Second Chance to be Shogo Yahagi.

Ride Rite allows you to retake the motorcycle skills test the following weekend. Why did I choose a weekend with rain? I didn't even have the proper motorcycle riding rain gear. I am such a noob (this will be my 3rd day on a motorcycle). I had on a white undershirt, long sleeve Champion lycra shirt, Addidas Munster Rugby track jacket, and over all that a Carhartt black jacket, and blue jeans. I also had on my Smith and Wesson service boots. The rain soaked my Carhartt jacket, but not the Addidas track jacket, my jeans were completely soaked through. My ass was wet for the better part of the day. My socks got wet and of course so did my feet. This was not one of those warm rains. It was a chill (for an Angeleno) bitter rain.

One of the better conditions to retake the motorcycle skills test? I think not. The rains made the parking lot surface slick. The skills test would be more difficult and tricky.

The first skills test was the dreaded execute a figure 8 in the box maneuver followed by the swerve the obstacle skills test. They had allowed us to practice and I would always put a foot on the ground or rode the motorcycle off the boundary lines.

When the test came I executed the figure 8 without putting a foot on the ground or riding the motorcycle out of the boundary lines. The swerve maneuver was a cinch because I love doing the quick press to the right with a quick press to the left.

We waited in line to do the quick stop maneuver as the other students were completing the dreaded figure 8 in the box maneuver. Just to notch up our collective nervousness, one of us got into an accident. There was a indication something might go wrong when the pretty Russian girl from the OC suddenly gave her motorcycle to much throttle and it bolted out of the box and careened wildly toward the fence but fortunately she managed to break in time. The instructors gave her another restart. She coasted into the box executed her U-turn then as she was about to do her S-turn she again gave it too much gas and her motorcycle bolted from the box and towards the line students on their motorcycles. She took out one of motorcycles, fortunately the student who was on his motorcycle quickly jumped off. He avoided the impact. The girl and the 2 motorcycles went down. I ran to the scene of the accident. She was on the ground sitting up, hands to her face, someone hit the kill switch on the bike since the wheels were still spinning. A crazy scene. Instructors, and students cleaned up and we got back to testing.

We all did the quick stop test, and the cornering test. At the end of the tests everybody passed except for the Russian girl. The instructors/examiners let us look at our scores or rather the points we were assessed.

I saw name, ran my fingers down the column, to the square tally box at the bottom. It was blank. Zero points, no points assessed. Totally perfect. I was doing a fist pump or a Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised fist in the air mental celebration. Kicked ass over last weekend; from zero to hero. I get to follow in my anime hero's footstep.