Question on U-turn during the test.

If you put your foot down during the Uturn part of your test is it classed as a minor or is it a major fail, different instructors seem to give different views, some people have said they passed even with a quick dab.

Need to know, as Mrs CPFC has her test soon and is worried as she achieves a clean turn eight out of ten times. It used to be 3 out of ten so its getting better.

Any hints and tips will help.

when i did my test last year, i was told this, a dab with teh toes front area of your foot is known as a ‘confidence dab’ and is allowed and foot flat down is classed as a fail, if you fail your u-turn, you fail your test.

eyes forward, look where you want to go (dont stare at the kerb:D) slip the clutch, keep the revs up and ‘busy’ and use the back brake to control your speed…easy:D good luck im sure she will be fine:)

Best advice I can give without knowing the actual techincalities is to practice for something thats harder than the test!

My instructor taught us to u-turn in a road baout 15 feet wide… the test was on a road about 20+feet wide!.. Might be worth finding out the ACTUAL test size for a U-turn then working backwards fom that…

If you can do it the hard way in practice you’ll breeze the real deal :slight_smile:

I’ve been trying to do my U turns as close to half the road as possible. Managed to get a VERY tight U turn after maybe 15 mins practice most times, and if I missed that then widening the turn then became really easy - just opened the throttle a little to keep me upright.

Slipping the clutch a bit and dragging a bit of back brake makes it much easier aswell

it is all about the back brake controlling the speed and balance

I overrevved the throttle with a lot of clutch slip, then as the balance was set, started to do a nice turn in the road. Dabbing the back brake still slipping the clutch lever with a healthy bit of noise from the engine, the back brake slows it all down and brings it naturally into a turn in the road

I have heard of people passing even though they put their foot down but best to assume you can’t. It’s all psychological, very nearly ruined my DAS recently, but practice before hand and remember that the test is about consistency of quality of ride.

The guidence to examiners is somewhere on the DSA website - the answer is that it is down to why you put your foot down. The turn is a test of machine control. If you put your foot down due to lack of control you fail - it is a major. If you dab your toes down briefly due to a momentary lack of confidence, it is a minor.

On my test I got a minor of dabbing my foot down on the hill start - too bloody right it was a lack of confidence - that hill was bloody steep!

Seen this threads twin not so long ago. I guess it’s a recurring problem for novice riders.

Il Bandito got it right (as did Giuliano last time), practice in a tighter space than the test road. Empty car parks are good using the bay markings as there are no intimidating kerbs and you can easily bottle out if it all goes pear shaped.

Once confident in three bay widths (about 7.2 mtrs.) your there but with a bit more practice two or two and a bit bays gets do-able and you’re not going to be tested on a road that tight.

Put your foot down on the u turn and its a fail :frowning:

here you go:

Here is the guidance for all tests - http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Form.asp?id=2621

And the motorcycle chapter is here as it qwil ltake ages to find it by clicking on the links above -

http://www.dsa.gov.uk/Documents/practical_test/dt1/Chapter2.pdfNote it says - "During the U Turn exercise, an examiner should assess the actions of the candidate in the normal way. If, for instance, the candidate loses control of the machine and puts a foot down to avoid falling, then obviously a serious fault has been committed. If, on the other hand, the rider dabs a foot down in a moment of apprehension and then completes the exercise, the fault should be assessed as only a driving fault."Chapter 1 explains what a driving fault is - it is what is recorded on the form as a minor. It seems to me that the average examiner will probably judge that you were not in control if you put your foot down unless it really was unecessary and you were doing everything right to get round OK.

Very useful. Thank you.

I failed my first test because of a foot down on the uturn. Not a single other fault on the sheet. Doesn’t matter now but I was so p###ed off at the time!

As all the other advice practice, practice, practice!

Thanks for the advice.

Feels like Practice and more practice.

One of my friends failed 3 times on the ‘U’ turn, first by dropping the bike :smiley: and twice from foot downs.

Forth time she passed, thankfully… She had bought my bike off me just before her first test so it had to sit in the garage until she passed. :smiley:

+1 for me minus the dropping bit…bugger put me on a hill and it just confused the hell out of me.

it is very important to maintain a steady speed(walking speed) while doing a u turn, it is more difficult to keep balance riding too slowly