Staff blog: Fourth time lucky!

First of all, I need to say thanks for all the emails I’ve received over the past few days. I’ve had a ton of comments, tips, suggestions and offers of free training since my piece in Wednesday’s paper on failing my mod one test (for the third time).

I have to admit to keeping something under my hat (helmet?), though: at the suggestion of Tony, our consumer editor, I booked my test again, told no one apart from my girlfriend, called in sick on Monday morning, and went off and passed it!

The safety net in knowing no one would know if I failed help do away with some of the nerves. I also tried the techniques I talked about in my article, as taught to me by Lee Spelzini (check him out). They certainly helped me out, focusing my mind when I was starting off with the manoeuvres.

I also changed my riding style a little bit; by keeping the bike a little more ‘upright’ and not dropping the front in so much when I was turning it, it needed much less speed. Being able to do the turns at a lower speed in turn gave me more time to concentrate on what I was doing.

The only real mistake I made was a solitary minor on the low speed control exercise – going too fast simply because I got excited I had gotten the figure-of-eight perfect!

To celebrate passing, I went out this morning with Graham from Camrider in the torrential rain to get some module two practice. I’ve got it booked, but of course I’m not going to say when for!

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