Does anybody know a driving school in Taipei where it’s possible to practice for the big scooter test? I’ve decided to do it but I haven’t been on a motorbike for 6 or 7 years know and everything I’ve ever driven had proper big wheels as opposed to scooters which, in my view, are more difficult to handle.
I know it doesn’t sound too confident but I’m really out of practice and would rather spend a few hours in one or the weekend than wasting too many days off of work…
Any idea is welcome.
Thanks,
It would be good if you could go to the test centre for a little while to watch some people taking the practical. In Taichung you can stand outside the test circuit and watch and it’s probably the same wherever you are.
The most difficult part of the practical is the slow straight-line bit. You have to ride along a narrow track, taking MORE than a specified time to complete it. The sides of the track are sensors which make a nasty noise if you touch them. If you do that, or if you complete the track too quickly, you are allowed ONE more try, and if you fail that you’ll have to wait a week to retake the practical (though you won’t have to retake the theoretical part of the test).
Both my friend and I failed on this first time and had to retake the practical test. My friend has been riding big bikes in the States for over a decade! So it’s really worthwhile practising.
Within the Taichung DMV grounds there’s a track for practicing this straight-line section. Check out your local center to see whether they have one too.
Once you successfully complete the straight-line section you take the much easier u-shaped section. Again, if you can watch some people taking the test you’ll get the idea very quickly.
Scooters are really not difficult to handle. I wonder whether they may actually be more stable than motorbikes at very low speeds, because of the lower centre of gravity. But you do need to practise on a scooter of course. Not sure that you need to do it at a driving school though. Do driving schools offer scooter test preparation? I haven’t heard of anyone doing this. I think that if you can find a suitable quiet open space to practise in for an hour or so, that would be fine.
My wife called a driving school near our house in Hsin Chuang today to see about getting me some driving lessons before going for the car test and they told that since we’d gone to Hong Kong for a weekend in August, I have to wait three months before I can sign up. Is that true? They said if you leave the country for any reason, you have to wait a mininum of 3 months before you can take classes or go for the test.
I just sign up for classes yesterday at the driving school right next to the National Aiprot in Taipei. They didn’t ask me anything about my recent travelling schedules. They just took a copy of my ARC and my US driving license, then they signed me up.
So, you should be fine.
The driving schools are invariably on some kind of grift or don’t know their arses from their elbows. This particular school is in Bullshit Central territory.
If you have no license at all then you do indeed need to wait three months before taking the test but only if you are not studying at a driving school. The law states that you must either undertake 3 months of self study or study at an authorised driving school. The driving schools give you 20-odd hours of classes and will arrange for you to test on their own course, which pretty much guarantees an easy pass for all but the very worst drivers. Nothing is ever mentioned about the three months restarting if you leave the country (how do they even make this stuff up?)
If you have a license from your home country you can present this when taking your theory test and they will look it up in their little book then waive the delay completely. Those in this position may or may not be able to get a few hours practise in at their local school according to how much the admin staff feel like ripping you off that day. I was taken for NT$7,000 to sit in a car for 5 hours reversing around an S-curve and feel ashamed that I couldn’t be bothered arguing. Ouch.
PS - I’ll bet my buttocks that whoever drafted the three-month delay law had a particularly good pissup the night before at the expense of A-Lien’s ‘Super S’ Driving School.
Inquired at a few driving schools here in KH about practicing by the hour for the test and they said they’re pretty much booked. My guess is because it is summer vacation. I don’t need to drive now anyways, will just wait until school starts to practice the infamous S-curve.
i would like to do a safety training here in taipei (or nothern part in general) for motorbikes. not necessarily intended to get the big bikes license, just a training for safe cornering, breaking and all the lot.
does anybody know where i can sign up for something like that? and where the trainers are not chewing betelnut all the time and understand at least the basics in english? my chinese is quite good, so i don’t think that this would be the biggest problem.
are there any tracks that you can run a bike on or are these training facilities all but parking lots?
any insight would be of great help.
You might give the Hsinchu Safety Educational Center a try - e-hsc.com.tw. I went there for the big-bike licensing class and for a follow-up safety course. If you are looking to practice on a bike <250cc, their website says you can call them up and schedule time with them on a day-by-day basis.
It is basically a parking lot practice area (perimeter does form a small track) where you can practice cornering, breaking, etc. In addition they have the official licensing test course, and also another area where you can practice riding on other challenging road surface types like gravels, staircase, tubular roadway, V-channels, narrow I-beam, round beam, etc.
I don’t know how well their English skills are – I took normal scheduled classes with around 10 people per class – and there was always a couple of people in my class who would help translate when the instructor/I couldn’t understand each other.
are there any other places near taipei where i could get the training i want?
i don’t have the time to go to xinchu for any length of time, so somewhere closer would be preferred. and what would be the cost of such a training?
any comment is welcome.
Stefan, the problem is that safety training as we know it in the west doesn’t really exist here. I’d be interested to know what kind of course that place in Hsinchu offers but I’d be surprised if it were anything like, say, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation courses in the States. I think a better bet for you might be to get someone who has taken such courses to give you some tips.
It would be great if there were a certified MSF trainer here, but I haven’t heard of one.
there you might be right. i was afraid to hear something like that.
so, question: did anyone do the training somewhere abroad / back home and feels like being an instructor?
or even is certified instructor? would be cool to organize a training session for more than just one…
well, here we go: I want to organize a safety training whith the help of you guys, whoever has an interest or wants to share knowledge. I have lots of ideas for the content of the training; I will lay it out later when I receive positive feedback and/or get ideas from you guys, whatever you deem most important to be tought.
It shall not be limited to big bikes only, my own just has 200cc, but be open for everybody. We will find a place (most likely outside the city) to set up a course and shelter to sit and discuss things.
you don’t have to be a certified instructor. We only want to get some people together to share and learn from others and then maybe go on a nice little tour.
Waddaya think? Please help out with some input.
I wanna take some driving lessons before hitting the road as I haven’t been driving for quite a while. Can anyone recommend a good teacher or school? I could do lunch hours, if someone picks me up and drops me at my office again.
Disclaimer: I only have a <251cc bike ticket!
So - do you have a Taiwanese licence but haven’t driven here lately
or do you mean you haven’t driven anywhere for awhile?
Please don’t think I’m flaming you, but I had to look at your
joining date.
You must have noticed the running complaint here (the forum)
about the driver’s training here (Taiwan) being totaly aimed at
passing the test, not ‘real world’ driving.
I suggest you re-learn driving the old way. instead of Mom or Dad,
you get a friend to take you out to the country and you slowly drive
your way into town.
As to passing the test, my understanding is that many driving schools run
their show early mornings before work.
How’s your Chinese?
As soon as I got the health check, I can go and get my license. No test needed as Taiwan finally recognizes my countries driver’s license. However, I have not really driven a car in traffic since 10 years and would want to practice on the streets of Taipei, heavy traffic included, with someone else, before I even try on my own. I can’t park and I am crap in small alleys.
I took the test here few weeks ago, didn’t bother to go to a driving school just tried it. The whole thing was a bit strange and so I needed another attempt (did the manual shifting one in a car so worn out that I guess it wouldn’t even be street legal… ).
Anyway, I saw a lot of things going on and talked with people, basically I was scared of the skills from people who passed the test. Not all, but a lot. They were just trained to pass this few exercises, and that in a slow speed to make sure they pass but if they do like that out there, well I guess no chance.
The training they got was just on courses like the test, just exercising exactly that and besides the maybe usefull skills in parking (still don’t catch why doing it on one thing instead of bringing your car in the spot and out of the traffic fast and than get the perfect position) there is not much usefull they learned.
Getting a relative or friend with good driving skills and knowledge should be the best way. Start first with getting used to a car and get the feeling for it, build up confident and than go on country roads with not much traffic but still wide enought to cause no troubles. The more confident you get the closer you go into cities, try (if possible) first in times with less traffic too before you jump into rush hour in Taipei.
If you made it that far, get yourself a tank and try Chayi or something like that.
Driving is mostly about practise and someone giving you the right tips, not sure if local driving schools would be the right ones to provide this (with maybe few rare exceptions).
Amazingly, I have some semi-positive news to weigh in. In Taichung at least I have seen a large increase over the past 6 months or so of driving instructors with student at the wheel. When I took my local driving test I was also offered the chance to go out on the road with my ‘instructor’. I didn’t take him up on the offer because he was a backward hick arseflap but still, I’m trying to be positive about the fact that some crap training is better than none at all. Give them another 200 years or so and they might even be able to wait at red lights and stay within the white lines.
).