Be Excellent To Each Other

Crashed 3 out of 4?

Jeez, on a M3 your insurance premiums must be in fucking orbit.

I'd say no

Something in pale blue with handlebars seems more appropriate

Protected no claims, innit. And 2 of them I didn't claim on because they didn't (seem to) warrant it. Still a year and a half before I get to stop declaring the one I did. Sigh.

The M3 was under a grand in April - less than half what it was the first year. When I move I'll be halving the value and annual mileage, which should counter any area premiums.

You're not wrong. I passed my driving test in 1986. My test was 17 minutes long.

I drink the meths and add the washing up liquid into the coolant.

I passed 4 years ago. Total of 20 lessons and one fail due to my own silliness. Only 2 minors when I passed second time, so mom and pop instructors are fine. Best thing is... block bookings. Book 5 or 10 lessons in a row and you'll get a discount

I had lessons and passed a test in Canandandadadada when I was 17... I think I had about 15 lessons, granted this was with a) a big company and b) doing the bizarro choice of learning on a 'manual'.

Think I had about eight or so lessons in the UK both to learn the rules and refresh long-dormant skills when I was 23. With a local independent instructor.

Seventy eight, though, fucking hell. That cannot possibly be right, a huge number of motorcycle schools aim to take you from having just passed your CBT to having your full unrestricted licence in three or four days, which in no way can be the equivalent of 78 lessons.

guy i used to work with had over 100 and failed his test 5 times

I might have to get Grim... to have a drive of my car when he's up, if I don't get it looked at before (I figure it might be a good thing to do before driving to Bruges at the start of Feb, for instance).

I actually only learned to drive in 2007 and I think it took 30-odd lessons for me to get through. I failed the theory first time on the bullshit moneyspinner that is the hazard perception test, but passed the practical first time. My examiner must've either been on some kind of quota or he felt sorry for me or something, as I passed despite making a huge fuckup. Basically, I was coming up to a roundabout which I had to go across, I'd slowed down, checked all round and yet somehow missed the car coming from the right. I had to emergency brake to avoid going straight into the side of him.

Obviously I was convinced I'd failed at this point, so I just calmly got the car moving again and carried on. When we got back to the test centre, the examiner told me that there was no question I'd screwed up by not seeing the car, but he was so impressed with how I handled the situation he felt he couldn't fail me for it.

I was told the average number of lessons is 40ish. All I'd advise is if taking proper lessons with an instructor is to try and get some 2-hour lessons in there. I didn't particularly enjoy them but it helped more than just hour-long sessions.

Haven't driven for nearly a near though now and don't miss it.

Harumph! Zio's 'fuckup' was much worse than mine, and I got failed on it.

Basically I was turning left out of a t-junction with parked cars on the main road, restricting view. I crawled forward to get a better view and a taxi driver I hadn't seen had to slow down to let me out.

Harumph!

I passed my test first time, waaaaaaaaaaaay back when I was 17, so no theory test then just the 'what's this sign mean' and stopping distance questions at the end.

Windscreen Wiper Update: Working fine

I took twelve lessons for my car licence, I think. Maybe thirteen.
I got one minor fault, which was for waving thankyou at an oncoming driver when he stopped to let a bunch of us past a parked car.
Fuck you, examiner.
I didn't take any for my tractor test, and passed that despite nearly driving over a parked car.

Annoyingly, I missed out on the granddad towing licence by about a month (although I can tow 40 tonnes with a tractor), so I'm taking a +E (I think) test soon.

My driving license is shit. The missus can drive all sorts of exciting things, but mine is just cars. Boo!

I didn't get a single fault on my motorbike test.

I got some for my u-turn and my emergency stop wasn't that good (if anyone stepped out in front of me I'd have hit them) but it was raining, damnit.

My 2 faults were trivial. I waited until the last minute to merge at roadworks and I slightly ground the gears when slowing down.

No faults on the car test, I think one minor on the motorbike test (the stupid thing cut out and I had to restart it while coasting at 1 mph half way through a junction).

Should've double-declutched. They totally love that.

I've never understood what that is.

Say you're going from third to second:
Clutch in, into neutral, clutch out. Clutch in, into second, clutch out.

You *had* to do in the old days. Before syncromesh *risks exposing himself as a big faker*

I see MPW got a duck. He'd better do something special with the ball.

at myp

Interesting, as this is what you're supposed to do - it's called zip-merging, or merging in turn. Helps traffic flow immensely, but everyone's frightened to do it in this country because you always get some tosser who beeps you because he thinks you're jumping the queue.

Failed my test first time. 14 minor faults, 2 serious and 1 dangerous. That was after a 30-hour intensive driving course. 30 hours of learning to drive in 5 days, with the test at the end.

It was a couple of years before I started learning again, I had about 8 refresher lessons and then the test, and I passed with four minor faults.

This! I always do it anyway. If I'm in my van I'm guaranteed to get away with it - nothing like a dented-to-fuck dirty white van being driven 'confidently' for putting people off starting a dick waving contest.

I always do it.

Projected image FTFY

I tend to merge with around 100-200 yds to go, mainly to get out your way, you road hogs!

Heh. Ratty car makes merging easy.

*get's Malia's address from number plate*

It'd be quicker to ask...

I'm a polite stalker. You'll never know I'm there.

See also: Off-road equipped 4x4s. And tractors. And (by far the best thing to drive through London at rush hour on a Friday) traction engines.

I'd very much like to witness that, if it's that fancy steam tractor thing you've shown here before. A showdown between that and one of those teeny g-wiz cars would be a sight to behold.

Car lessons up here are about £20-25 an hour, with the driving schools being slightly more expensive and, as has been pointed out, a much longer experience; I've never, ever, seen a driving school car being driven confidently. Ever. Use recommendations to find an instructor.

I had about 20 lessons before I was ready to take my test, then I broke my wrist and haven't had chance to pick it back up again. Hopefully some time this year, if I can afford it.

With regards to the bike licence: I passed my CBT first time, picked up a 125 and rode several thousand miles on it, then signed up for a Direct Access course. Two full days of lessons, then an hour before the test itself, and I passed first time with two minor faults, both for undue hesitation: one for not noticing a slight gap infront of the cycle lane section at some traffic lights, the other for waiting too long at a roundabout.

You can't even drive!

LOL. Memories

I shouted this at my older brother when I passed before him.

*punches Miss Malabar*

Odd, because it's not what you're supposed to do when a lane disappears - hence the white arrows demonstrating that the disappearing lane has to merge into the other lane, rather than them both merging together.

I thought you were only meant to merge in turn when you see the signs 'Merge in Turn'. If it was something you were meant to do as a matter of course, why would they put those up? It'd be like putting up signs saying 'Use Indicators When Changing Lanes'.

That's not to say we couldn't bloody well do with those too, of course.

Or signs saying "Return to left after overtaking".
Or "Tiredness kills, take a break".
Or "Please drive carefully".

Which they do.

Or any of the dozens of other things that they apparently need to put on signs because idiots don't have common sense, but would run out of metal if they had to put them everywhere.

I wonder how many people have crashed while looking at signs.

(sorry)

We need a "Take Care While Reading Signs" sign

There's a patch of country road near us that has had quite a few accidents, so some fed up local farmer put signs every 20 meters along the stretch saying things like "Kill Your Speed - Not yourself", "It's not big and clever to go fast, you know" and such like, but in fairly small writing. Each of these signs is right before a blind corner. Clever, clever man.

You'd think indicators were an optional extra on most of the cars around here, and the car owners were too tight to tick the box.

Oooh, that's a bit fucking harsh

I'm never being a dragonfly in your dreams again