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The Control Badge Challenge
8 questions from the 4 lessons in this badge. You need every one right, and you can try as many times as you like.
Step 1 of 8
1Decide
First ride of the week, and the machine is still on the level you finished on.
Yes, and it is a stopped-machine job every time. Setting the level is the one decision you get to make with both feet on the ground. Riders who change it on the move end up with one hand on the bars at the exact moment the power changes underneath them.
Both of the others ask you to work the machine while it is already moving or already fighting you. Reaching for the selector at walking pace means one hand and one brake. Loading the throttle against the brakes tells you nothing useful and puts the wear straight into the pads. Set the level, then push off.
Pick the right one to carry on.
2Find them
The first minute on a machine you have not ridden before
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
3Decide
You are behind a car on a residential street, close enough to read the writing on the back of it.
Right, and notice what you bought with it. The room in front is where your seeing and your deciding happen. Sitting back also puts you where the driver’s mirror actually shows you, which the close position often does not.
Look at where your own cones were. Tucking in behind a car puts less road in front of you than your own measured stop needs, and it takes away the part you use to see what the car is about to do. If it stops hard, everything you have left is braking, and braking was only ever the third part.
Pick the right one to carry on.
4Find them
Which of these steal the deciding part?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
5Decide
You are halfway round a bend and a car noses out of a driveway ahead of you.
Yes. Straighten, then brake, then turn again if there is corner left. It is one of the last things adult riders are taught on a range, and it is deliberately the opposite of what your hands want to do, which is why it has to be practised before you need it.
Both of those give the corner the decision. Braking hard while leaned over is the thing that unloads the back wheel and lets it slide, and coasting round at the same speed just means you arrive at the car with nothing left to spend. Stand the machine up, then use both brakes.
Pick the right one to carry on.
6Find them
Where is the grip not what you think?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
7Decide
Three people are walking abreast on the path ahead of you and have not heard you.
Yes, and the waiting is the bit that matters. The point of calling out is the reaction, not the announcement. Until somebody has moved or looked, nothing about the situation has actually changed and you have not gained anything by making a noise.
Two of those pass people who do not know you are there. A bell you ring as you go by arrives at the same time you do, and a gap between walkers can close in the time it takes to reach it. Slow down first, call out, wait for a reaction, then pass with a few feet of room.
Pick the right one to carry on.
8Find them
Which of these are walking-pace moments?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
Badge earned: Control.
Every question right. Show a parent this screen tonight, and tell them one thing from this badge you did not know before.
Interactive
Next badge: You Are TrafficYour badge
The Control badge artwork lands here, with your name and the date, and a print button.