My DAS experience

l did my DAS course with a great local school, which also happened to be a MCIAC training school (find out more online). One of the main reasons I chose this school was because they offered me a free assessment ride so they could choose the most appropriate course for me. They also had a great social media presence, with loads of positive reviews online.

Following my assessment ride, I booked in for a 5 day DAS course which included the cost of both the Mod 1 and Mod 2 tests. My course ran from Monday to Friday. My Mod 1 test was booked for the Thursday and the last day, which included the Mod 2 test, was left open.

My week long DAS

I spent the first half of day 1 on a 125 riding around the local area. The instructor looked at how I was riding and gave me pointers all the way through. Some of these pointers were about riding and others were about what the examiners looked for in the test and general highway code rules.

After a nice lunch at a local café, my instructor decided that we were ready to go on a 600cc bike and learn some of the off-road manoeuvres. Now, I was told that getting on a 600cc bike after the first day was pretty rare for someone on a 5 day course, I’m not sure if this is true, but I’m really glad I was able to ride a more powerful bike so early on. Be wary of schools which get you to spend too much time on 125s. You need to pass your test on the 600 so you should have sufficient time to get used to how this rides.

I learnt and took my test on a lowered Suzuki Gladius. If you are short like me, double check that the motorbike school you choose will have bikes which are low enough for you to ride.

All morning the instructors had been saying that I’d feel more comfortable on a bigger bike and when I got on it I could see what they meant. I felt a lot more secure on the bike, and while there was a lot more power in the acceleration, the braking also felt stronger and the bike a lot more stable.

The next few days were a mix of road riding and practising manoeuvre on the off road site. For me, the slalom was the easiest manoeuvre to get right (once I stopped looking directly at the cones). It reminded me of the way I used to ride my push bike when I was younger, weaving in and out of the road for fun. I found that the key to this manoeuvre, was to look ahead at where you are going (the bike goes where you look) as opposed to looking directly at the cones. Your peripheral vision will ensure that you don’t knock them over.

The u-turn and the figure of eight were a bit more difficult for me to get. I was taught to do the u-turn from a rolling start and the instructor gradually moved the cones closer together until I was able to do u-turns in spaces smaller than the size on the test site. For some reason, although I nailed the u-turn by the end of the second day, when it came to practising it on the third day, I’d lost it completely. It really knocked my confidence as I felt like I needed to learn how to do it all over again.

The figure of 8 was another thing altogether. All my instructors looked like they came straight out the womb and started biking. One instructor in particular had such a smooth figure of eight he looked like he could ride a bike in a travelling circus!

I on the other hand was all over the place! Too much full lock, the circle was too tight and I had to put a foot down, not enough lock and the figure of 8 looked like a box. Too slow and you put a foot down, too fast, I’d overshoot the cone and wouldn’t be able to come back.

There are a lot of factors to consider when learning the figure of eight, and I was taught how to do it by various different people. To be honest, I can’t remember which of the ways I was taught made it stick. I do know that there is a sweet spot that you get to where you get into a rhythm, you do a few right and then it feels like you could do them endlessly. I got to that point once in my training and I don’t think I’ve been back there since.

In addition to these slow control manoeuvre, you have to do some speed manoeuvres as well. One is an emergency stop, which you need to do at a minimum of 32mph. After this, you need to do a swerve manoeuvre Again this has the same minimum speed limit.

With all these manoeuvres, my only real advice is to listen to what your instructor is telling you and feel how the bike moves. If you are really stuck and can’t in any way shape or form get the hang of them after a day or so, your instructor should be able to give you a few more pointers to help you complete the moves.

Don’t give up, and don’t get frustrated. It will happen.

When I was out on the road, most of the time I felt pretty comfortable on the bike. I had issues with my right turn though, so much so that my instructor asked me if I drove an articulated lorry! I had a bad habit of riding along the centre line as I was turning, but then swinging out to the left (as a driver of a huge truck would do) before committing to the turn. I’m not sure why I did this but I had to unlearn this bad habit over the course of the training.

Like with learning to drive a car, the more time you spend on a bike, the more natural and smoother the gear changes, acceleration and braking becomes. My ability and confidence grew so much between the first and fourth day learning how to ride.

I dropped the bike three times over the course of the training. Once when I grabbed to much front brake at the off-road site and fell on my side, once when I overbalanced getting ready to enter a main road and a final time when I stopped the bike at a right turn with the handle bars turned to the right which again, made me overbalance.

Each time I dropped the bike, I knew I was going to go over seconds before it happened. My drops were all at slow or standstill speeds and show how important it is to nail your balance on a bike. This is the major difference from driving a car. At no point when you are behind the wheel do you think, I need to make sure the ground is flat before I put my foot down, I need to make sure my wheels are in a straight line so I don’t keel over. It’s a very different ball game!

By the end of my fourth day, I felt confident and happy that I could pass the Mod 1 test. I just had to deal with nerves and keep focused!