Today, Son has taken his Mod1 motorcycle test.
In the bloody freezing cold!

I’m pleased to say that he passed.

He has his Mod 2 later this week. Assuming he passes that – and his instructor is confident that he will – he will then have a full motorcyle licence… sort of.

To get to this stage, he had to pass his CBT (Compulsary Basic Training) first.  He did this on Saturday. This then allowed him to take his Mod 1 (Module 1), which he did today.  Passing that then allows him to go onto Mod 2 (later this week) and passing that will give him what’s known as an A2 licence.  This allows him to ride bikes with a limited horsepower.

He has to hold this licence for two years, before he can go on to apply for his full A licence, which then allows him to ride unrestricted.

This is a good thing, I think.

Back in my day (I took my test in 1979), we booked a test, passed it and then went straight out and bought the biggest, most powerful bike we could afford.  As a result, plenty of guys, unable to handle such powerful machines, or not fully understanding that a mix of youth, testosterone and high horsepower can be deadly, sadly ended up as roadkill.

The new system, though possibly infuriating to some, allows them time to get to know how a bike handles on the road and how, as a motorcyclist, you need to treat every car driver as a potential idiot who is going to pull out on you.

It would be interesting to see how much of an impact this new (well, it’s new to me) system has had on reducing the number of motorcycle accidents.