Swerve test - dangerous!

Swerve test - very dangerous! I had heard horror stories about this test too, but having done it four times with my instructor at his site, I thought, nothing to it, no problem!

However, his course was longer and there was no tight bend to come about before picking up the speed. Virtually everyone failed the swerve test yesterday for going too slowly, so I made a determined effort that it wasn't going to be me.

I came out of the bend, went through the gears to get up to a reasonable speed - no idea what, as there really wasn't time to check.

All of a sudden I realised that I didn't know where the cones were. I was so pre-occupied with getting up to speed that I had no time to check where I was going.

I could see the final stopping point and realised I must have missed the swerve.

Then I realised that I must be going too fast and instinctively hit the breaks. Never made it to the gate, bike threw me off and I ended up in hospital, knee swollen to the size of a football, my helmet luckily having taken the impact of my head and face scraping along the tarmac, which was incidentally wet!

What a total disaster. How could this happen to me? I'm a beginner yes, but I've had no trouble on the bike before, I've swerved several times around the instructor's course, no problem!

The course at the testing centre in Silverstone is the problem and no doubt every other testing course. As another failed testee said - you expect the cones to be ahead of you when you come out of the bend, but they're not.

You expect more time to pick up the required speed, but there isn't. I can bitch and moan all I like about it, but I shouldn't have braked when I did, fair enough. What the real problems are; firstly, it was wet.

The instructors have complained as the normal stopping distance in the wet is DOUBLE than in the dry, yet the testing centre make NO allowances for this whatsoever.

You even get a theory question on stopping distances, yet on this wet day, with puddles on the course, the stopping point is EXACTLY the same when wet as it is when dry - DANGEROUS and surely illegal??

Second problem, it's a swerve test right? So all you have to do is swerve around the cones, so why on earth can't the course be longer to gain the so-called desired speed before doing the swerve?

Not to mention there are so many sets of cones, you have trouble in the short space to be sure of which you are heading for.

Third problem is how on earth are you supposed to get a feel for where you are going when you're not allowed to even go around the course? My test was the last of the day, one failed testee was on their fourth failed test.

It's all just a complete farce and it has to be questioned whether it's just another way of getting revenue for each failed test - apparently 75% failure rate - while putting motorcyclists lives at risk!

Worst case scenario for me was simply failing the test and having to wait weeks for another slot - my first slot having been cancelled due to the heavy rain!

Maybe after my fourth failed test, I will have a better idea of where the cones are, if I haven't been killed in the meantime! More people should complain and have something done about this.

I am not particularly opposed to the swerve test, but the conditions in which it is done are quite simply dangerous and in complete disregard to the Highway Code stopping distances.