Application of Motorcycle Riding [July - August]

After getting my license on the 3 July 2015 (Friday), I took my company bike for the first ride out on the 9 July 2015 (Thursday). It was a short distant ride out where I traveled from Orchard towards the end of Tanglin road and back again. Below is a snapshot of myself riding out for the first time. 

First weekend of riding (24 - 26 July)

I have been planning to sign out a bike to ride around parts of Singapore over one of the weekend. The weekend of the 24-26 July 2015 has been chosen to be the weekend of ride as I need to get around several places rapidly. A combination of buses and taxi over the 3 days would have cost me S$40. But the total I spent on the motorcycle is S$12 (S$6 fuel and S$6 parking). The places I visited over the 3 days is shown in the picture below.

One of my main strength is map-reading. Thus I'm able to look at the map and easily decipher the routes to take. But if it's the first time I'm visiting a locality, I will need to revisit the map again once I'm closer to the destination (to identify the smaller roads). 

Day 1 - 24 Jul 2015

I have an appointment at Bukit Panjang Plaza on Friday. It will be my first time riding such a long distance (20km) to another location, I decided to go via the non-expressway route along Holland Road, Clementi Road and Bukit Timah Road. The journey took me 45mins. There's lots of construction going along the hillview area as they are building the downtown line. I overshot Bukit Panjang and headed towards Choa Chu Kang. But I managed to find a u-turn and head back to Bukit Panjang. I did a more accurate map identification in bukit panjang HDB estate and parked at the multi-storey carpark next to Bukit Panjang Plaza carpark. The parking rates are much lower.

After my appointment, I decided to take the BKE and PIE combination back home at Marine Parade. The route is even longer at 25km. It will be my first time traveling that long-distance on an expressway. I timed it at 9pm where the traffic along the expressways will not be that heavy. The traffic was smooth and  I arrived at East Coast park at 9.30pm. But the East Coast Park carpark opposite my house has been closed for upgrading. I have no choice but to park at the multi-storey carpark next to my block.

Day 2 - 25 Jul 2015

I left my house at 8.30am and head towards the expressway. This morning I will be taking the ECP-MCE-AYE combination towards lower delta road. My destination is the old NIE building (Institute of Adult Learning) along Tanglin Road. It came as a surprise that parking is free there.

After my class, I head back towards the AYE-MCE-ECP and exited at Fort road towards Kallang Theatre for a talk. There's heavy traffic along Mountbatten road towards Nicoll Highway. It is here where I applied the planking techniques of travelling past stationary vehicles towards the stadium. Going back at night, there were road blocks around Kallang stadium and all traffic were routed to Tanjong Rhu area where I travelled along Mountbatten road towards Katong area. My destination is the Esso petrol station at Still Road. From there, I made my way back home to the multi-storey carpark.

Day 3 - 26 Jul 2015

I departed home at 7.30am back to somerset where I will be getting all my additional riding gear. I am picking up AJ in the morning. I travelled along the ECP-Rocher-Cavenagh route. After getting the gears, I went along Orchard-Scotts-Novena-Balestier route to fetch AJ. From there is the Lavender-Balestier route to Middle road where there is a public carpark. As the weather report show it's going to rain in many parts of Singapore, I decided to return the bike and take a bus home.

Review
 
Motorcycle riding is quite a convenient way to get around as long as it's not raining. It is congestion proof where the bike can travel in between cars to get to the front. But the rider will need lots of focus and attention throughout the journey. The 3 days of riding around has been quite tiring for my side as I have traditionally spent the time travelling to rest on buses/trains. I also responded less on phone messages as I have less free time in between my day to respond to them.

The parking rates of motorcycle is cheap (65 cents a day) or free in many places. It does get really hot in covered highways such as MCE or in the afternoon. Motorcycle riding can be considered to be a form of exercise or sauna.

I have also gained experience in having to pillion someone. The balance feels different but after a while, it's quite alright. 

In total over the 3 days, I have rode for 4 hours over 120km. The distance breakdown are:
Somerset to Bukit Panjang Plaza: 20km / 45mins
Bukit Panjang Plaza to Marine Parade: 30km / 40mins
Marine Parade to Tanglin Road: 20km / 20mins
Tanglin Road to Stadium to Marine Parade: 20km / 40mins
Marine Parade to Somerset to Balestier: 15km / 30mins
Balestier to Bugis to Somerset: 15km / 30mins

SOP for motorcycle riding

There are many things to prepare before and after riding. I have written down an SOP here so I will not forget:

Pre-Riding:
1. Put on riding jacket
2. Put on helmet
3. Keep the bags in the containers
4. Zip up my phone and card holders in the jacket
5. Turn on the bike engine
6. Insert cashcard, check on the value
7. If it's at night, turn on high beam
8. Put on gloves and good to go

Post-Riding:
1. Off engine and park properly
2. Lock the bike and remove keys
3. Remove cashcard
4. Remove gloves
5. Put phone and card holders back
6. Remove riding jacket
7. Remove helmet
8. Put everything at the containers

Second weekend of riding (14 - 15 August)

As I need to travel to Clementi on the 14 August evening for class till 10pm and back to the west side at Redhill on the 15 August from 9am, I decided to grab the bike and ride to these two places. There are some changes to my riding techniques this time round and I have updated the SOP.

After riding, I will keep my jacket and gloves in the side box and place my helmet on the motorcycle handlebar. In this way, I am able to finish my post-riding check in a minute. The rest of the things like keys, cashcard, phone and card holders will just go into my pocket. 

SSDC Class 2B [Nov 2014 - Jul 2015]

I received my class 2B motorcycle license on the 3rd July 2015 (Friday). It has been a long journey.

Then again, the time I spent getting my class 2B is about the same duration as my class 3. It spanned a total of 7 months in all. The reason why I took such a long time is:

1) Overseas for 3 months - Basically I stopped my lessons from second half of December till end-February and was away momentarily in April again

2) Spreading out the learning experience - I do not like to undergo intensive learning activities (similar to mugging for exams), but prefer to gradually learn over a longer period of time. In this way, I can concurrently have my time allocated on other activities such as putting my work as priority, taking part-time courses and spending time with friends. 

There were 9 of us, where we signed up as a group for the riding class with the Singapore Safety Driving Center (SSDC). Our first class was scheduled to commence on the 24 November 2014. I was very excited and looking forward to learning motorcycle. My only closest experience to motorcycle riding is cycling where it is one of my favorite pastime sports. As there was a minimum number of learners to be fulfilled before we can qualify for a private group, I rallied a number of my friends to go for it. 

On our first lesson, we have our instructor explaining to us how to start up the bike, how to move the motorcycle from the main stand and put it back up the main stand.  

After class, we immediately went to this motorcycle accessories shop recommended by an experienced learner. The shop is called Helmet Boy and is only a 10mins bus ride away from SSDC. It is located close to the Woodlands Causeway. There is this beginners package we can get which goes at a lower price. All we need to do is to produce our lessons booklet. I got mine for $85. It consist of a helmet, riding gloves and knee/elbow guards.

We have our lessons scheduled every Thursday and Friday afternoon, with 2 sessions each day spanning from 1.05pm till 5.20pm. We started our first lesson on the 27 Nov in controlling the clutch towards a set of yellow rubber tyres. As the instructors found us competent, they placed us in the nursery area which is a small round track where we sit on the bikes and move along in circles.

I had no prior experience with motorcycles but I have with bicycles. One of the habits from bicycle is to pull the right brake, which will brake the rear wheel. For motorcycle, the rear wheels brake is at the right paddle and the right brake controls the front wheel. It took me 4 lessons to overcome this habit.

At the same time, we also attended 2 full days of theory on the 2 Dec and 3 Dec where the instructors taught us about riding theory and defensive riding. From then onwards, my work commitment affected my ability to attend classes in December. I only attended 2 more classes in December - the 4th and 11th December. :-(

Even though I attended a few classes in November and December with my close friends, those were very memorable days. We took a 6-person group shot below while taking a break. Another 3 more friends were still riding on the circuit.

I resumed my classes on the 24 Feb after a 2.5 months break. By then many of my friends have gone onto road revision and were getting ready for exams. I did my theory exams in end-February and got 50/50. At the same time, I also resumed my once-twice a week lessons and having cleared lesson 5, I immediately booked my practical exams. I booked my exams to be on the 21 May as I was planning to take the test on the same day as a friend who was also weighted down by work.

As I'm still in private group sessions, I followed my friends and stopped my lessons in early-April. I have not figured out how to book public classes yet. Thereafter I resumed my overseas travel and only continued my lessons in early-May. By then, 3 of my friends have cleared their exams. I took another 2 more classes with another friend before I became a public class learner.

I took another 2 more classes before my test on the 21 May. My internal results is below. Overall, I'm very confident on the techniques to be used in the different courses.

When I closed my eyes, I'm able to clearly visualize the entire route and run it through from start to road and back to the circuit. It is similar to the Test Route paper as shown below (prepared by SSDC).

First test (21 May 2015 - Thursday)

My first test was on the 21 May 2015. The night before I could not sleep well as I went to bed too early, which was not my routine. The next day, I needed to wake up at 5.30pm and I had difficulty waking up. I took a cab to SSDC from my house and it cost around S$30. For the rest of the day, I felt sleepy and it's not my normal condition. I went through the circuit and all the routes were alright. But after the crank course, approaching the first traffic light while turning left, I may have accidentally hit on my rear break and my bike stopped immediately. My left leg came down to support the bike and it felt like a normal stop. I guessed one of the tester saw me doing that and gave me an immediate failure. I got 18 points for my entire test, of which 4 points x 2 (8 points) came from riding across traffic light while there's on-coming traffic in the distance, 6 seconds spent on pylon (4 points), and another 2 x 2 points from other minor stuffs. The tester called my number and explained to me my failure points and I went back home, feeling extremely sleepy.

I booked my next earliest test date on the 3 July (Friday). Traffic police offered me an earlier test date but I could not go for it. There were still lots of work I needed to do and going for motorcycle tests was taking a toll on my time. So I kept with the initial school booked date on the 3 July.

One week prior to the 3rd July test, I went for another 5 more sessions (2 hours each). Base on previous experience, I found that there was no point to go for too many sessions in one day. The critical test period is just the 20mins session. I also made some adjustments to my sleeping patterns. From Monday till Friday, I woke up at 5.30am, got to office early at 7am so as to minimize interruptions to my work, while I can still have motorcycle lessons in the evenings. This was to get my body clock ready for the early waking hours.

Second test (3 July 2015 - Friday)

Having maintained a momentum of waking up at 5.30am the last few days, I had no difficulty in falling asleep at night and waking up early in the morning.

As I did not have any preferred bikes amongst the bike pool, I just went down and picked a random bike. I am number 8 and got bike 78. I just noticed the bike staring straight at me. The warm-up was quite fun, especially at the figure-8 where the instructor told us to chase the bike in front to add a bit of tension.

The testers this time round were quite strict. Around 30% passed. We were told those who passed were either very good or very lucky. I believed it's more towards the former.

I departed from the starting point at 9.30am and got back around 10am. I went straight to canteen and began messaging my friends. I was very confident this time round as I did not make any silly mistakes. I knew my mind and body have been fully conditioned in all the techniques and circuits.

My name was not called and the remaining 15 riders celebrated. We have our instructor sharing with us the different bikes below.

I got 10 demerit points of which:
- 4 points - crossing traffic again without checking oncoming traffic (actually I did check but it's only after I have U-turned I realized the oncoming traffic is driving at an extremely fast speed - extremely fast subara sports car)
- 2 points - at the end of e-break, I looked downwards  
- 2 x 2 points - minor stuffs

In the afternoon from 1pm, we went for the Expressway Familiarization Course. We started from SSDC and went into SLE and exited at Lentor Ave where we took a break at the entrance of Nanyang Poly. Below is our first group photo. We are the older generation group (all should be in the 40s-30s).

There were a few things I have learned from the Expressway Riding Course - pull down the visor before entering the expressway. The wind speed is so high that it will cause my eyes to tear. I have also decided to always wear my safety gear when I ride in the future. The observations I have made are: 1) Roads maybe slippery due to oil 2) Roads will become smooth due to wear and tear 3) Riding on fault lines and painted floors will reduce friction.

The video we watched after getting our results and saying the pledge helped as there is an obligation to our love ones. One of the riders who was in the same expressway orientation group as me is an airforce pilot, told me that the airforce do not encourage them to ride as they are supposed to take good care of their body. Likewise, I should also be taking good care of myself by following all the rules and be well-equipped with safety gears.

The instructors with SSDC are friendly and approachable. They are also knowledgeable and I have great respect for them. It can really been seen they are close with one another and truly work together as a team. Our main instructors are Mohd Nizal, Shaikh, Sulaiman, Hasli, Chua CW and Amir. There are also many others like Jaya, Suhaimi, Iskandar, Fuad and so on. I would like to salute them for their patience in guiding me. I will strongly recommend to anyone to sign up for Class 2B course with SSDC.

Will be looking forward to class 2A next year!!

Tips on passing class 2B test in SSDC

1) Condition your body to wake up early the week before the test as the sudden change in routine might affect your performance (from optimal to sub-optimal)
2) Practice the circuit and roads over and over again. I probably did the circuit more than a hundred times and the road more than 30 times.
3) Do all the safety check (blind spot, check-back, etc) in all practices. I did not have a single safety check penalty points as I did all of them listed in the map above.
4) Limit your practice to at most 2 hours each time with the first 30mins of practice being the most critical. It's the time when you sit on your bike to how fast you warm up that's important. The actual test is similar. The tester will wave for you to start after you have taken a 1.5 - 2.5 hours break in the waiting room. It's how fast your body psycho dynamics get started that is important.
5) Do not think too much. Everything about motorcycle is psycho dynamics which do not require much thinking. Do not imagine yourself falling off the plank or hitting the crank course kerb, it will make yourself more nervous. Just do it! (as Nike says). It's the zen-state of mind without thinking that's important.
6) Be courteous and always give way. When in doubt at traffic light junctions, stop. It happened to me several times during test. A big bendy bus turning in front of me, fast sports car oncoming, big vehicles undergoing tests with unpredictable speed, pedestrian or cyclist coming your way while the light is red, etc. Slow down to gear 2 in traffic junction to react in time. If in doubt, just stop.
7) If you have difficulty sleeping, turn on the light and read some boring book. It will definitely make you fall asleep. Repeat it a few times if you woke up after sleeping. 
8) Circuit tips
- Slope: Check-back. Keep your right sole on the back brake pedal and start to accelerate. When you start to feel the bike will not roll backwards, accelerate more and slowly release clutch. At the same time release the brake pedal and accelerate more. All these should be done in less than 5 seconds.
- Figure 8: Prior to entering figure 8, incline more towards the right after starting point. This will give you a smoother angle when you make a left turn into figure 8. Accelerate more into gear 2 and go around it. The important technique is to look at a distance. You will need to look half a circle away each time. Do not look down or too near as your speed will be reduced.
- Crank Course: Go in fast at gear 1. Immediately after the entrance, change to gear 2 and move in. This should be fast and completed in less than 5 seconds.
- Emergency Break: Go in fast, with your eyes occasionally checking the >30km/hr lights in front of your bikes to be on. Upon reaching the cone area, just look straight and don't look down and brake.
- Plank: The key factor here is clutch control. After move-off at gear 1, and after your front wheel has got onto the plank, pull in your clutch immediately. Do not do anything except holding on to your clutch. You can use brake if you are confident you will not fall off or brake too much. Once you have pulled in your clutch, its very easy to remain stable on the plank. It's just adjusting the handle bar from there on.
- Pylon Salom: Change to gear 2 at the midway point between starting and the first cone. Enter in the middle and use your body and handle bar to move around. Look at a distance.