It took me three tries, but I passed my motorcycle skills test, and now have a motorcycle endorsement on my driver's license!

I think technically this is my fourth attempt at the test, but the third year I tried; I may have tried twice the first year, but I don't recall, nor do I have any records...well, maybe elsewhere in the blog, but I'll leave that to you, reader, to discover.

The first year I know I had a hard time with the offset cones; spaced about eight feet apart, zig-zagging a foot off-center, the objective is to swing wide, back and forth, without skipping or hitting a cone, putting a foot down, or stalling or dropping the bike. The turns seemed so tight, and I think I dropped a foot, but the guy let me continue.

The next year I zig-zagged fine, but both the first and second year (possibly all three of the first tests, if I'm remembering wrong, which happens a lot) I failed to stop in time. One of the tests is to accelerate to between 12 and 20 miles per hour, and then upon crossing a marker on the test field, stop as fast as possible. My bike couldn't stop in enough time; bad brakes.

Last year I had the bike reworked, including the brakes. I didn't try the skills test last year, happy to take my leisurely cruises along the parkway, not excited to get to work.

One can ride in Minnesota by passing a written test, with some restrictions. No passengers, no freeway riding, no riding after dark, and must wear a helmet. The helmet I'm cool with, but the others occasionally get in the way. That and the fact that you must take the written test every year you want to ride. The $21 each year for the written test is added incentive; it only adds like $8 for the endorsement to renew a normal license. So, to take the freeway, with passengers, at night, I took the test again today.

I passed. Zero points off.

It wasn't as easy as that, though. While trivial in hindsight, the pressure of taking a test got on my nerves, and every little thing that looked like a mistake to me added to the pressure.

The first test is a tight turn followed by stopping in a box. The turn isn't all that sharp, but I thought I went wide and hit one of the boundary cones. Turns out I passed the turn just fine, but as I left that maneuver and headed toward the stop I clipped another cone, and tiddly-winked it out of place. No harm.

The swerve test was next, and again, after clipping the other cone, I was nervous. Now, I've been practicing swerving, riding slow, and turning tight, so I was mentally prepared when I showed up. However, sitting there, staring at the cones I started to get a little nervous. No sweat, though, as I weaved back and forth.

That test is immediately followed with a U-turn. Essentially the size of two generous parking lot spots, one has to, well, turn around without leaving the box. I turn tighter than that regularly, so that was no sweat. At the time it seemed like a little sweat, 'cause normally when you're riding you're not looking that closely at the ground to ensure you're in bounds. Throws a fella off a little.

Then the killer test. The start-stop. I nailed it! Previously I had been able to do the test just fine, but the brakes wouldn't hold tightly enough, and I went over the maximum. On one of the tests I had gone over by just one foot, so the guy let me try again, and again just one foot over. Can't pass with that, sir. This time I stopped well short of the mark.

The final test is a swerve. Ride as for the start-stop, but instead of stopping fast when crossing the line, swerve to the direction indicated by the proctor. No problem; I practice swerving 'cause it's fun to wiggle back and forth; just like merging, 'cept from a stand-still.

In the end I passed. At the suggestion of the license lady I renewed my license a year early. I lost a year in the cycle, but instead of either costing $13 for the duplicate license (plus endorsement) for one year, followed by the $34 renewal charge next year, it cost $21.50 for the 4-year renewal and endorsment now.

Then on the way home I took the freeway. It took almost 30 minutes by street route out to the test site, but only about 5 minutes by freeway. OK, so maybe closer to 10, but much quicker nonetheless.