Modern Buddy

I made the mistake of getting my motorcycle leaners' permit three weeks before my regular license expired. It appears the DMV does not what to do the extra work of renewing my drivers license and then issuing me another one when I pass the motorcycle driving test, so along with the permit they gave me a temporary drivers license.

Unfortunately, while the permit is good for a year, the temporary driver license is only valid for two months. So, with the holidays, etc. coming up and my lack of desire to make a trip to the DMV every 60 days to get another temporary license, I will be taking my driving test before I get to do the MSF course.

Yesterday we rode to the nearest DMV that administers the motorcycle test and spent some time practicing on the course. I HIGHLY recommend this and will definitely make a couple of more trips before taking my test. You can practice your swerves and the circle, which is critical since you really need to nail the sweet spot on your throttle to get it just right and the Buddy throttle is extremely sensitive. Too much and you'll go too wide, too little, your foot goes down.

While it may be different in other states, in Los Angeles the test consists of havin to go up one side of the course, going around the circle twice without putting your foot down and coming down the other side. Then, you need to go up the midddle, swerving between the dots, do the circle twice again and come back down the middle, swerving again.

GatsbyGirl,

Too much and you'll go too wide, too little, your foot goes down.

Remember that the answer to too much throttle in a turn can be to lean harder instead of going wide. They stress that in the MSF.

Wow, that sounds like it would make me dizzy.

Good luck with the test.

I posted this to ModernVespa shortly after taking the test...

The CA DMV test looks something like the diagram below. This is from memory and not to scale, but you get the idea. There's about a foot between each parallel line. The diameter of the circle is around 10ft. The length of the straight portion is maybe 30ft. or so.
The person administering the test told me it's okay to go a little outside the circle when doing rotations, but not to put a foot down.

The test goes something like this (as I recall):

1. point to all the important stuff on your handlebars. shrug when they ask you to point to the choke and clutch. "wha?" demo turn signals and hand signals.

2. weave between the dots starting on the right side (these were painted circles, not pylons), then go into the circle and make 2 counter-clockwise rotations without putting a foot down, then weave back through the dots.

3. ride up one set of parallel lines, do two rotation around the circle, come back down the other set of lines. stay inside the parallel lines going up and down.

4. ride to the end of the course and back. this is meant to show them you can shift gears. my administrator wanted to hear the gears changing automatically.

that's pretty much it. if I find my actualy test sheet, I'll revise this post for accuracy.

The one inaccuracy I notice in the diagram now is that there aren't nearly that many dots to swerve around!

Hey, I rode one of those courses last week! I was at the DMV taking care of some corrections on the Buddy title, and on the way out decided to go around the course just cause it was there!

Granted, I didn't know what the routine to follow was, but the circle wasn't that bad- it's not super tight. Just remember to keep your eyes up and looking where you want to go. If you are staring directly at the front wheel, you will have problems!