What began as a crazy dream on January 14, came to an end today when I went to the Suzuki dealer and bought my first motorcycle! I got a deal on an '05 SV650 naked, in blue. It's totally sweet and I am totally psyched. I'm also totally terrified.
The reason I am terrified is, before buying the bike, I went to the DMV to get my permit, and that's where I learned that everybody else on the road is clueless.
The written test takes place in a separate room, and every time the door opened I could see the room was full of sweaty test takers. My impression was that the permit tests must have gotten much harder. The truth, however, is more frightening.
First, someone, somewhere, stole the Spanish copy of the permit test, which meant the test was "compromised," which meant there were all these Spanish speakers struggling through the test in English. They would show up with a family member who could translate all the forms and stuff for them, but they couldn't have a translator for the test itself. So they'd sit down, fill in the blanks, and ten minutes later get up and find out that they had passed. Amazing!
Second, there was this teenage girl who went into the test room before I'd even arrived at the DMV, but who only finished about a minute before me. She "just passed" (which I think is 8 questions wrong on a 20 question test, and most of the questions are crazy easy). The DMV guy said to her, "a pass is a pass, so you get your learners' permit." To which she said, "Yes! Everybody, lookout!" Lookout, indeed.
So, I will now be sharing the road with a bunch of people who, at best, only got their learners' permits because they could correctly identify commonplace road signs (which make up about a quarter of the test).
Granted, the first piece of advice in every motorcycling book I've read is that motorcyclists should assume every other driver on the road is unfit to be behind the wheel. As sage as that is, it'd be nice if it wasn't a literal truth.
I'm proud to say I got one question wrong on the test. It was a question about countersteering, and even though I knew exactly what the question was talking about, the answers were written so crazily that I couldn't decode which one was right. I wish that I'd written them down just so I could share the insanity. When I asked the lady at the desk about it, she read them and said she had no idea what the answers were talking about. So I'm awarding myself an honorary perfect score, because there's nothing I can do if the same crazy ESL motherfucker who stole the Spanish test also rewrote the answers to the English test.
Anyway, the written test is retarded easy, and the DMV really should make it more difficult. As it is, if you're not afraid for your life on the road, you should be (or you're part of the problem!).
The DMV was the most exciting part of today's motorcycle adventure. Finally buying the bike was somewhat anti-climactic. Mostly it was just signing papers and trying on helmets. The bike itself won't be delivered until Thursday. So now I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa to finally get his big booty back up the chimney so I can open my presents. Also, the weather is supposed to be nice on Thursday, so if I can get my dad to go down to the beach parking lot with me, I'll spend the evening trying not to kill myself. I can't wait!
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10 comments:
Congrats!
As for drivers...
In Japan they have graduated licensing for motorcycle riders. You start with a license good for (I have no idea what the exact classes are, but let's pretend) a 250 cc, then after a year 400cc, then later on, open displacement. The tests (written and riding) are also supposedly really, really difficult. In a world of public roadways I like this idea. Even moreso, I like it for cars. Maybe just the testing part, as you suggest, but I'd like to see people who can't pass a difficult driving test be limited to vehicles of a certain weight and size.
Thanks! I can't wait to ride. My dad, though (killjoy that he is), is saying I should leave the bike in the garage until I've taken some lessons. That way I won't get it all scratched up. He's probably right, but I don't know if I'll be able to resist.
I think it would be a great to limit drivers by ability. For some reason we're afraid to do this. I don't know if it's cultural, or just wimpy politicians or what. It's a joke (literally) how many old people there are driving around when they clearly have no business being behind the wheel anymore. If we won't stop them from driving, we sure won't bother to stop unprepared teens from getting behind the wheel.
In the meantime I guess it's going to be me and my SV against the world!
:o
Go danny go!
you want a pickle?
No sir! You know what I want, sir.
So what the hell, do you have it yet or what?
And I went to a local dealer today, and they actually had a brand new naked red SV on the showroom floor. Pretty nice. And you're right, that flyscreen is simply too small to deflect much wind.
Monday. It's supposed to come Monday. Gads. First there was "weather" and then there was "other delays" and when I talked to the dealer on the phone this morning they said they could drop it off on Monday. Hopefully early.
I love the '06 in red, but I haven't seen any windshields that really match it yet, so I'm kinda glad I got the blue '05 just because there's a better chance I'll find nicer accessories for it.
Our cars (and the entitlement to drive them) seem to be one of those "sacred cows" in this country, like giving birth or medical care for terminally ill patients. They're just things politicians won't touch. Hell, they kill more people each year than guns and drugs combined. You'd think some sensible regulation would be in order.
Of course, once that landslide starts, it opens the door for lots of non-sensible lunacy...then you get things like mandatory tire pressure monitoring systems, and that stupid little emergency handle inside the trunk.
Hey, that emergency handle might save your life some day!
Seriously, though, no matter how much regulation we come up with, there's nothing we can do to stop unfit drivers from getting behind the wheel. My brother was in a car accident that left a friend of his in the hospital for a week. The guy who hit them ran a red light, then tried to flee the scene on foot, then, when they caught him, it turned out his license had been suspended ages ago for repeated accidents and violations and he had no insurance or anything and he wasn't going to do any jail time for "just another car accident" and he had no money that we could sue him for, and so he was no doubt back on the road the next day.
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