SGI Class 6 Motorcycle common mistakes
SGI Class 6 Motorcycle · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Assuming a learner's permit alone lets you ride unsupervised on Saskatchewan roads, and not checking whether a supervising rider or escort is required for your permit class before your first road session.
Candidates skim the licence-progression page once, remember 'get a Class 6 learner's permit', and never revisit the supervision and passenger conditions that apply while learning. The conditions are easy to confuse with the graduated driver licensing rules for cars.
What to do instead
Before riding, read the SGI Class 6 licensing steps end to end and write out the conditions that attach to your learner stage: who must accompany you, whether passengers are allowed, and what hours or road types are restricted. Confirm anything unclear with an SGI issuer or driver examiner rather than relying on another rider's recollection.
Treating the motorcycle knowledge test as a general road-rules test and skipping motorcycle-specific material such as countersteering, lane position, and the effect of gravel or rain on traction.
Candidates who already hold a Class 5 licence assume the Class 6 written test repeats what they know. The motorcycle test draws heavily on riding dynamics and hazard perception that a car driver has never had to apply.
What to do instead
Study the motorcycle rider's handbook sections on slow-speed control, braking, cornering, and surface hazards as a separate block from the general traffic rules. Build a short list of concepts you cannot yet explain out loud, and re-test yourself on those until each can be described in your own words.
Rolling through a stop sign or failing to come to a complete halt with both feet down where required, because the rider is balancing at low speed and wants to avoid putting a foot down.
Slow-speed balance feels unstable to new riders, so they trade a legal stop for a rolling one. On a heavy bike or a cambered road, the fear of tipping pushes riders to keep moving.
What to do instead
Practise stop-and-go drills in an empty lot: approach, brake to a full stop, place a foot down, check both directions, then pull away smoothly. Repeat until a complete stop with a deliberate head check feels normal rather than precarious.
Reading only the traffic light and not the accompanying sign or pavement marking, so the rider turns from a lane that is marked straight-only or misses a dedicated turning phase.
Motorcycles sit low and close to the stop line, and riders focus on the signal head at eye level. Signs mounted high or markings partly worn away go unnoticed, especially at unfamiliar intersections.
What to do instead
Before entering an intersection, scan in a fixed order: overhead signs, then the signal, then the lane markings under your front wheel. On the test route, slow your approach enough that you can read the lane-use signs before committing to a lane.
Riding continuously in the centre of the lane, directly over the oil strip, instead of choosing a lane position that keeps you visible and out of debris.
New riders default to the middle because it feels centred and simple. They do not realise the centre collects dripped oil, and that lane position also controls following distance and how much of you other drivers can see in their mirrors.
What to do instead
Adopt deliberate lane positioning: ride in the left portion of the lane to be seen in a driver's side mirror, shift right when a left-turning vehicle or oncoming traffic poses a threat, and avoid the centre strip at stops and in rain. Practise moving between positions smoothly with a mirror and shoulder check each time.
Following the vehicle ahead at the same gap you would keep in a car, leaving no room to stop when the car brakes hard over a slippery patch.
The gap feels adequate because the rider is judging it by car habits. Motorcycles can stop shorter on dry pavement but lose much of that advantage on gravel, rain, or cold tires, and a rear-end collision is far more dangerous for the rider.
What to do instead
Use a following-distance rule you can count, such as a two-second gap in good conditions, and extend it in rain, at night, or on loose surfaces. On the road test, say the count silently as the vehicle ahead passes a fixed object so the gap becomes a habit rather than a guess.
Entering a curve too fast and then braking or rolling off the throttle mid-corner, causing the bike to run wide toward the centre line or shoulder.
Riders judge corner speed by how the entry looks rather than by sight distance, and they are reluctant to lean. When the curve tightens, the instinctive response is to brake, which stands the bike up and widens the line.
What to do instead
Set speed before the corner: brake or slow while upright, select a gear that keeps the engine responsive, look through the curve to its exit, and apply steady throttle through the turn. Practise on a quiet road by entering slower than you think necessary and only increasing entry speed once your line is consistently smooth.
Doing only a mirror check before a lane change and omitting the shoulder check, so a vehicle sitting in the blind spot is never seen.
Mirrors on a motorcycle leave large blind areas beside and behind the rider, and a mirror glance is faster and less intimidating than turning the head at speed. New riders also worry that a shoulder check will upset their balance.
What to do instead
Make mirror-then-shoulder-check a single linked action before every lane change, merge, and turn. Rehearse it at low speed in a parking lot until turning your head does not disturb your line, and keep the check brief so you still see the road ahead.
Riding in the door zone beside parked cars and treating a row of parked vehicles as harmless scenery rather than as a source of opening doors, pedestrians, and vehicles pulling out.
The lane looks clear and the parked cars seem stationary. Riders underestimate how often a driver opens a door without looking and how little time there is to react at city speed.
What to do instead
Keep at least a door's width from parked cars, or take the lane when the space is too narrow to leave that margin. Scan for occupied driver's seats, brake lights, and front wheels turning, and cover the brakes whenever you pass a line of parked vehicles.
Failing the pre-ride check and control demonstration because the rider never practises the walk-around inspection or slow-speed manoeuvres out loud before test day.
Candidates spend their preparation on road riding and assume basic control is automatic. Under test pressure, they forget to check tires, controls, and lights in a set order, and low-speed figures feel shaky on an unfamiliar bike.
What to do instead
Build a fixed pre-ride checklist (tires and pressures, brakes, throttle, clutch, lights, mirrors, chain or belt, fluids) and run it on your own bike every time you ride. Practise slow-speed turns, weaves, and a controlled stop in a lot until they are steady, and rehearse the checklist verbally so the order is automatic on test day.