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  1. #1 driving test coming up! 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Well heck I am 59 years old and the bloody registration people decided that having an (expired) full international and UK bike license wasn't good enough, so they made me take a learners' test, now a year later all of a sudden it is time for the grown-ups test on Thursday! And I am really nervous! Once upon a time I could ride a road bike along the top of a stone wall, into the house, up the stairs and skid turn on the landing into my bedroom, not that the girlfriend and neighbours appreciated it. And I could do that with or without a brain full of naughty substances. But bugger it, you DON"T remember it all and age does affect some things, now I am all nervous but a few stiff whiskies isn't the way to overcome these things anymore dammit. I wonder if they take bribes?
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  2. #2 Re: driving test coming up! 
    Senior C-Moto Guru ZMC888's Avatar
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    This is one thing about Awwstralia I don't understand. If your license home license is good enough for three months, or a year (varying from state to state), then why do you need to do the test? Surely by the time that you are doing the test you have completely adapted to the Australian driving environment!

    Revenue raising or a PC way of making sure most Asian immigrants learn to drive properly?
    Without consciousness, space and time are nothing; in reality you can take any time -- whether past or future -− as your new frame of reference. Death is a reboot that leads to all potentialities.
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  3. #3 Re: driving test coming up! 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZMC888 View Post
    Revenue raising or a PC way of making sure most Asian immigrants learn to drive properly?
    Like so many things in Australia, it is pure bureaucratic corruption of a good intent. Originally the rules were tightened and changed to stop so many kids on motorbikes splattering themselves onto cars and trees - of course once it becomes regulated here it becomes nonsense and loses most credibility, practicality and certainly common-sense. And makes the layers of governments much money. It works because everything here is 'out-sourced', usually to a politician's nephew or brother-in-law and so people all earn from it down the chain to the poor old end-user. A merry-go-round of ever increasing costs in all areas supported by the credit card, the past and a mortgaged future sold cheap to needy Asians and Arabs.

    Australians hate being criticised but they are blind in many introspective areas, they are one of the most regulated countries in the world under the veneer of democratic freedom. They all think they are individuals and follow principles of 'mateship' and so on but in fact are blinkered, bigoted and quite weak. They show many characteristics of the sheep rather than the wolf and run in mobs. BUT thank goodness, it is a biiiig country and there is a fair bit of real strength out in the bush, usually conservative and often judgmental but it is still where you can live free. For another decade or so anyhow. By then Australia will be just another ghettoised part of the USA if Asia hasn't invaded.
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  4. #4 Re: driving test coming up! 
    Senior C-Moto Guru ZMC888's Avatar
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    It's similar to what I thought when I visited over ten years ago, although it sounds worse now though. I found the banking system, driver licensing systems and bicycle enforced helmet laws annoying. There are many positives about the country though.
    Without consciousness, space and time are nothing; in reality you can take any time -- whether past or future -− as your new frame of reference. Death is a reboot that leads to all potentialities.
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  5. #5 Re: driving test coming up! 
    C-Moto Not-so-Noob
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    Quote Originally Posted by jape View Post
    Like so many things in Australia, it is pure bureaucratic corruption of a good intent. Originally the rules were tightened and changed to stop so many kids on motorbikes splattering themselves onto cars and trees - of course once it becomes regulated here it becomes nonsense and loses most credibility, practicality and certainly common-sense. And makes the layers of governments much money. It works because everything here is 'out-sourced', usually to a politician's nephew or brother-in-law and so people all earn from it down the chain to the poor old end-user. A merry-go-round of ever increasing costs in all areas supported by the credit card, the past and a mortgaged future sold cheap to needy Asians and Arabs.

    Australians hate being criticised but they are blind in many introspective areas, they are one of the most regulated countries in the world under the veneer of democratic freedom. They all think they are individuals and follow principles of 'mateship' and so on but in fact are blinkered, bigoted and quite weak. They show many characteristics of the sheep rather than the wolf and run in mobs. BUT thank goodness, it is a biiiig country and there is a fair bit of real strength out in the bush, usually conservative and often judgmental but it is still where you can live free. For another decade or so anyhow. By then Australia will be just another ghettoised part of the USA if Asia hasn't invaded.
    Sounds like sour grapes to me......................there are many worse places in world to call home. If you are confident about your riding abilities then the test shouldn´t be an issue. Confidence plays a big part in driving/riding. I drive heavy vehicles for a living, and have been a motorcyclist for over thirty years. Hope you do well in your test.
    Cheers Will.
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  6. #6 Re: driving test coming up! 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Didn't mean it to come over as sour grapes, rather than an honest dig! I could tell some tales to back my case, including having to face down a cop with his gun out who didn't like anyone arguing with him on my very first day here on the way from the airport on a Goldwing ... trouble with forum posts is they are only part of the story. This is indeed still one of the best places in the world to live in when taken good with bad which you have to do of course - but it is disappointing and true that the so-called bonzer fair-dinkum ozzie was a myth and that there are so many spineless creeps in so many layers of government. The 'fair go' doesn't really exist. I have travelled and lived and worked in a few places and moved around a fair bit and chose to land up here and have kids and I am happy they are schooled and thriving here and think they are Australian! But heck I don't wish to annoy anyone with such a debate, I just answered the question as I see it.

    I did nearly fail the learners' test I must admit; in the 'stop quickly in a straight line' test I deliberately skid stopped in just a couple of meters and they said it was a fail, however I pointed out that I had done it deliberately, in control and still within the lines so they accepted I do it again to their interpretation which I successfully did. Seems they would rather you kept an upright and straight-line position if you T-boned a semi at a roundabout, rather than stopped a few meters away at an angle.

    The final test now apparently includes responding to some box with flashing lights as I ride around and interpret the cues to mean do this or that. I suppose confidence might help but previously it worked against me!

    My father was a trials' competitor of some acclaim and an army demonstration rider all around the world and taught me how to ride many years ago. Maybe too many years eh?
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  7. #7 Re: driving test coming up! 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Failed, well I couldn't take it. Did two hours practice on the course then got a spasm in my back and couldn't ride. Dammit that's $540 wasted and another $400 minimum to find. Might just have to be illegal from now on.

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  8. #8 Re: driving test coming up! 
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    I know in the US we have the MSF foundation courses which allow you to get your liscense if you pass the test at the end of the weekend class. The courses are generally very good and the students usually vary in age and skill ability. Nice thing is at the end you get a card which waves the practical exam so you just take the card to a local motor vehicle office and get your M class license.

    Any such programs in Oz?

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  9. #9 Re: driving test coming up! 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    No such thing here unfotunately. You first do a learner test, then a license test. All done by those 'outside accredited providers' and at a cost of $200 each time.

    You can do practise courses that precede the riding part of the test for $70 each time but you still do the riding part. That was my mistake, I have four stuffed discs and they rebelled against riding so long and I could no longer stand let alone ride.

    The worst bit is that if I do not retest (another $200) and pass within a month I will have to take the whole process again, both learner and final because you can only hold the learner permit for 15 months. I wasn't told of this previously and they say it is my own fault for not reading the fine print. I guess so but makes me really angry, cost me $540 so far as I took the extra $70 practices to familarise myself with the test course and conditions of not exceeding 20 kmph - and it will then cost another retest of $200 and if I fail or cannot take it again, another $400 minimum - plus all the time (day long courses) and petrol and the trip to the nearest test center 100 km away each time! On a pension, this is a lot of money. I really cannot ride all day but if I go for a 'disability' license I am restricted and I have been told it is pretty much impossible on a bike anyway.

    Better off risking illegal I think. Fuck them, rip-off bastards, I passed my test in UK 40 years ago and I passed the learners here now I got to do it all again? I think not. I will save another $545 or thereabouts by not registering the bike as well!
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  10. #10 Re: driving test coming up! 
    Administrator-tron CrazyCarl's Avatar
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    I could understand being strict on the tests for safety standards but if it's true that "outside accredited providers" make all that money EACH time you have to take the course and even charge 70bucks for a stupid practice run, then make you take it over every month if you don't complete it, I would tend to agree that's total .

    Really starts to smell more like a crass money making venture than regulations imposed in the interest of safety for the individual. Additionally, it doesn't really do much to attract people to the sport/hobby which is a shame because it's a beautiful country to explore by bike.

    Consider the differences of your frustrations in Oz and my experienced frustrations in China. For me, money was not the issue but rather political bureaucratic hassles which had to be managed. Given what you described, if that had been combined with them fleecing the foreigner for cash I probably would have flipped my lid...even more than I already did.


    One thing I learned pretty fast was it's often more productive to roll with it ... no matter how much you'd like to go postal...

    Sidecars are cool too. They got the same regulations?


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