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Comment by brandall10 | Hacker News Reader

I got my motorcycle license in CA back in 2007... assume this is still true, but the driving test was nearly impossible with anything but a small cruiser bike (which no one owns) due to the required turning radius on the cones section. In lieue of that you could take a day long motorcycle safety course where they hammer into you the dangers of high/lowsides and how to prevent them. It's generally held belief amongst riders that this is on purpose.

While I had a lowside (low speed loose gravel coming out of a turn by a construction zone), never had a highside. That said, I would occasionally have nightmares about them when I was an active rider. I feared them as much as getting clipped by a car running a red light.

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Around that time I took the test in NJ. Not having a bike yet, I rented one from a Norvegian woman who specialiezed in this for some reason. Before the test she showed me the test setup in an open area with cones. This was good because I hadnt ridden in 10 years. I protested that the cones could not possibly be that close. She said they are the right distance apart and demonstrated how to do it - with only one hand just to rob it in.

I was able to then do it and also do the same in the test and pass.

I think it makes a lot of sense to rent a more comfortable bike, even a scooter, for the test if it's allowed. I actually wanted to do thr MSF course which is like a luxury that does not exist anywhere else but the demand for them was huge and they were all booked, even the expensive ones.

> actually wanted to do thr MSF course which is like a luxury that does not exist anywhere else but the demand for them was huge and they were all booked

I got lucky and bought a slot on craigslist from someone who decided to bail. Not sure, how often that occurs (and in my case that was 20 years ago). Well worth it imho (while the instructors do stress that they teach you only the very basics). I can't imagine going out in traffic with little more than the skill to ride around cones (as challenging as that is, particularly on a large bike).

(actually, I just remember that I was riding before w/o either on my "learner's permit", in fact, I rode to the training on my CB750F, but I wouldn't say that it's a good idea to do so)

The same was recommended in CA if for some reason you didn't have time for the safety course.

This test? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9hE8GUVUWM

... could you explain why this is nearly impossible on anything but a small cruiser? I'm having trouble understanding what you mean.

Sports bikes in particular don't have much steering angle to work with, so at slow speeds - on a course designed to test slow speed manouvering - they can have wide turning circles.

It is possible to turn more tightly but it requires leaning much more into the turn. That needs a lot of skill and confidence to do smoothly at low speed when the bike has a high center of gravity. The bike will crash if you brake or stall, and on a sports bike there often isn't a huge amount of torque at low engine speeds, so you need to be very adept at clutch slipping and modulating the rear brake.

The course in the video isn't that bad though. A U-turn on the road, a mandatory part of the UK test, is done with a tighter radius than anything on that video.

Maneuvering at low speeds is all in the rear brake. It smooths out the power delivery and reduces latency when you need more/less power. I took the test on an SV650 and barely passed. Years later, once I learned to use the rear brake, I did it on my 848 easily.

Interestingly enough my bike was a SV650 as well (and came very close to purchasing an 848 as my next)

Ah. You were saying that it was nearly impossible which didn't seem right at all. Needs a few weeks of practice to become competent at yes certainly, but nearly impossible on anything but a cruiser just seemed wrong to me.

Should have worded as very difficult for a new rider.

I’ll guess that anything other than a small cruiser is going to be some combination of higher center of gravity + more weight, which just gets harder and harder to learn farther (accurately) at very low speeds.

Also gearing and turning radius. Putting along at 3mph is much harder on a liter bike.

Still the same. Got mine a few years ago. Driving test still impossible so you do the class instead. Both written portion and training have this info on it.

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