Celebrating one year of getting the license: 22 December 2010....!!!
Many nice places in Singapore are not public transport friendly. Nice places to me means natural parks, beaches, somewhere quieter, less people, and of course, they are all almost always located far away from main transport line.
I would also like to find my own secret spots if I have chance and facility to explore.
Singapore public transport is, well, as much as it’s in higher standard than other countries in the region (although not always) it’s sometimes unreliable, especially busses. When you count on it daily it becomes big fat annoying problem.
Other mode of transportation is expensive, especially car. If you could buy it, it would be difficult to maintain; petrol, road tax, insurance, parking, electronic road pricing system, all add up to a lot of expenses, not to mention that car is not always the most convenient mode of transportation. In my previous work place, my colleague would park his car one station away from the workplace, then take mrt. Tell me what is wrong with that. Everything! You fork up money to buy car, yet instead of getting the convenience, you have to take public transport to avoid higher parking charges. Isn’t it less troublesome to take mrt all the way? Maybe so, maybe not.
Public transportation like bus and mrt are not necessary cheaper than riding a bike. Without calculating the cost of the bike, of course, the daily and other expenses will add up cheaper when I ride bike than taking bus and mrt.
Overall, the time that I save. A lot. And time is good. For hobbies, for rest, for any other more useful things. So I decided to take up bike license. If in Indonesia learning how to ride a bike is simply try to ride and there you go, in here, it actually bloody bloody tedious. Bloody!
I know that Singapore learning system is different and I know that it’s going to be tedious, yet I didn’t expect it to be that horrendous.
After registration (money):
1. Plethora of theory classes.Theory class schedules are not abundant so it kinds of affecting the schedule, especially because you have to attend previous class before the next, so it’s impossible to do concurrently. I had to attend 7 theory classes in total if not wrong, and each had to be book one month or at least two weeks before since I only have time after works or weekends.
2. Theory evaluation, practices and test.To take the theory test, you need to pass theory evaluation. To pass evaluation, you better take multiple practices. Theory test only available once a month, with limited seatings. Once you miss, gotta get another booking. Theory test is valid up to one year (or half?? -à rotten memory, sorry). So once you are eligible for test, it’s better to get it done soon.
3. Practical subjects.I think in total there are 16 subjects to take. After passing the previous one, then you can take the next one. Included are three assessments where they will mark you with points, just like practical test.
4. Practical test with Traffic Police (TP).Can only book one month in advance. No sooner, but can be later. This is the final step that will decide whether you’ll get the license, or not.
This system of gradual passing of subjects or classes and limited availability affect a lot in the schedule. It drags the whole process, especially when you are stuck in one subject. It can be maddening.
THE PRACTICALS
The practical subjects are killer for me. I never handle any motorized vehicle before, unless you count dodgem and go kart. I’m especially good with dodgem (fondly known as boom-boom-car) and with that, it certainly not a good experience to rely with.
For practical courses, the required attires are: long pants, long sleeve, helm liner (if you are using center’s helmet, which I did) and glove (since I don’t have other glove, I was using my diving glove).On top of that we would need to put in number tag, tag color is divided according to the subject. So basically you will know who attend which classes.
Waiting area before the course was annoying part. Sometimes they didn’t on the TV, so there was nothing to do. Since I don’t like to carry handphone in my pocket, I had to leave it in the locker. Sometimes I would meet familiar people who happened to share same classes in the part, but most probably everyone would sit by themselves. It could also be nail biting moment if you were nervous about the subjects, which I almost always did.
Each session lasts about 100 minutes.
The subjects:
1.01. Introduction, first gear, clutch, bike handling, mini circuit.
Surprisingly, I didn’t have any problem for my first subject. Everything went smoothly. It’s my first time handling bike. The center is using street bike imported from Indonesia, Honda brand. It’s heavier and bulkier than moped/bebek. I was learning manual gear.
So first lesson, first gear, clutch control break. We were introduced to the bike feature, and tried not to ride to the wall covered with tyres. On the machine, half clutch, throttle, clutch-in, brake before you touch the tyre wall which was a mere three four meters in front of you. After a few times, we rode around the mini circuit, practicing the method in longer distance. We had a very kanchiong (nervous) classmate, he felt down two times, once in front of me, luckily I remembered where my brake was.
1.02. Up to third gear handling, mini circuit.
Starting with this subject, I already having difficulties. Somehow it was the time when I encountered a rude instructor who almost yelled at everyone.We needed to learn to switch to third gear, ride and brake smoothly and properly. The main obstacle was the mini circuit. It’s so mini that it was frightening to ride in third gear. The circuit’s four bends was so close to each other.
So from the starting point I had to maintain half clutch and constant speed so I could change gear while negotiating bend, by the time I finished the bend I had to change to second gear before another bend, same thing with third gear. Because the track was too short the speed was not enough for third gear to go smoothly. Just after the third gear we have to break. That was the beginning of my nightmare.
It’s not easy to control two hands and two legs doing different things at the same time. Left right, clutch, break, gear, which oneee is which again???? When the speed was not fast enough, but had to change to higher gear, the bike would wobble, or if the gear was high but we couldn’t go fast because of bend, the bike would stall and wobble too.
I hate the mini circuit wholeheartedly. I think it’s life threatening. If you got the outer circle of the circuit, it’s more manageable, but if you got inner circle, which I always got, the space you had and the distances was cut short significantly. With additional of 1.01 students who rode as nervous as you around the circuit, it’s mess.
On the session where I passed this subject, third try, the instructor let me go out to the main circuit. Main circuit was much bigger, but there were cars also. However, it was much better to learn in main circuit, at least you have more sufficient distances and space to do all the gear changing and to maintain the speed needed. I felt so relieved when finally went out from mini circuit.
Overall. Yucky. Yucky. Yucky. 1.02 (since beginning) was the official moment where I began to feel a lot of stress. (Yes, THAT early)
1.03. Up to fifth gear, negotiate bend, low speed control, main circuit.
Another challenge to ride up to fifth gear in short distance then drop to third gear and negotiate the bend. We had to do it properly according to instructor’s requirement. The sequence of action have to be right, step by step. Otherwise you fail.
So, technically speaking..
- Ride to third gear, make turn at the bend
- Pick up speed and change to 4th gear then fifth gear, all in probably less than 30 meter
- Then press the hand break and step on foot break little bit, clutch in, drop the gear to 4th, then 3rd
- Release clutch, release hand break, release foot break
- Negotiate the bend
- Press hand break + step on foot break a bit, clutch in, drop to 2nd & 1st gear
- Break.
By this time, you would have reached cone marking where we were supposed to do low speed control, useful for proceeding smoothly during jam or red light queue. The distance of the first cone was probably 4 meter, second was merely 2 meter.On the throttle, half clutch, ride, off throttle, break while clutch in, all in very short distance and time. It’s challenging not to get wobbly and unstable, but this low speed control proved to be very valuable in the rest of the course and also in real life outside the road.
2.01.Slope, breaking and starting on slope, turning.
The slope looked quite intimidating and I kept thinking that it must be difficult not to slide back down. I was wrong, it’s quite easy not to slide down, however, starting off the slope without wobbling is the main challenge, and also when negotiating down the slope, again, there are a lot of technical steps that is very rigid by sequence which I always hate.
We needed to kick up to gear two before going up the slope with very short distance to do so after a bend (seriously, if the circuit was bigger, I guess it would be much more easier to learn), then brake, clutch in, kick down to first gear, keep the rear break, switch to right signal, check blind spot, on throttle, half clutch , release foot brake, move, release clutch, change signal to left, minimum pressure on front brake and brake at the end of the slope, clutch in, check blind spot, all in five meter during the slope. Bloody busy.I think this subject was the first time I fell. Nothing to do with the slope though.
It was rainy day and I happened to wear a very slippery Converse shoe (excuses), I rode in the road approaching the slope, when a car suddenly appeared from top of the slope and went down very fast. I didn’t know if it could brake on time, anyway, they were learning also, and if they couldn’t brake it would hit me by the time I passed by the slope, so I braked. I must have used too much of front brake that the front part of the bike spun to the left. It was about to fall, so I stuck out my left leg to hold it, but damn, I slipped, (yah in slow motion it might be comical) so the bike fell with me and I knocked my lips on the mirror. Hurt, not so much. Embarrass, hell yes, lucky no one was around except the stupid car, I took the pleasure looking at the driver being scolded by the instructor next to him.
Me, however, looked like Angelina Jolie for a while.
2.02. Slope, lane changing, signals, turning, traffic, main circuit.
Similar with previous subject but now we have to take more complicated route and learned line changing. All the blind spots, head turns, mirror checkings, body languages, traffic judgement, right turning, left turning properly (not as easy as it sounds).
3.01. Ride through and hanging on 20cm width elevated narrow plank more than 6 seconds, and zig-zaging through rows of orange cones (pylon slalom) in less than 6 seconds in 2nd gear.
Narrow plank was my nightmare at first try. I barely made it though the course without getting off the plank. We were supposed to use low speed control and hang on the plank as long as we could. Once you wobble, it’s not easy to recover the direction, if you off the plank, that is immediate failure in the test. Magically, I managed to do pylon slalom well.
Anyway, my first lesson for this combined subject still failed like chicken failed to fly. However, after I got good instructor who could explain very well and got the grasp, plank didn’t scare me anymore, I didn’t care how loud the throttle sounded, I just controlled it with the clutch, eye line proved to be very important, look front and more likely I’d be able to maintain straight line, but human nature, sometimes I always wanted to look down to see whether my tyre is off the plank, and then it was off the plank because of that.
While my plank improved, my pylon slalom was becoming a disaster. Once I got too fast or too slow passing by the first cone, I knew that it wouldn’t be smooth, got nervous and ended up trying to avoid hitting the cones and fell down. After a while anytime I was about to hit the orange cone, I would just hit it (It was soft and would bend under the bike) instead of avoiding it and skid myself.
I had good amount of falling down during this lesson, however, I could pick up my heavy bike (heavy!) very quickly, rode off and pretend nothing happened while collecting my dignity. Good thing about cone, once you get the first one right, it’s not difficult to get the rest right as the momentum would be there, as long as you dare enough to maintain the speed and confident, and not thinking about falling. Easy to say. I found that once I think about falling (basically when my bike is wobbling and difficult to control, I found that 60% I would fall). It happened quite frequently in early lesson but as my skin thickened, falling didn’t scare me and it actually helped me not to fall. Euh.. confusing??
3.02.Emergency break.
E-break could be a very annoying subject. First, all we did was just to ride through the circuit, queued and then did the E-break process in I think 30-40 meter track. Repeat. We basically spent more time in queuing than the lesson itself. Second, the first instructor I got was awfully picky and if I have to be bitter for one subject, this was it. I got everything right, brake on time, correct position, not exceeding the red line, yet he failed me because I didn’t look in front long enough half the time. Urgh, I guessed he made it his goal to fail someone on that subject and chose me from the other six guys. Bleh.
The technical, we started with first gear, in less than twenty meter we had to change it to second and then third gear and reached the 30kph before we reached the cone marking. We had to keep glancing on the speedometer to achieve and maintain 30 kph. (only 30-35 was acceptable. It’s very easy to reach 40-50 if I didn’t monitor frequently) After that, we quickly closed the throttle, and breakkkkkk. The break had to be done in certain manner that it was not too fast or too slow, then clutched in time to prevent engine off. It was okay if the engine died after the E-break. (although some instructor mis-informed the student about this). After the bike stopped (before the red line), right foot down, kick the gear multiple times to first gear, left foot down, right foot up, clutch in, signal, blind spot, then moved off while (!) maintain the eyeline in front!
Sidenote: the training bike is equipped with indicators in front of the bike that would indicate front brake being pressed/footbrake being pressed/light up when bike reach 30kph. So the instructors KNOW what you are doing.
As rigid as the posture we needed to get it right at the end of the E-break, it was actually even more rigid. After doing everything right, the TP still marked me down as incorrect posture. I eventually found out that they demanded the right posture throughout the course. You see, it was a very short distance from the start to when we changed the gear up to the third gear. While changing to second gear, the left foot was below the gear pedal, kick it up and the left hand need to pull in the clutch. In spilt second we needed to change to third gear. In such a short time and for practicality, I sometimes forgot to put my left foot back on top of the pedal and my finger back on the handle after I changed from to first gear to second and before I change to third gear. Just like that! In real life situation, it would be much more practical if I want to pick up my speed from start to 3rd, 4th, 5th gear by not robotically placing every limbs on it correct and *template* position after every gear changing. Ridiculous.
Apparently I think the instructor think the same. I had never heard advise or complaint from instructors regarding this, only after finding this suspicious mark during TP, and proved it again on another test that I got the conclusion. Nuts.
Ohya..since E-break had good casualties in the past for students to potentially screw up and endanger ourselves, we were required to wear back the elbow and knee guard we discarded since 1.03, and for every starting briefing, the instructor would picturing all the horrible scenarios about broken leg, ankle, broken collar bone, hitting tree and flying rider through the fence that..well. .. I don’t know, it's good to be careful, but it was not a good motivator for a start.
4.01.Negotiating figure eight (S course) in less than 11 seconds, and crank course less than 6 seconds.
This was the most nightmarish subject for me. It was basically the course where I stuck the longest and a course that first made me think riding was not meant to be. It’s funny enough that on the first lesson I got good grasp that eventhough I failed, I was quite sure I was very close in getting it next time. However, it was not the case and it got worse overtime. The first half of the figure eight was the hardest, the pressure of getting it fast enough was tremendous, it was unnerving to navigate through the curvy narrow course with very little room and short distance while maintaining certain speed.
It’s hardest to maintain the bike stability because the speed might not be fast enough for second gear, once it was unstable, it's very easy to fall. If first half was good, second half normally go well, just need to apply the necessary rigid technicality of blind spot, signal, postures etc. Needless to say, changing bike every time really took its toll. Adjusting the bike everytime was a good challenge. One bike rear’s brake is deeper than the other, or the gear or everything else. Eventually first half of the lesson would be unstable and the other half was not enough to score me a pass. Horrible-horrible subject. With the most fall and blue black. Nightmare! Uh!
Eventhough there were few other external reasons, I blame myself for doing this subject horribly. The more I was scared or entertaining the thought of falling, the more I will fall. The pressure also played a lot in making me nervous. Other trainee bikes queuing in the line behind, many instructors for different classes around. Uh.
But to be fair, it seemed quite a common nightmare subject. As bad as I was, there were some who were worse than me, including those who took 2A (higher class for 200-400cc) who encountered a fall everytime they tried the circuit, or those who made even worse falls than me like straying outside the circuit and of course, there was an instructor who fell to. Well, not to be mean (but I am) it’s actually nice to see some reminder for them about how we might feel under pressure. Too bad, the instructor who fell was the one who was actually nice and fair to the student, not those obnoxious ones.
4.02. Overall circuit evaluation and pillion.
This is the first overall evaluation for the whole circuit and the first test to feel how it’s like to have a person sitting behind as a pillion. It was definitely different, the balance is affected, the throttle power needed to be added so much more and there is somebody who would be twice as scared as you for every move you make. Haha. My first pillion tryout ended well, surprisingly, I got a nice lady as a partner and she had more difficulty with engine stalled few times and she couldn’t manage kick start. She was nervous and the whole bike was shaking during the S course but amazingly she managed to go through it.
5.01. First assessment of overall circuit with pass points. I think it’s 24 points?
This is basically the same with before and after subject. Subject 4.02 didn’t have scoring and 5.02 with 18 points passing scoring implementation, everything else is the same. Note: pillion riding was just for us to experience it, it didn’t count into the scorings.
Side story, this is the subject when I encountered a super annoying guy who was also a trainee. What is a line when a guy crossing the line or making impolite passes? Same thing with what is the line when you feel someone being racist towards you or give inappropriate remarks? The answer is there is no clear line, no clear boundary, it can be different in different situation and with different people, it's hard to justify, but you KNOW it when it’s being crossed.
As often, I was the only female in the class. It’s not uncommon and totally fine with me. Anyway, going to class was not a good time for me, tired after work, worried about the course, it’s a stressful chore and hassle, every time. So, I’m not in good mood to start with.
We were in the class of six, it was 5.01 subject, where we had to go through the whole circuit and practiced every skill. At first I didn't pay attention, until after sometime I noticed this guy, whose bike was in front of me, separated by one or two bikes. Everytime the bike stopped, he would turn around, in fix position that would make owl and chiropractor happy, and stared. I am not exaggerating anything, because not only me, the two bikes in between us were wondering why this guy looked behind in that manner until they also turned around to check. Scaling Jakarta’s road for years, I’ve known too well and ignore this kind of idiocy. But ignore to ignore, it was getting very annoying especially the queue was super slow, I decided to stare him down, although I think my ugly stare could kill and I normally won, he didn’t bulge and even started to wink etc. I gave him a fist, and he conceded, at least I thought, or it was his turn to do the plank. The guy behind me also noticed and said, what the hell he thinks he is doing, staring at people like that?
Apparently, after the plank, we queued again for E-break and there he started again, I gave him another fist and stared until I won, but again, at least I thought. Somehow one bike in between us change queuing lane and I ended up right behind him. He had the nerve to ask me why I was angry, which I managed to tell him calmly that it’s staring that way is annoying. Then he started with all those BS that maybe he thinks will work, (well, probably for young naiveté craved for attention and compassion kind of girl and if the guy is a bloody hybrid of the most handsome guy in the world with plethora of charisma, maybe, only maybe, it wouldn’t come across as poorly written jackassy bullshit drama pick-up lines), told me that because I’m attractive, he wants to know me better, wants to be friend, so on and so forth, all those sort of crap etc etc. Seriously, is it high school? How old did he think I am, my high school classmate can tell how much I would be impressed with this kind of elephant shit. Or maybe it was the way of speaking and his attitude that was offensive. Anyway, I tried to take it easy and told him I just found the staring offensive and annoying, so please don’t do that again. After that, I knew I shouldn’t acknowledge his existence at all, because he then blabbed about anything on the planet, repeat with additional of asking various particulars, various coffee or dinner appointment. He was either obnoxious clueless or freaking obnoxious clueless or effing obnoxious clueless with dead nerves thinking he was charming. Seriously, I think I’m not an easily offended person but his attitude really offended me, I think this guy very young and probably think every woman can be easily manipulated by mushy words and unintelligent face, and he probably read my ready-to-punch face as interested with him.
So I just pretended that he was dead and I’m deaf and blind, unfortunately we stuck in the same line for every circuit.
Anyway, I got my revenge. I knew I did my lesson poorly I would not pass, not to blame others but myself, however, I was really pissed and had too bad mood to concentrate on my lesson thanks to this idiot.
Near the end of the lesson, we needed to do pillion practice, and as suspected, the instructor paired me to him, because he was the smallest size from the rest of the guy. I was thinking of telling the instructor but didn’t want to make mount out of molehill. Another guy who was apparently noticed asked me whether I’m okay with that. See, this is how a guy supposes to behave. I told him I’d be fine. We started off with me as the rider, I swear I was angry enough that I didn’t mind to ride the bike to the wall to send him flying if I really couldn’t take it.
Anger comes a lot with bravery I guess, I rode everything, even the S course with high speed because I didn’t care, it must be quite scary because he started to get pale faced, stopped talking thrash and started to ask me to ride carefully. Magically, I survived the S course, crank course, and I was the only one who didn’t drop from the plank with pillion. How nice is that? Even though the riding was not good because it was wobbling and unstable, which made it even more sweeter because it frightened the idiot so much and you know what, he started apologized if he made me angry while I was speeding up towards the pylon slalom and turned nice for the rest of the circuit, saying he didn’t mean to be impolite and sorry if I’m offended, etc etc.
Anyway, I don’t want stupid things to get in my mind, so it’s fine with me, and I was happy he didn’t dare to speak much to me anymore when the class was dismissed. I was still pissed because I didn’t pass, but everyone else also failed except two students.
5.02. Second assessment of overall circuit, pass points.This one with scoring “exam”, exceed 18 points, fail.
There are few miracles that I had during my course and this was one of it. It was the first time I was being guided with this instructor (later on I nominate him as the nicest instructor). We went through first trial for the whole circuit, then it came to the time where the instructor would do the scoring as if we were in the real TP test.
Everything is still fresh in my mind, started from parking area, passed by pedestrian crossing, signal, mirror, bla bla, change lanes bla bla, slope, S course less than 11 seconds, crank course less than 6 seconds, narrow plank more than 6 seconds, pylon slalom less than 6 seconds, E-brake, and then some.
I thought I was doing okay, but also thought I might not meet the requirements of some of the timing and it would be hard not to exceed 18 point. When I rode back to the bike parking point as the last trainee, the instructor caught up with me and asked whether I had passed the theory class exam. (Note: the 5.02 passing mark is only applicable for a month, together with passing theory exam, you would then eligible to book for Traffic Police test. The timing of the theory exam is very far and between, there were many cases that student needed to repeat their 5.02 because it would have exceed one month before they managed to clear the theory exam). I told him I passed the theory quite sometimes ago. He nodded, smiled and gestured me to continue riding back.
There were two ideas running in my mind, maybe he was just asking to find out the student’s progression, or maybe, maybe I pass? On the first try, for the part that matter? It must be snowing! Anyway, it was not snowing and I really passed. Icing on the cake, the instructor actually complimented me on my riding that day (it WAS a miracle day) and I actually passed with much lower point than 18. I think it’s 8 or 12? I don’t have the assessment letter because I had to exchange it with my PDL (Provisional Driving License) that would make me eligible to go out and ride on the road under provision of an instructor.
6.01. General riding and bike handling on public road. Staggered formations.
It was the first lesson when we went outside in the public road. We had to sit down through a long briefing for how we were going to conduct ourselves in the road and the road regulation for new rider like me, especially with Singapore road regulation that is slightly different.
We were all going to move in staggered position, to improve visibility of the group and to make us less likely to be cut by other road users. There would be one instructor in front and one behind. We would ride around and be assessed with our general riding. It was quite nice riding outside where the instructor would bring us further around, getting us familiarized with the riding instead of being restricted with all the rules inside the circuit.
At first I was quite worried about passing the subjects before the test, which was around one month after I booked. It’s the requirement and the test would be fortified if you don’t clear all subjects. One month sounds like a lot of time, but with hectic working life, training schedules, and of course, whether it’s easy for me to pass every subjects and assessments, I had reason to worry. Luckily, I didn’t need to. The rest of the course actually went smoothly for me, I only stumbled a bit in the U-turn.
7.01. General riding and bike handling on public road, U-turn, test route.
We would do the test route in public road and learned to do proper U-turn. After long briefing about the test route, we practiced U-turn in the mini circuit. U-turn is difficult! At least the one they required. By the time we positioned ourselves to do the U-turn, we should never ever drop our right foot (anyway, all along the riding, dropping right foot almost means immediate failure. Why??? How would I know? There is no logical reason that I would understand except maybe they want to implement proper riding habit while we are learning). After practicing it over and over, it was quite easy not to let your right foot down in the circuit and road, but for U-turn, somehow it’s not, because by the time we turned to the right and stopped, we basically leaning to the right. With the posture and the weight of the bike, and sometimes unavoided abrupt stop, it’s quite easy to drop the right foot accidentally to support everything. Also, one more important thing, the U-turn shall not take more than one lane, not even touching the first road line, it shouldn’t be wide turn, you shouldn’t wobble. Making U-turn in one lane is not easy at all, and while trying hard to do so, a lot of thing can go wrong.
Again, there is nothing wrong in making wide U-turn in real life, two lanes or three if you may, as long as make it safe and wait for the road to clear. Again, the logic is to make you learn the proper way while you are obligated to. After the long briefing and practice in the mini circuit, we only had so little time to try the test route, about 2 rounds or three rounds the most.
Starting off, we would have to watch the traffic before turning left. There were a lot of side road where we needed to remember: turn head, check blind spots, bla bla, signal, and more often than not, because the side roads are basically the entry points for the building around we had to watch out for cars and made necessary signaling and decisive about how to react. After that we would go the filter road, and again, made judgment about when to go, turning to 70kph road (we had to hit 70kph, too slow would make you collect handsome points) and do multiple line changings before we hit the traffic light, proceeded, made U-turn to the junction again, turn right and went through a road with plethora side roads and pedestrian crossings, before riding to another road and back to the center.
8.01. Overall assessment for test route.
We would do overall test route consisting on circuit and road. I think it’s more likely to fail in the circuit because of many immediate failure spots and points, but the road is also very intimidating because of the unknown factors like traffics and pedestrians. I thought I was definitely needed to repeat, but again, to my surprise, I passed.
The instructors stayed to give us some tips for the test. Some suggested to come early on the test day, some said drink coca cola, some suggested to take a couple of self practices to prepare ourselves better. Basically, all the suggestions lead to one thing, controlling the nerves.
Not-so compulsory additional subjects:
Self-Practice (SP): After 5.02 (if remember correctly) we were eligible to take self-practice, the cheapest and the most fun subjects of all. It’s basically renting the bike and having fun on our own, without instructors, but restricted in the circuit. It’s nice because I could make use of my time efficiently. The crowd on the circuit depends of what classes were conducted on that day. I liked to practice plank and cone, or changed to S course when the crowds was not there. It’s nice to have the whole S course to myself where I could go round and round and round even multiple times without stopping when no one was around. Everything seems nicer without the pressure of people, and seems much easier too.
Revision Circuit (RC): Going around the circuit with an instructor who would observe and guide you. As many fellow trainees agree, this is basically just an expensive Self Practice. My first RC was good, with a very proper instructor. He was very serious and gave great feedbacks for every student, properly recording our timings and diligently conducting the whole circuit trains. That was why I had good impression on RC on the first try. I took second RC before the test, and I got this jackass lazy instructor who had more fun hitting and attaching himself to a young female trainee (hey, hey, no jealousy here, I swear) he basically abandoned the rest of the class. So the rest of us just practiced ourselves, he wasn’t even there for us at the end of the lesson to give a wrap-up, such a crap. Considering RC cost a lot more than SP, I didn’t take another RC anymore based of this experience. Apparently, everyone else that I happened to know along the way agreed with me.
Road Revision (RR): The only way to practice the test route outside the circuit. Two RRs were required for every repeating tests. We would have our own going around for two rounds in circuit, then went out to the road with instructors. When there were many students, we could only get two rounds maximum, on very good days, we could get four rounds. When we had subject out in the road, we would have few queuing points to wait for other students because we only have two instructors for one class that could consists up to 8 students. The longest queuing point is the junction after making U-turn.
100 minutes seems like a long time for riding, but for course, not so much. Getting ready, briefing, queuing on the course took a lot of time.
Getting ready as in putting up all gears, choosing the bike and dragging it out from the parking area, and queue at the starting point until other students in the same class were all ready and the starting point is cleared for your turn to move to the circuit, this can take approx 10 minutes.
Briefing, on big milestone of the course, especially those with a lot to do with routes and technicality like 2.02, 5.01, 6.01, 7.01, 8.01 can take as long as 20 minutes. For other subjects the briefings are much shorter in the beginning, however, there were a lot of short briefs along the course, while we were practicing new techniques and skills.
Queuing for the course can take forever, especially all classes happened to flock in the same area. 4.02 and above, the classes basically went around the circuit, together with bigger bike classes, sometimes the queue was overwhelming and took bloody lots of precious time.There is why, for me, the net time I had for one lesson seems like not enough. By the time I was familiar with my bike and finally get the hang on it at difficult subjects, it was almost time to finish.
THE INSTRUCTORS
Instructors played a lot of role in the course. Most of the instructors are kind and fair, but there were also few who were not professional and not capable of teaching. I mentioned the ‘hiao’ instructor and very serious and proper instructor before.
The one who was the kindest to my opinion was my 5.02 instructor who I would then encountered many times for the rest of my course. He taught well, fair and cracked good jokes to lighten the stress of the students, and always encouraged the student, he also had good method of teaching. I feel bad because he was confident that I could pass my test the first time and I didn’t. And when I did, he was not there for me to say thanks. What I could do is to write nice feedback for him to the center because I think he is really good and the type of instructor that really helps students to learn faster and better. I was lucky to encounter few of this kind of instructors.
There was another instructor who was also very kind, but too bad he couldn’t teach very well that it’s not easy to grasp the best method for certain skill. At first, I always happy to get him as instructor, because he was not intimidating or generous with scolding, but then, I really didn’t do well under his teaching because I didn’t really understand what did I do wrong.
There were quite a lot of capable instructors who can pinpoint the weaknesses and how to countered that, including one and only female instructor who was very sharp and had great teaching method but not intimidating. She was much braver than most of her male colleagues, she dared to hold my bike in front of her with the engine on to show me how is the right way to control throttle, clutch and balance for the plank, while my previous instructor only told me ‘control your clutch and break if you don’t want to fall…use both to manage your speed and balance..’, nothing wrong with advice, but clutch and brake that time for me is like relativity and centrifugal force theory for primary school kids, what the hell were they again?? Anyway, I don’t think, ever, I would have the bravery to hold a student bike down with engine on and let them practice the throttle and clutch. Would I ever. No. No. No. If you think this female instructor is burly with muscle and square jaw, nope, she looks just like a very common long-haired girl whose like to do shopping and cooking.
There was one instructor whom I remember for the wise words, he looked young, looks almost like those Ahbeng who would just chillax and I never thought wise words would came out from him.
So it was the time when I started to feel very stupid of needing to repeat my subjects. It was my first try on that 2.02 subject, in the class that actually consisted of two, three and four times repeaters (2.02 might seems like a very easy subject, but the failing number is high because this is the start of every factor of riding comes into play. Still very rookie, it’s very easy to wobble, right leg down, unstable, engine stall, shaky turn, unsmooth line changing, abrupt stopping and low speed control, with that many factors and implementing ‘strict proper riding’, it’s very easy to fall below requirement to pass).
Anyway, without aiming on anyone, the instructor said that he understood many of the students felt discouraged after failing multiple times. He told us we shouldn’t worry about that, he himself needed six tries to pass Traffic Police test (more than me, yoohoooo!), and the record for failing this subject so far was…. Nineteen times. WHOA.. Anyway, regardless of how many times we try, it’s more important to think that every failure actually helps to shape you as better and safer future rider. Just count it as investment for yourself, think of it as additional practices and don’t stress too much on anything else. Which I think is very good advice.
Another type of instructors, quite a lot, are intimidating ones. They liked to yell and scold the students, which is not the best way to learn, for me. It’s intimidating and putting so much pressures that instead of doing well, everything became a mess. They also sometimes had irritating way of talking like a teacher talking to school children. However, to give credit while credits are due, they are normally very good rider who walk the talk, athough, yah, it’s not so impressive to be a very good rider among new students. Anyway, I found that the two most intimidating instructors I had, turned out to be very nice when I got them again further in the course. Maybe I got them in bad day, or maybe earlier classes are really frustrating because we rode like horse tries to cycle. They were actually encouraging and always gave me helpful advices even though I was not in their class, when they happened to station on certain circuit. One of them was the one who finally passed me for my most hellish subject, the S course and taught me to ride while smiling. It sound like crazy advice but smiling might actually enlighten the mood and stress so there was less pressure. It did help to grin like siao under the helmet sometimes.
Maybe I’m lucky that I didn’t get many bad instructors, the worst one, luckily I got him one time only, was the one who really annoyed me. I was learning S-course and with the rest of the students, we got difficulty with the subject.
Instead of focusing on teaching our weak points, he showed up by going round and round the course, many times, while hogging the course for the rest of the users. Any good lessons or points he delivered? Nooooo… other instructor would say, watch how I do it.. at this point, I’m holding my brake enough to slow down the speed but I maintain my throttle, it helps a lot to maintain the eye line to that tree while on this turning because it keeps the bike direction correctly, so on and so forth while doing the actual thing.
For this instructor, no, he just left us, then suddenly hopped on to his bike, go round and round and round, while all students queued there stupidly. He would then go to us and say,”See? It’s easy what, what are you all scared about?” Well, captain obvious. If his achievement in life is to brag about something you should be good at to people who are supposed to learn that from zero from you, then I don’t understand what is the value of his smirk and his brain.
We learned nothing nothing nothing from him, he took out too much valuable time and supposed to be charged by hogging the circuit to show off instead of letting us practicing.
But that was not the worst of all, beside not capable of teaching, while he should observing the student doing the course, he chose to act like government force survey officer and ask me many personal private questions that got nothing to do with the class at all. Completing and graduating from the course, this is the only instructor that I do not have a single positive impression and drop of respect, at all.
FUN THINGS...WAIT..NO, NOT FUN
There are many people who are talented and meant to be good rider or drivers. They have good reflexes, judgment and bravery to be natural.
I have confidence in many other activities that require physical and thinking, but I know I’m quite lousy in motoring skill. Not always, but I expected that it wouldn’t be easy, it ended up harder than I thought.
The whole procedure of getting license is stressful for me to the point that it kind of affected my life. I got nightmares from it, I was stressed out, and it really took a lot of my quality times. I was travelling a lot during year 2010, and freed myself from lesson at least one week before trips and of course, with my inability, the course stretched out for almost a year.
Maybe because I’m very lucky that I have never had hard time learning anything in school or in life, I found it’s foreign for me to have this inferior and incapable feeling, so I didn’t take it very well during the course. It’s good experience and I will forever cherish the embarrassment as something precious to learn.
The thought of quitting did come to my mind a few times, but I never gave it further consideration or think about it, because I know I will not give it a rest and there is no point of quitting if I would end up trying it again in the future, I might as well suck it up. However, I do admit that it was tough for me and I hate how it brought my spirit down so much, I hated thinking and talking about it, and it was actually scary for me to go to class. I had very low spirits especially for earlier subjects where I almost never passed on the first try, it always took me two or three tries, and for S course, five freaking times. Five! Luckily that is my record breaking tries exclusively only for this hellish course.
I don’t remember if my S course subject is before or after my Rinjani trekking, but I came back from the trip very full spirited and it lifted me up a lot. It will always be fresh in my mind about how many times I wanted to quit going to the summit but ended up reaping the most beautiful scenery by not quitting. So I went home with new courage and ready to face all the music and blue blacks that I might get.
TRAFFIC POLICE (TP) TEST
At first I don’t want to write this part, as the journal had been dragging too long (one year!!!) but it wouldn’t be complete.
TP is the scariest portion of all, scary because it’s costly, and scary because luck plays a lot. Like a classmate said, she never dropped from the plank once, but during the test, she dropped and it was immediate failure. So much for that.
Anyway, for every test, we would take turn with the bike, there is no freaking chance to ensure that you know/get used/familiarized with the bike, at all. Just pray furiously for whoever you believe that you would get reasonable bike, with normal depression for rear break, normal position of clutch biting point and normal hand break power. Other than that, count a lot on the luck, because as many bikes that I had tried there (a lot!), all bikes were different. And I had to totally change my bike more than five times because it’s not useable/got significant defect.
Imho, the whole test is designed for me to fail.Maximum points you can have: 18 points.
So there are few IMMEDIATE FAIL:
1. Fail to give way to pedestrians.
Pedestrians are king of the road. I agree with that, I’m the pedestrians myself, however I hate them with my guts during my course. And now, I really2 understand it’s nice to be gracious pedestrians.
Okay, if there is a zebra crossing, both green light for pedestrians and traffic (new for me because in here, traffic light does turn green for both pedestrian and turning vehicle), in any way, if there is a pedestrian on the road with face coming your way, you should stop and give way. Failed to stop, immediate failure. Very abrupt stopping, fail too.
If the pedestrian is a gung-ho sprinter who run from far2 away to catch the green light, and you happen not to see that, once they are stepping on the aspalt and you happen to cross the zebra, Immediate failure. Pedestrian jaywalking, breaking red light, also fail.
So, everyone, get your ass of the test route if you can’t behave like well-mannered pedestrian, because you brisk adrenalin crossing the road abruptly moment can actually cost someone a license, time and money, not to mention risking your life on the hand of nervous rider or driver.
2. Fall in any kind, any style, any cause, any position. Fail.
3. Drop from the plank. Drop. Fail. Go home. Nuff said.
On the plank less than six seconds, 4 points.
Less than five seconds, 6 points.
Less than four second, 8 points. (or 10? Or 12? Can’t remember)
Generous ah..
4. Any part of the bike touching the cone in pylon slalom. Fail!
5. Any time you ride up the curb. Fail.
6. Right foot drop. Fail.
Although this one seems to be by case basis.
7. Dangerous driving. Fail.
In any way they feel that you can endanger yourself of other road user.
8. Fail to understand instruction. Fail.
There are many queuing portions along the test route. The tester would give you instruction about when to start and if you started before the instruction, good luck.
Those are the immediate failures that I can remember.
For other things, there are four-five pages of items that are punishable with points:
- Wobbling.
4 fat points for every occasion. Wobbling means anything that looks shaky and unstable. In the beginning I like to move the bike, just a balancing style, it’s considered wobble. If you throttle and the body slightly jerked as the result, wobble. When turning and look shaky, wobble. Starting and stopping is the most generous time to be considered as wobble.
With unfamiliar bike, hell it is. Press front brake too much, clutch released too fast, wobble. When you are sure you are not, they can still say you are wobble. You just need five unfortunate glances of woobling to fail the whole course.
- Proper mirror and blind spot checking.
I resent this one a lot, fortunately I learnt the ‘proper’ way. See, you turn your head too much, not proper. Turn too little, not proper, turn too low, turn too high, not proper. Have to be the right angle. And have to show that you are checking both mirror and blind spot.Turn the head aprox 30 degree to indicate you are checking mirror, then approx 100 degree to indicate you are checking blind spot. Body posture should not be affected or it’s improper too.
Every improper checking is 4 points. And there are many many times you need to check blind spots (roughy counted 70 times if they keep track of everything but I suppose they are not THAT crazy). It would be awesome to collect 280 points base on blind spots.
One of my instructor joked that it's important to us to make sure that our helmet was turned, nevermind if our heads never turned, or if we closed our eyes.
- Improper lane changing, improper turning, incorrect postures of hands, legs, body,every one got 4 points each at least.
- Fail to signal, wrong signal, too fast/too slow signal, 4 points each. Or 2 points? I remember there is only one section that has 2 points punishment, the rest are at least 4 points. But maybe not this.
- S course more than eleven seconds, 4 points.
More than thirteen seconds, 6 points. More than fifteen seconds, 10 points. (I’m sure about the eleven seconds, but thirteen and fifteen I’m not so sure, but it’s around that.)
- Crank course.
I hardly mention this, it’s right after S course, it’s the half of Nazi symbol shape kind of course you need to go through in less than 6 second in bloody second gear. Most of the time the starting distance was too short to pick up speed that the bike would tremble like high in caffeine.More than six second, 4 points, more than seven seconds, 6 points, more than eight second, 8 points.
- Too fast on the plank.
Mentioned above. Anyway, there are many occasion where we could collect points, I can’t remember all. I guess E-break didn’t have immediate failure by many chances to get point if you cross red line or get improper posture.
- Ah ya, beating red light is 12 points, amber is 6 points. But it’s never black and white because they could also put immediate failure in consideration that you put yourself and other in danger with dangerous habit.Of course as students we would never attempt to break red or amber light, but when we were unfortunate enough that the light changed to amber while we were cruising on the green, it’s your luck. Therefore I always wished for red light. It’s easier to predict.
Damn technicality.
Anyway, I shamefully say I failed three times, finally pass on the fourth time. It was embarrassing and I thought I was very stupid. However, upon finding out, it’s actually still average.
Everytime I repeated the test, I had to take two RR as the requirement and from there I would meet all the other classmates who failed on the test. There were many who passed on first and second try, but there were also many that need five, six or more. Three and four was quite common.
I remember a girl who always dropped on the plank, I think on her sixth try, she finally managed to stay on the plank but sped it off to prevent falling. She got 8 or 10 points, but the rest of her riding was good she finally pass.
There was a guy who told me he rides everywhere in Malaysia and regular riders, but he already failed six times and still trying. He offered to coach me if I needed to. Well, he was kind, but thank you very much, I don’t feel like being coached if you still have yet passed, I did’t even feel like wanting to match the record. I’m sure his problem was technicality, he could be brilliant rider, just not by the book.
The most inspiring story was from a girl I passed the test together with. Get ready for this. She spent six years, failing 12 Traffic Police tests, broke an ankle, crushed her finger, being told to just take the MRT and stop trying by a very rude male chauvinist instructor, she finally passed. I can’t imagine the stress she went through and that is what I call determination.
Never give up regardless the odds. I think I would never able to stand through half of it. My hat really off for her, if I can’t contain my excitement on that day, I can’t imagine how she must feel. Six years! Six bloody years! Longer than getting a degree!
THE TESTING PROCCESS
The test day is on weekday, normally either Monday or Wednesday. We would need to gather very early, 7.30, to get name tag and tag number for the test. The tag number is white color with red for the number, written there ON TEST. Doesn’t help the nerve.
We would be tested based on number, the oldest would be earliest, youngest would be latest. There are normally around 60-80 people in a session, and my number never exceeded 20 because I’m considered bloody old for the class. I think I got 11, 13, 17, 19 if I remember correctly. Passing with 13, I think.
Number 1 would start first, followed by the rest.
So after getting the number, we would have chance to practice the circuit. Maybe could get around two rounds and the most is three rounds. After that we would go back to the class and sit. All this time, no one was permitted outside the class area. If they caught you in canteen or hall with number tag, immediately failure (As if they didn't have enough immediate failures). You could however by taking off the number tag.
After everyone is gathered inside the class, the instructors would give us last briefings before finally, normally around 9.30, the testers would appear, they were normally retired traffic police, mostly scary and fierce looking. I started by hating them to the guts but soon I realized the one, especially the fiercest looking one, is actually the nicest and just normal human, not scary android that ready to crush your dream. When the tests were about to start, they would be dropped in their stations, around 5 inside the circuit, I think around 8 outside in the road.
So we were lined by numbers, every ten is coordinated by one TP. They would do brief checking to make sure the one doing the test and the one registering is the same person. (Forget it, no one can take the test for you).
After that we would stand by with the allocated bike. The good things about getting small number, getting it over and done with faster instead of biting your nail waiting for the turn. The setback it, the TP are all still very alert and having high standard in the beginning, willingly to pen down every mistakes you might make.
First try, I actually thought I did quite well, but holly molly I dropped my right foot at the U-turn. Everything else was quite alright. But I failed. I’m not sure if the right foot drop caused it, one of my classmate also dropped his right foot and he failed too, but I think I made too many small technical mistakes that added to the failing points.
Second try was the worst, the very very worst. I deserved to fail so much.It started with the crank course, the bike was shaking I pulled the throttle a bit too much, I ended up running up the curb, just for split second, too bad I saw that the instructor noticed that. At that time, I wasn’t sure it was immediate failure, but I knew it was bad so I was distracted a lot when I continued.
The rest of the ride was okay, until I reached the traffic junction on the outside road. I had to turn right. Singapore traffic regulation allows right turning as the same time with the straight traffic if the road is clear. Regardless what, you should position yourself in the turning pocket and wait for your chance. (In Indo, can noooot.. I also not familiar with Indo traffic, but I know you can’t do so).
So it was green, I positioned myself, the straight traffic passed by. Then the right turned red. When the light turned red, by right I should be able to move since I was already in the pocket, but I had mind block at that very moment and actually unsure for the moment. Still procrastinating, the right arrow turned green and straighted away blinked. I made my turn but once I started the green light was on and right arrow dissappeared. I was in the middle and supposedly I could clear my turning, however, while the rest of vehicles were still stopping, there was a taxi covered by another car sped and appeared right in front of me. I was so surprised but managed to do emergency brake, however, it was very abrupt that I fell. I quickly lifted up the bike but the engine failed to start, so what I could do was just to push it as fast as I could to the side road.Other drivers were actually very patient and never horned me. I’m sure the taxi was guilty too by not properly scanning the junction before speeding from far, however, I admit I definitely I was at big fault too, eventhough I moved during my green light, I didn’t move rightaway when I was able to and probably didn’t move fast enough.
When I actually ride on the road after I got my license, I notice some similar situation on few junctions where the straight traffic is much more heavier than turning, the right arrow would sometimes appear for just split second and straightaway blinking. (It should be green first, not straightaway green-blinking I guess). For that cases, it’s quite dangerous for right turning if combined with speeding car from far who just continue with the green light cruise and doesn’t realize the traffic from the right is not clear yet.
Anyway, it was scary experience, I had to manually kicked start my bike and rode back to the center. However, all the while all I could think of was the disappointment of failing the test. Until chit chatting with the classmate, he reminded me that failing doesn’t matter as long as I was safe and sound. His words sunk into my brain and I was really really grateful that I was allright where there was so many potentials of me getting into more mess, injured or worse.
So I deserved to fail so much and even when the unfortunate incident didn’t happen, I still failed during the crank course. Another lesson learnt, it came in handy that I got used to pick up my own bike, fast. It’s heavy bike and many females couldn’t pick it up themselves. Silver lining in the cloud.
Anyway, the fierce TP that I mentioned earlier? He asked me if I was okay, advised me not to be nervous and be more careful, it’s more important to be safe and not be discouraged. And he actually smiled. When you see someone so fierce and smile, it’s nice to get the rare smile.
Third try, there is only one test that I really pissed off by failing, is this test. I felt that I did everything correctly, it was the first time I felt quite confident that I would pass. But I didn’t. Not to be a bitter failure, but I still don’t understand why.
The TP marking my paper mentioned that I failed to give way to the pedestrian on the way out of the center. But there was no pedestrian crossing. And there was no pedestrians. I was aware that eventhough there was no pedestrian crossing I always kept watch of possible passer-by. That was probably the point that I was in my most careful because the TP station is located right in front and it was the turning point to the main road. So I always made sure the road was clear before I moved out and I was sure THERE WAS NO PEDESTRIANNNNNN… unless he counted someone who was far far far far far away but that doesn’t make sense. Anyway, when one of my instructors asked me, I told them the spot and the reason, he was also confused and said,” huh? where got pedestrian there?”
So yah, I really and still think it was unfair. Huh. Crap.
Fourth try, success.
Actually I was quite surprised I passed. I didn’t do anything badly but I dropped my right foot at the U-turn. I can’t explain how I felt at that moment, I remember cursing and swearing that if this little thing is the cause for immediate failure, I don’t know how many more times I had to spend my life doing this. Apparently cursing and swearing helped override my nerve, I continued the rest of the U-turn well and accurately to the requirement that the TP only gave me 4 points for incorrect posture.
Actually I did remember one of the instructors said that, if you drop your right foot before the U-turn, which was quite common mistake, don’t be discouraged, do the rest of the U-turn well and show them that you know how to do that, and cross the finger hoping that they won’t mark it as immediate failure. I guess that was what happened to me and I felt really really grateful.
To my surprise, after I received the grading paper, I got points in S course, plank and pylon. I thought I was doing okay and all the while I never got any points on this areas in my previous tests.
For being too slow in S course, 4 points, too fast on the plank, 4 points, too slow on pylon, 4 points, and 4 points for the right foot, also additional 2 points I can’t remember what is about, all added up 18 points. Oh my holly molly. Hoooollly moooolly. I can’t believe I didn’t get points on any other areas but it just came at the right time, very very right time. I would be awfully pissed if I rode without hassle and failed because of these timing requirements.
Anyway, whatever, I feel very very grateful that I finally finished the course. Getting bigger bike license?? Maybe someday, but I don’t think I fancy bigger bike if I have to go through all this ordeal again. Anyway, I am not a bike enthusiast, as it’s a mode of transportation for me, not something fancy or stylo mylo to impress other people with. I don’t need faster bike as I hardly ride above 100 anyway. The only thing that would capture my interest is that bigger bike is more stable on the road, therefore probably safer. But my bike is also fine, it’s much more stable compared to the center’s bike.
So I’m okay. Thank you. No more bike lessons.
