DAS

I’ve taken the plunge and decided to do my DAS. Yes, it’s a lot of money but I’m definitely seeing it as an investment, and better to do it now while I actually have some disposable income and all my money isn’t being tied up with a house or a family! I looked into a few training centres in Sheffield, all seemed to be round a similar price, and went for some free assessments at a couple to see how I got on. One of the places I went to put me off right away with their somewhat chauvinistic attitude and talking about me as if I wasn’t there. Do that and you’re not getting my custom thank you very much! Next I went along to Bikesafe, who are also recommended by SMC where I bought my bike, so feeling somewhat deflated after the first place, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Well, they were absolutely lovely. They had a huge training area with plenty of space and I had a proper ½ hour assessment rather than a quick 3 minutes at the other place. They let me do a few laps to get used to the bike rather than launch me straight into slow manoeuvres right away. I even had a short go on one of their 500s! I left feeling very enthusiastic and, obviously given the not inconsiderable cost, I said I’d go away and have a think. My thinking only lasted a few days before I decided to go for it, so I phoned back and got my 125 training day, module 1 training and module 1 test all booked in. No going back now!

Theory

Well, I did my theory test. Not much else to say really, it was pretty straightforward and fairly dull. I’d never done a hazard perception test though because that came in a few years after I did my car theory test, so I made sure I did lots of practice runs on the internet (whilst watching Back to the Future, which made the test a bit more exciting!). I can kind of see why they decided to do it as hazard perception is an extremely important part of being a road user (hmmm, maybe cyclists should be forced to take it as well….), I just found it totally unrealistic. But then aside from everyone having little microphones and talking through the hazards as they spot them and see them develop, I can’t think of a better way to do it!