Alberta Class 6 Motorcycle Test common mistakes
Alberta Class 6 Motorcycle Test · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating a motorcycle as exempt from full stops and instead slowing to a rolling 'pause' at stop signs and red lights before turning right.
Riders carry over the habit of a rolling check from cycling or from watching experienced riders, and the bike's light weight makes a rolling stop feel stable and safe.
What to do instead
Drill the full stop as a distinct sequence: both wheels stopped, both feet or the left foot down, a deliberate left-right-left scan, then proceed. Practise at empty intersections until the stop is automatic.
Riding in the centre of a lane or beside another vehicle in the same lane instead of occupying a full lane position.
New riders come from a car mindset where lane centring feels 'correct', and they underestimate how much a motorcycle's narrow profile invites other drivers to share the lane.
What to do instead
Memorise that a motorcycle is entitled to a whole lane. Choose a lane position (left, centre, right third) based on visibility and escape routes, and move to block lane-sharing when a car drifts over.
Entering a curve too fast and then braking or chopping the throttle mid-corner.
Riders judge corner speed by car experience, and the instinct to brake when scared overrides the fact that braking mid-lean reduces stability and stands the bike up.
What to do instead
Set speed before the corner using the 'slow, look, lean, roll' sequence: brake to entry speed while upright, look through to the exit, lean, then maintain or gently roll on throttle through the curve.
Following too closely because the rider only accounts for their own stopping distance and not reaction time plus road surface.
Motorcycles stop shorter than cars in theory, so riders shrink the gap, forgetting that a rear-end collision is far more dangerous for them and that gravel or rain extends distance.
What to do instead
Use a minimum two-second following gap in good conditions, extend to three or four seconds in rain, gravel or darkness, and add distance whenever a vehicle behind is tailgating so you have room to slow gradually.
Failing to scan for surface hazards such as gravel, sand, painted lines, metal grates and tar snakes, and then braking or swerving abruptly on them.
Riders focus on traffic and treat the road surface as uniform, and they do not yet know that traction is sharply reduced on these surfaces and that abrupt inputs there cause a slide.
What to do instead
Build a constant near-far surface scan. Cross hazards as upright and perpendicular as possible, avoid braking or leaning hard on them, and reduce speed before reaching them rather than reacting on top of them.
Using only the front brake hard, or only the rear brake, instead of applying both progressively.
Riders fear pitching over the front and default to the rear, or they grab the front lever in a panic; both habits come from not having practised maximum braking in a controlled space.
What to do instead
Practise emergency stops in an empty lot: apply both brakes together, front pressure progressive rather than grabbed, rear light to avoid lockup, and keep the bike straight. Repeat until the coordinated squeeze is automatic.
Looking down at the controls or at the ground directly in front of the front wheel while turning or stopping.
New riders watch their hands and feet to confirm they are doing the right thing, and target fixation pulls the eyes to the hazard or the ground.
What to do instead
Keep the head up and eyes on the intended path; the bike follows the gaze. Learn control locations by feel with the bike stationary and engine off before riding, so no glance downward is needed.
Misreading a stale green or an unprotected left-turn situation and proceeding without confirming right-of-way.
Riders assume a green means go and focus on their own movement, missing that right-of-way at a left turn depends on oncoming traffic and that a stale light may change mid-intersection.
What to do instead
At every intersection, verify the light state, check oncoming traffic before turning left, and treat a green as permission to proceed only after confirming the intersection is clear and your path is protected.
Ignoring or misreading lane markings such as solid versus broken lines, turn lanes, and shared centre turn lanes, and changing lanes across a solid line.
Riders read markings casually because they are focused on traffic gaps, and motorcycle training often under-emphasises marking rules compared with vehicle handling.
What to do instead
Review the marking rules explicitly: solid lines are not crossed to pass, broken lines permit a lane change when safe, and a shared centre turn lane is for turning only, never for travelling or passing.
Failing to position for visibility and being seen, such as lingering in a vehicle's blind spot or beside a large truck's turning path.
Riders assume being smaller means being noticed, and they drift into blind spots while matching another vehicle's speed rather than actively managing space.
What to do instead
Ride where drivers can see you: avoid blind spots, never linger beside a large vehicle, and stay back from trucks that may swing wide on a turn. Use lane position and headlight to stay visible, and always have an escape route planned.