My Class 2 Journey (COVID-19 Edition)

… And here it is. My final journey to get a Class 2 license in Singapore (which happened to be during COVID-19).

I wasn’t planning at all to get this license. However, I kept seeing Instastories of my friends getting theirs. It wasn’t jealousy – but they were a great influence. With COVID19 and consequently, work, making a lot of things very inconvenient and busy, I just needed to do something different. Plus, BBDC is really very close to my workplace.

Registration

With all that being said, I just registered in the middle of the night/wee hours of the morning on 24 November 2020. Yes, I did. *whispers* Thanks to PayNow. /endwhispers

COVID-19 Regulations for BBDC

Due to COVID-19, there have been a lot of stringent checks before entering the compound itself. On top of downloading the BBDC app to show your booking for practical, you have to scan the SafeEntry and your NRIC (which updates the BBDC system). The entrance changed to the place where training cars enter and exit (near the temple). So if it rains, do bring an umbrella because the entrance is usually where much bottleneck happens. There are no shuttle buses anymore, so you have to use public transport to get to the site.

Go straight to the motorcycle area, where the chairs are now arranged outside where the bikes used to park during pre-COVID times. Refer to the tag number and ignore the row the number to get your number tag for the session.

Just… wait till your session starts. The instructor will come with a piece of paper to verify your identification. Do bring your driving license and NRIC. Bring either one or none will forfeit your booking.

First Practical – 1.01 (27 November 2020) PASSED

So for the first practical, we just did one/two rounds of the test route. Being qualified drivers already, and having the 2A license (which you can read my experience here… but you shouldn’t be if you have 2A license). The order of the route for courses is S Course, Crank Course, Plank, Pylon, E-brake and Bumpy.

For me, the toughest is definitely bumpy. Even though it was a breeze for Class 2A, I still have not mastered the art of bumpy for Class 2 (even during the test). The power of the engine is 700cc I think, and it requires a lot of technique using clutch and foot break. Perhaps I would have been better had I upgraded my own bike to a Class 2A, because my whole riding career on the actual roads has been with 2B bikes.

You can see the diagram below that I drew out haphazardly… Not to scale, of course. And the number of cones is wrong for pylons.

For the first lesson, we focused on mostly plank and pylon. It was quite easy to stabilize the bike because of the weight and engine. Just throttle as much as possible (but not overrevving) in gear 1 before going up the plank, then maintain your rear break. Not too much until the bike stops and you fall off the plank (immediate failure).

Keep your body relaxed, and bend forward slightly. Grip the tank with your thighs, not knees for further stability. You should roughly get around 10s or more.

For pylon, as the bike is bigger in size, you have to start turning early. Throttle more before shifting up to gear 2 and turn your handlebars earlier than in class 2B and 2A. It should be relatively easy to get through these stations.

We also did S course and crank course towards the end of class. It’s a little more difficult than usual, but mostly the use of throttle and clutching. Basically the techniques from 2A and 2B still applies.

Second Practical – 2.01 (7 December 2020) PASSED

The gaps for lessons were quite far apart (and consequently, TP test) were quite far apart. This time, we focused more on e-brake and bumpy. That’s when I know… bumpy was my worst circuit course out of the entire test route.

Somehow… I passed the lesson on the first try. Seriously….

Anyway, my trick for e-brake was to gear up to gear 3 at the places they tell us to (3 cones), but the speed is up to 50km/h. Maintaining the speed at 40km/h takes a bit of effort, so I let the speedometer rise to 48-50, and let it drop gradually and do the break procedure when I cross the line. Nobody says it’s wrong… (lol) Just be careful not to stop after the last stop line. That’ll be immediate failure.

So for bumpy, it was terrible. I almost fell, sometimes going out of the course… The problem is knowing how much to clutch in and press the rear break at the same time. Doesn’t help that there are 9 bumps, the first 3 being far apart to each other. The timing you have to hit is more than 8s.

Yeah… this station was the toughest for me, so I was shocked when I passed the lesson on first try.

Third Practical – 3.01 (14 December 2020) PASSED

I swear the gaps for lessons are so huge… Having no real class 2A experience on the roads make me a little jittery.

Anyway, this was evaluation lesson which… I passed on first try. I was so so so nervous. I can’t remember how many points I got. It was 12 I think. Basically I was deducted for not checking 1 blindspot, not hitting the timing for bumpy and wobbling when turning out. Yeap.

So the fact that I passed my three practicals on first try meant that I can book for TP test.

But of course, I am not going to go into it blindly, so I booked 3+1 revision circuit sessions, 1 being the fact that I couldn’t cancel in time and had to pay the penalty because work called at the very very last minute.

TPDS Riding Simulator – 1.01, 2.01, 3.01 (27 November, 29 November, 14 December)

If you like arcade… You will love this. No possibility of failing. Just attend it and prepare to vomit if you have motion sickness.

A.k.a ME.

Revision Circuits (RV) – 4, 6, 7 January 2021 (forfeited 31 December 2020)

I focused a lot on e-brake and bumpy. Like really a lot. The instructors who take RV immediately recognised me because I always attack the e-brake and bumpy section. Hahaha… Super nervous.

TP Test – 8 January 2021 PASSED with 18 points (lol)

Noticed that I booked all my RVs in the same week? I was burned out by TP test, and wasn’t in my best condition. Hence… the 18 points.

Reporting time: 7.30AM

I finished my test around 9.40AM. I was number 8.

Anyway, test was really nerve wrecking because there were things that I wasn’t told – such as two bikes in a single directional lane at a stop line is not necessary during test. I was shocked. Okay. Perhaps it was like that during class 2A, but that was almost 2 years ago, so I don’t recall at all.

Also, there were far too many cars during the test slot. So a lot of the obstacles were not the courses itself, but general riding. Surprise, surprise!

Because of that, I became nervous and got deducted at the pylon station for not hitting the lowest timing. On the other hand, by bumpy was the station that didn’t get any points deduction. Ha, how the tables have turned.

Other than that, the test was over. A few of us didn’t pass, which was really sad. For the rest of us, we were elated and just done with it. The process of coming to BBDC has been quite tiring, on top of the added COVID-19 protocols.

Total Cost: 416.76

I’m done!

Class 4? Class 5? (Just kidding…)