Another riding class today — not a fun lesson, but a necessary one.
Personal
August 3: We’ve got work to do
After my first official on-road class I went to Tilburg for a couple of weeks to be a part of my second family called Kermis FM. But now that I’m back, it’s time to focus on that thing I’ve started to love so much — riding! 🏍️
Today I had my second on-road class, in preparation of the final exam in late October. So on this beautiful sunny Saturday I reported at the riding school’s lot, grabbed a radio and earpiece, worked it all into my suit & helmet and swung my right leg over one of the beloved SV650s.
Together with one other student + the instructor (who was on his own mean BMW GS today) we left for the open road!
July 4: Uncontrolled giggling ensued
To get to the point: I successfully passed my AVB exam today! This is one of two practical exams you need to pass here in The Netherlands to get a motorcycle license.
The next and final exam is the traffic participation exam. That means: making lots of actual road miles soon to train for this! 🥳
June 24: Slow is not very wow
Two days ago I had a lovely class after two weeks off. Today I took another one, but it was a bit all over the place.
June 5 & 8: Precision training
Two motorcycle classes this week!
I was actually supposed to ride last week too, but half of the two-instructor duo was off sick so we had to reschedule at the last minute. As you may know, I have fallen madly in love with riding. So I was a little sad to hear the news, not just because one of the instructors was feeling unwell 🥲
May 22: Learning requires elbow grease
Another successful class in the books today. Repeatedly completed five exercises I need to pass for the vehicle control exam, also known as “AVB”. A personal record!
Half turns are now going well, as well as the precision stop and the stop test at beyond the minimum speeds.
One of the completed exercises was the figure-eight, which succeeded, but not the first time as you can see on the right* — I took the second turn too tight and didn’t counterbalance enough, so I went down with the ship. But, as one does: I got back up and did it without problems a few times immediately thereafter. Learning was happening in real-time!
Still a big smile on the picture of course, because: riding is bliss, and me and the teacher were visibly stoked every time something worked out. We were having a blast together today and a little gravity moment will absolutely not get in the way of that 🥰
* As people were curious about this: this did not hurt in the slightest — I got home, rolled up my sleeves to cool down and relax, and it was only then that I noticed the little wound.
I always wear PPE during classes, in today’s case a touring outfit provided by the riding school. It has protectors in the elbow pieces as they should. Protectors are there to spread the energy of a hard impact in an attempt to avoid breaking or fracturing things. Protectors can’t do much against rubbing motion.
At the moment of writing I am learning for my motorcycle license. Follow along here.
