On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:20:00 -0400, Steve W. wrote:
> When I took my test the guy just before me failed when he touched down
> on the figure 8.

Bear in mind, we're not talking about an easy figure 8 here in California
where there isn't even a painted line for you to stay within or the
supremely easy u-turn box of the MSF where not only is the box astoundingly
huge but you can miss by ten feet and still pass the course.

No ...

We're talking about a Ca dmv test where you won't know what it is going to
be beforehand (unless you read this newsgroup), where you're not allowed to
practice on the course for fear of being arrested, where you must enter and
exit a 20 foot circle from both directions and from both a five-cone swerve
and a 2 foot wide straight and where you can NEVER have EITHER wheel stray
one quarter inch outside the painted lines you can't possibly even see so
you have to guess and if you look "ahead", it's actually to your left or
right by 90 degrees given the speed and radious, where you may have cars
driving up and down on both sides of you (depending on the course and I've
seen four at this point), where you can not put your foot down or touch any
of the five cones, where you MUST circumnavigate two complete loops in each
direction for a total of four loops, and where you MUST 100 percent of the
time not make any mistakes whatsoever or you fail fail fail.

While everyone's opinion is valid, if you haven't taken this test yourself
on a liter sized bike, then you really can't know what you're talking
about.

It's like Norman said ... "Have you ever BEEN in a mine field?"