CDC Motorbike Practical Lesson 4: Narrow Plank

CDC Motorbike Practical Lesson 4 will be on Plank, Pylon Slalom and Emergency Braking. The first course will be the plank. This course is one of the hardest course because it is the easiest to get immediate failure. You need to stay on the plank for at least 6 seconds to pass.

There is an arrow on the road before the plank course. This arrow indicated that you need to signal left before you reach the arrow. When your bike is completely within the arrow on the ground, you need to check your left blindspot before you filter left into the plank course.

After entering the plank course, remember to cancel the signal. You should learn the planks course in two parts. The first part is to learn how to mount the plank.

1. To mount the plank, you need to align the bike straight in front of the plank when you are waiting for your turn to go onto the plank course.
2. Once you have aligned the bike straight, accelerate hard to mount the plank. You need to accelerate hard because if you are too slow, your bike might wobble and the alignment with the plank will be off. You may want to lift your left leg up only when the bike is stable.
3. You should be looking at the far end of the plank or at the cone when mounting the plank. If you look down, it is highly likely that you will not be able to mount the plank.
4. If you are able to do all this, you should be able to mount the plank.
5. My advice is to learn how to mount the plank first before going for the timing.

The second part involves staying on the plank for more than 6 seconds. The key to balancing on the plank is to turn the handle bar left and right to stabilize the bike instead of leaning your body left and right. Another important thing is to grip the fuel tank tightly with your thigh instead of opening up for leg as this helps greatly to stabilise the moving bike on the plank. There are 3 ways for you to try out for maintaining slow speed on the plank.

The first way involves using the momentum when you accelerate hard to mount the plank. By using the momentum gathered, you can clutch in when both wheels are on the plank and let the bike free wheel. If it is too fast, you can slightly tap the rear brake to slow the bike down. When you feel the bike is losing speed, you have to half clutch so that the bike can continue moving until the end of the plank. I think this is the easiest way to pass the plank course for beginner.

The second way is to use the half clutch method technique. When you are on the plank, you have to maintain half clutch so that the bike can continue to move forward. Remember to turn the handle bar left and right to balance.

The third method is to release the clutch fully but you have to maintain constant throttle while you are on the plank.  You can fully release before or after mounting the plank. Balancing should be done by turning the handlebar instead of leaning left or right. Remember to look at the far end of the plank or the cone at the Pylon Slalom course. By doing so, you will be able to maintain constant low speed on the plank. This is the technique that I used to be consistent with the plank course.

CDC Motorbike Practical Lesson 4: Pylon Slalom

After clearing Plank course, you will be clearing the Pylon Slalom. Stop before the white line. To start the course, check back right first. Accelerate hard in first gear so that you can kick up to gear two before you reach the first cone. The key to clearing the course under 6 second is to bank more. The width of the crash bar is roughly the same as the handle bar. So you can ride pass the cone without the handlebar touching the cone, the rear should also be able to clear the cone. You should be looking at the exit instead of the cone. If you look at the cone, then you are likely to go toward the cone. Remember to check right blindspot when you cross the finishing line of the Pylon Slalom course.

CDC Motorbike Practical Lesson 4: E-brake

I will explain more on the theory behind E-brake as the technique learnt is quite important when you are riding outside. Firstly, the stopping power comes mainly from the front brake and not from the rear brake. If you brake too hard on the rear, you will fishtail. On the other hand, if you brake too hard on the front brake, you will be thrown off the motorcycle. Hence, you should always try to achieve a balance of 70% – 80% front brake, 20% – 30% rear brake for stopping. Secondly, to achieve maximum stopping power, your tires have to have maximum contact with the ground so that there is more friction. The way to achieve this is to straighten and lock your elbow while using the forward momentum to push your handle bar down hard while you are braking. By doing this, your front tire will be depressed (due to handle bar being pressed down) and more contact can be made with the ground for more friction. If you push the motorcycle fork down hard without falling from the motorcycle during E-brake, then you have performed the E-brake correctly.

Check back right before you start moving off. The key is to drag your gear one and two longer so that you cover more distance on gear one and two. When you reach 35km/h, the middle light will light up. Switch to third gear and do not increase your speed anymore.  You can slightly throttle lesser. Straighten and lock your elbow. Remember to look straight ahead also.

As you cannot look down to look at the starting position of the stopping zone, the lamp post on your left can be used a guideline on the position of the stopping line starts. Once you passed the lamp post on your left, you should be prepared to press your front and rear brake together. When you depress your brake lever, your right hand movement will also automatically off the throttle. So there is no need to off throttle before braking. Press more on the front brake. If you press the rear brake too hard, you will skid. You have to stop before the line. Remember not to downgear when you are stopping. You should come to a complete stop at gear 3. Just before you come to a complete stop, clutch in to prevent the engine from stalling. If the engine stalls, immediately restart the engine. Remember to continue holding onto the front brake while doing so.

With the front brake lever being depressed, check back right and then put your right leg down so that you can change the gear from 3 to 1. Sometime, the gear is struck. Thus, you have to release the clutch slightly and then clutch in again so that the gear can be free. After changing to gear 1, check back left and place your left foot down and your right foot up. Signal right and then check back right slightly longer. Do use this check to be aware of the cars and surrounding on your right side as you will be exiting soon from the give way line in front. Release front brake lever and then you can start to move off. The bumpy course can be skipped. Be careful not to cross the double white line. There is an arrow ahead after the give way line just before the bend. Remember to check your right blindspot when you are in the arrow.

Pls do try to complete all your theory lessons and tests as soon as possible to prevent any bottlenecking. Both theory and practical lesson can be cleared at the same time. Some learners progress were impeded as they are unable to book their next practical lesson due to not clearing their theory lessons and tests fast enough. Do visit this post to learn more about other CDC practical lessons.

As i am no longer learning in CDC, i might not be able to give the most updated information. Thus, i am forming a telegram group so that i can create a learner community to engage all CDC motorcycle learner whereby you all can share your learning experience and learn from each other. Do join the Telegram group by clicking here. The link is https://t.me/CDCMotorcycleLearner

Telegram is chosen instead of whatapp because it allows user to create username and hide your handphone number. Do consider to install telegram from google app store.

If you have any question or thing that you do not understand, you can contact via telegram or email. For faster response, please contact me via telegram or whatsapp. The QR code is the link to contact me via telegram. Telegram is messaging app for smartphone similar to whatapp.