And the Result was...

Nerves almost got the better of me as I attempted a left turn out of the Crewe Little Chef car park - is it possible to fail within the first 100 yards? Surely this was not Sidcup: I got lost there during my official bike test way back on 20th January 1976 - and passed. This time a loud parping from my examiner in conjunction with impatient gesticulations indicating right saved the day. In 1976 the man with the clip board was happy to return to the test centre as it had started to drizzle. In 2009 the nice policeman on the Yamaha hovered in and out of my blind spot for the next hour...

On the safe working assumption that I had already failed to impress and that it could not get much worse it all then came blindingly good as the low sun reflected off the damp road (marked as "dry" on the marking sheet - it's all relative to what it could have been). I managed to stay within the speed limits and avoided overtakes. I did not inbibe in extreme positioning and avoided excessive blind spot checking: My eyes were glued to the mirrors so see where nice policeman on Yamaha wanted me to go (no 2 way radios) but hard with the low sun and road reflections.

I managed the tricky hill start at the stop line but neglected to stop my engine at the prolonged level crossing wait (you had been wondering why I scored only a 3 on the eco driving?). When this was mentioned at the debrief I responded that I had considered stopping the engine due to overheating (but had not) and promptly received 3 for mechanical sympathy!

The debrief was informative: did I realise that I was not sitting square on the bike? Yes, I have a spine injury! Did I realise that I need to move my head excessively to scan the mirrors? Yes, I need to rotate the handlebars forward to orientate the mirrors better. Did I want to become an IAM Observer?...