Got The Wife A Present!

Mrs. Vulpes proposed to you so she could get her license? That is certainly a strong commitment just learn to ride motorcycles, @Vulpes!

Seriously, I think it's great that Mrs. V is learning to ride and to get licensed so that the two of you have a mutual hobby again. I love it that Mr. Sandi and I ride together. We are each others favorite riding buddies. We also scuba dive together but we're only able to do that once or maybe twice a year--and not at all when there's a pandemic. But we can--and do--ride together a lot!

Wow, a head on collision. I'm glad to read that you escaped without being badly hurt. Did it take you long to feel comfortable riding again??

 

An endorsement in the UK is usually handed out when a driver/rider had broken driving/riding laws. For example for speeding.
It comes with a fine and can impact your insurance premiums at the next renewal.
Endorsements stay on your driving record for 4 or 11 years depending on the offence. This can start from either the date you're convicted or the date of your offence. The endorsement is 'valid' for the first: 3 years, for a 4-year endorsement.
It is best to try and avoid them.

 

Good for you for getting right back out there, Vulpes. That was probably the wisest thing you could have done and it's good that you were physically able to get back on the bike so quickly. Sorry about the lingering after effects on your knees, though.

I waited far too long to get back on my bicycle after my accident--well beyond when I started riding my motorcycles and beyond when I was physically able to. Now I find that I'm just not that motivated to ride the bicycle these days and I continue to feel nervous when I do get out there. I was actually going to ride this morning but it's raining. Whew...(another) excuse.

 

@Wessa, yet another example--and a stunning one--of how the same word in the same language can have completely different meanings! What you call an endorsement in the UK is what we in the US call a ticket or citation. Tickets come with a fine here, too. There are several ways you can approach handling a ticket.

You can just pay it outright and then "points" go on your insurance and your rates go up. If you don't get another ticket for a set amount of time (typically two years), the points go off and (hopefully) your insurance rates go back down.

You can go to court and fight the ticket if you feel you have a case that you were cited in error. Most don't opt for that as it's time-consuming and you stand a good chance of losing your case anyway.

You can go to what we call "traffic school". This has typically been in person on a weekend for the whole day. Now it's also done online--and it has only been online during the pandemic I think. Didactic teaching and a test at the end. This is often the preferred way because the citation doesn't go to your insurance company so no points and no increase in rates. It's as if the citation never happened.

The one time I did fight a ticket is a funny story. Not so funny at the time but in hindsight... For six years I was a horse & carriage driver in San Diego when I lived there some years ago. I was working one weekend evening and had a couple in my carriage who were celebrating their anniversary and was stopped for a red light at a major intersection down along the waterfront. When the light changed I quickly got my horse trotting through the intersection but the light cycle was short and we wound up in the intersection through the yellow light. We were exiting the intersection just as it turned red and a cop saw that and pulled me over. Long story short, I was so incensed at getting a ticket for this (as were my passengers who wrote a letter and had it notarized on my behalf) that I went back to the intersection after my shift that night and timed a bunch of light cycles and measured off the distance on the intersection so I had data to bring to court with me. When I went to court the first time which was simply to plead guilty or not guilty and get a court date, the judge doing that did a double take on the citation and said, "You were driving a WHAT??? Wow, it's a good thing I just came off of a vacation." Anyway, I went back to court to make my case and the cop actually did show up to defend his actions. I won. And it turns out that this particular cop had it in for the whole carriage business from the get go. My boss talked to his boss who gave the cop "a talking to".

 

Yes we also have a speed awareness course that you can take to avoid endorsements on your licence, you still get a fine though.

 

Interesting that you still have a fine to pay even if you take the course, Wessa. Does the speed awareness course have a fee? Is the course only for speed infractions or is it for other sorts of endorsements / tickets, too? I went to traffic school years ago for a ticket that wasn't related to speeding. There were probably 20 or more people in the class and I think there were only a couple of us that weren't there for a speeding ticket.

Sorry to hijack your thread about Mrs. V's motorcycle and her journey towards licensure, @Vulpes. I'll stop sidetracking now. Well, after I read @Wessa's response to my questions about the speed awareness course.

 

Yes the speed awareness course does attract a fee…. And I got it slightly wrong if you pay for the course you do not have to pay the fine and you don’t get the endorsement points on your licence…
Now back to Mrs @Vulpes and her bike test

 

Yes the speed awareness course does attract a fee…. And I got it slightly wrong if you pay for the course you do not have to pay the fine and you don’t get the endorsement points on your licence…
Now back to Mrs @Vulpes and her bike test

 

OH POO!

Ah well - live and learn. Hopefully the retake won't be anything like as nervewracking as the first and she'll sail through it, Fingers crossed.

 

Sorry to hear that Wim. I’m positive she’ll do next time. It took me 2 goes to pass my bike test.

 

That's a shame Wim As has been said she will be less nervous and know what to expect next time

 

Feel for her. Hope she makes it next time

 

Sorry to read that Mrs. V didn't pass on the first go-round, @Vulpes. But I'll bet that she'll pass the second time around, too. She will have a good idea of what to expect which should help with the nerves.

I have a friend who was so anxious during the riding class before she even got to the testing part that she wound up doing the class and road test privately. Then she passed with flying colors and since clocked thousands of miles over the past decade!

If you think such an example will help our your wife, please feel free to share my friend's experience. And please give her my best and let her know we're all confident that the next time will be smooth as silk.

 

That's a shame Vulpes, but when she goes the next time the fear of the unknown will be gone. The latest British Army recruitment catchphrase is Fail, Learn, Win and reckon it works well in this situation. Fingers crossed for the 23rd