.
This simulator lesson is also not one on one with an instructor like all the other lessons have been. I was joined by the other kid who was also doing the regular license. He is a bit further along though I take it as he was riding the red/white bikes. Unless I'm mistaken having peaked at his card he was on hour 13 or 14.
Different instructor for this one too. Older guy late 60s maybe even 70s. Hair that reminds me of Elvis seems a bit of a humorous gent.
We go up to second floor of the main school building and there is this thing called the Mitsubishi RS-6000
This is not the actual one at the school but same model. I laugh when it boots up an American Microtrends bios boot screen then Windows XP starts to load. Instructor has the young kid hop on first likely as he's already done it a few times. I guess this is used to simulate real world riding conditions somehow since we only do actual riding on the course. But today they load up just a scenic mountain ride with no other cars or pedestrians to avoid.
Graphics are on par with a Sega Dreamcast or around there. Really ancient looking thing. Bike also doesn't lean at all and I have no clue what gear I am in ever. Bit confused really at the point of this thing at all!
Speaking of not knowing what gear I am in it did make me realize I maybe have been relying on the gear indication lights on the training bike a bit too much. I'm always checking those to see what gear I am in but obviously my W400 and other bikes aren't going to have giant indicator lights. A manual car you always know what gear you are in by the position, first left and up, sixth right and down. But a bike? There is no such positioning to remember.
Both me and the young guy get two rounds on the simulator each round lasting all of maybe three minutes tops. Then finished and brought to another room to watch an equally ancient DVD which.... really has nothing to do with riding. It's a general road rules safety video about not blowing past red lights and watching out for pedestrians and people on scooters blowing past other cars while you are turning. Nearly the same thing they would make you watch at license renewals it seems (in fact I think I may have seen this one before). This goes on for 30 min or so. Kind of a waste of time really but the break was nice.
Old guy comes back and it's about ~10 minutes or so before end of lesson but he really has nothing for us and I guess can't let us leave early either so starts talking and asks questions where I am from. I tell him California and he starts singing California Dreaming by the Mamas and the Papas 😂. Talks about how easy he hears it is go get a bike license in the US and that they have nothing at all like these schools or required courses. Asks if I'm going to vote in the upcoming election then declares he likes Trump (??? 😂😂😂). Bit of a humorous guy indeed.
But that was it once the bell rang end of day. Tomorrow is just one hour thankfully so should just be all riding.
Riding slow is always the hardest part. The bike becomes instable and you have to use more inputs to get your bike under control. Most seasoned riders have problems with slow manoeuvres.
Can't wait for your next lessons :) This reminds me so much on my A1 license back in 2001/2002. Time flys.
Thank you! Yeah I hope I can get it down within the month in order to pass the test. I'm also really curious to see if the red/white bikes which I am guessing will be the test bikes have better controls. Really though it's on me to master doing rear brake, clutch release and accel all at the same time smoothly while also controlling where the bike is going.
Yeah, takes me back reading that.
You will, for sure. Those big bikes aren't going anywhere.
Yes, don't worry too much about this. It'll come, but it takes time. I think I had been on the bike for 20 or 24 hours (spread over 12 sessions) before I really started feeling comfortable with the controls. It's a lot to keep track of.
It might not be a bad idea to get a second pair of riding shoes that are not as bulky as they will give you a lot more feel where the shifter is concerned. You can definitely hold on to the boots, but perhaps you'll feel more comfortable using them once you're more familiar with the bike's controls.
I think I will go out and see if I can't find something that fits a bit better this weekend. Checking what others are wearing they don't really seem to be riding shoes at all so maybe I'll just get a different kind of boot from a local shop. Place I bought the helmet and other gear is an hour drive and they didn't really have a good shoe selection to begin with.
www.youtube.com
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/octane/ZIQ26VLDXJFQBFVPRQ6QL5XFXE.jpg)
