I just want to say a big thank you to this community, I was really struggling with my test and today I finally passed 3rd time lucky! Thank you for all the useful advice. I really appreciate it!
Now on to buying a bike. I'm looking for a 250cc bike. Any places you guys recommend in Tokyo?
So is the title says this is the second time I failed a test. The school seems very easy going and they pretty much said to me as long as I don't hit any cones or fall off for m ippon bashi I pretty much have my chuugatta licence.
I have memorised the course and I'm okay with pretty much most of the manoeuvres except the crank and ippon bashi.
I failed my first test because I fell from ippon bashi.
And today I failed my second Because I hit a cone in the crank. (The teacher said I was coming in too fast because I hit the cones on the left while turning right) Didn't even get to go to the ippon bashi.
I'm feeling very disheartened and I'm trying my best. Ironically I can actually do all the manoeuvres but I still haven't done the course cleanly yet. Meaning if I mess up the crank or the ippon bashi once I can usually do it again the second time. But during the test you only get one chance.
At this moment it just feels like I'm never going to pass this. Is there any advice that you guys can give?
Thanks
So I've been taking riding lessons at Adachi Driving School, and honestly I'm finding the pace of the lessons incredibly fast.
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Sometimes I feel like my brain just overloads, and then I look at the instructor and feel like he's thinking, "Why can't this guy do such a simple thing?"
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For context, I'm currently on Stage 1, Lesson 6 (around 6 HR bike time). Today, in a single 1 hour 50 minute lesson, we did the balance bridge (一本橋), slalom, crank, hill start, and railway crossing. It felt like I was thrown in at the deep end.
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My Japanese is okay, but it's definitely not native level. I was trying my best to understand everything the instructor was saying while also trying to remember all the procedures and actually ride the bike. There was so much information coming at me that I found it difficult to concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing. Honestly, I felt like I was just in survival mode.
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I've only barely just started to get comfortable with clutch control, gear changes, and generally manoeuvring the bike around the course, so having all these new exercises thrown at me at once felt overwhelming and my clutch controlling throttle control goes out the window.
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So I wanted to ask other riders who got their licence at Adachi Driving School, or even at other driving schools in Japan:
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Is this pace normal?
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Did you also feel overwhelmed in Stage 1?
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How did you cope with the amount of information?
Did things eventually "click" for you?
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At the moment I'm wondering whether I'm just a very slow learner, or if the pace is genuinely as intense as it feels.