The DVSA's Mod 1 test. The purpose of the Mod 1 is to assess your ability to control a motorcycle
It's performed on a closed test circuit at a DVSA test centre. Regardless of where you do the test,
you'll do the same manoeuvres, in the same order; essentially on the same circuit.
The test is made up of five slow-speed and three high-speed exercises.
For the slow-speed, you've got: Parking Up, Manual Handling,
Slalom to a Figure-of-Eight,
Slow and Controlled Ride,
and a U-Turn.
For the high-speed, you've got a controlled stop,
an Emergency Stop and an Avoidance Exercise.
As soon as you sit on your bike, the test begins. So from this moment, until you get off,
check your mirrors, do your lifesavers, and get in neutral whenever you stop.
Your instructor will ask you to enter the circuit. Slow speed manoeuvres.
Your instructor will ask you to park up in one of the parking bays.
These are marked out by the green cones. Do your observations as you set off, and stop in the bay.
No part of the motorcycle should be outside of the coned area. Choose the bay on the right if
you can, it will make the next part easier. When you stop get in neutral, turn your engine off,
put the stand down, then get off and wait for further instruction.
Simply walk the bike from where you parked - facing in - over to the bay at the other
end - so that the bike's facing out - put the stand up fully, grab a solid part of your bike,
look around - left shoulder, right shoulder - now, start pushing. Keep everything upright,
keep everything moving; there's no limit to the amount of time or space you can use here.
If you need to slow yourself down, use your front brakes.
Park it up straight, put the stand down... happy days!
This is probably the hardest of your slow speed maneuvers,
slalom five yellow cones then go straight into two figure of eights, around the two blue cones.
Get on your bike before you put your stand up, then start your engines. Get in first gear, do
your observations and away you go! Slalom through the five yellow cones - doesn't matter which way.
Then, when you reach your blue cones, you're into the figure of eights. Keep your shoulders back,
head up, look where you want to go, and use the full width to buy yourself a bit more space.
You'll be using your rear brake and feathering your clutch to maintain control.
Keep going on your figure of eights till you get called over. You'll do a minimum of two - you'll
probably actually only do two - but keep going until you're told otherwise. Once called over
just head over to your examiner, stop, and get it into neutral. This part mimics riding slowly in
traffic. Basically, you just ride forward at a walking pace; about four miles an hour-is,
keeping it all steady using a balance of clutch, accelerator and rear brake.
Keep going until you get to the blue cones, stop, get in neutral, and wait for further instructions.
As always, do your observations before you leave the blue cones.
You need to do another lifesaver over your right shoulder BEFORE you commit to the turn.
Stay over to the left to give yourself the most amount of space to turn, look where you want to
go, use your rear brake to keep it under control and don't cross the white line or go beyond it.
High-Speed Maneuvers. Each is performed on the same section of circuit. At the far end of the
test area is a long, sweeping 180-degree curve. The direction of the curve varies from test centre
to test centre but, right or left, enter and exit the curve between the red and blue cones.
As you go through the red cones you're on to the straight where
there's a speed camera to get you UP to a minimum speed of 32 miles per hour,
it's after that you'll cross the yellow cones where you'll perform the exercise
The Controlled Stop is there to assess
your ability to come to a stop in a safe and controlled way.
Set off around the curve, into the straight and head toward the speed camera.
Once you pass the yellow cones you can start braking. Use both your front and rear brakes,
then stop with your front wheel inside the blue cones. Emergency Stop. At the curve, stay in
second gear and aim for about 20 miles an hour, on the straight accelerate up to 32 miles an hour for
the speed camera. As soon as the examiner raises their hand - stop without locking your wheels,
and as you come to a stop put it in first gear. Now, wait for your instructor who will either
tell you to return to the blue cones for the next exercise or, if you didn't make speed,
you might be asked to do it once again. In any event, do your observations before you set off.
Avoidance. Again, round the curve at 20 miles an hour in second gear, hit 32 miles an hour for the
speed camera then, once you pass the yellow cones, swerve through the two blue avoidance cones. The
test centres mix up the direction of the swerve, so practice left, practice right. Focus on the
blue cone that's furthest out, because it's true - you go where you look. You're then asked to leave
the test area but you're still being assessed until you get off your bike, so behave yourself!
The test takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish and you're taken into the test centre
there and then and given the verdict. You can pass with up to five major faults,
but you only need one major fault to fail. Minor faults can include missed gear changes,
minor skids and stalling, and being slightly under-speed at the speed camera.
Major faults and instant fails come via missing too many observations, putting a foot down,
touching a cone, failure to complete to manoeuvre, failure to reach the mandatory speed,
an uncontrolled or dangerous skid, failing to stop in the correct place and taking too long to stop.
So you've got to take the test on a bike that matches the license you're going for.
So for an A-License the bike needs to be at least a 595
cc engine with a minimum power of 53.6 brake horsepower,
for the A1 license it needs to be a minimum of 395 cc, with an output between 33 and 47 break.
Like any test, it's easy to let the occasion and the pressure get to you. One proven technique is
to shift your perspective from looking at it as one big complex challenge and break
it down into smaller more manageable chunks. Essentially just take one manoeuvre at a time.
One of the most common faults is simply down to forgetting to do your observations. Just get into
the habit of checking your mirrors and doing a lifesaver for every manoeuvre, from the moment
you get on your bike - to the moment you get off. You won't be able to take the test unless
you bring all the necessary paperwork, so that's your valid driving license, CBT certificate,
and your Theory Certificate. It's an instant fail if you forget them so, um, yeah - don't!
Another common fault is not making the mandatory speed for the high-speed manoeuvres. Ideally,
you want to be focused on the circuit and not on your speedo so before the day of the test, get a
feel for what the revs, the vibrations and sounds are all like on YOUR bike at 32 miles an hour. The
instructor talks you through each step along the way but your head's probably full to capacity and
you might - as I did - find that, after they've explained what you need to do, you heard them
speak but you didn't listen to what they had to say. If there's absolutely anything that you don't
understand, or you need repeating, just ask. Well, there you go! If you've got a test coming up good
luck to you. Let me know in the comments how you get on and, likewise, if you've got any comments
that I didn't cover here that you think might be useful for someone else... you know what to do!
Smash the likes or kitty gets it. Sorry about him. Thanks for watching, until next time...