I set myself a goal a few years ago to learn something new every year. The list was based on things I had put off in my youth, things my mum never let me do, or things I just liked the idea of and never got around to doing.

Last year I took up snowboarding as a winter sport and as I used to be quite involved in the 80′s skateboard scene, I took to snowboarding with relative ease, and most impressively, I mastered the button lift in record time. I also taught my bruv how to snowboard and suss the holiday spoiler that is the button lift. My advice was ‘pretend a ninja is attacking you with a spear, catch it in your thighs and twist to the side, locking said spear’ – the button lift didn’t stand a chance!

This year I tackled my all-time most elusive thing on my ‘to do list’ – learning to ‘legally’ ride a motorbike. Most of my friends have passed, as have family members, but it’s something I’ve been putting off. One of my best friends, Naheem, told me he had passed last year, well we can’t have that kind of inbalance now can we.

Learning to ride a motorbike was reasonably straight forward, passing the test is something entirely different. I found my instructor by Googling motorbike lessons in Rochdale. Chris from LTL Rider in Rochdale proved to be a great instructor offering one on one tuition for beginners to advanced riders. He’s a bit like a drill instructor to start with, but he chilled out as as I get better.

The modern day motorbike test is no longer straight forward, and consists of lots of smaller tests, starting from really easy, going up to the 500cc test. It all starts with a CBT which I breezed through as this was mostly trundling around a car park. The exercises were as simple as putting the bike on and off the stands, riding in straight lines, doing some figure of eights, U-turns, braking and learning the correct sequence to turn left and right.

Previously, completing the CBT and a road test was all there was too gaining a motorbike license, now you have to complete the CBT, pass a motorbike theory test (even if you have a full driving licence), pass a module 1 test which are a series of first and second gear manoeuvres in a car park, and then you get to the big road test which is called the Module 2 test. You will appreciate that learning to ride a motorbike and passing all of these test takes some dedication, and with a business to run, it sometimes proved challenging.

The theory test was straight forward as I’d helped my wife pass her theory test earlier in the year. Again the module 1 test was reasonably straight forward as I had plenty of practice under Chris’s tuition. The exercises were manoeuvring your bike in to a parking space, a slow chicane followed by two figures of eights between markers. Then a sweeping right hand turn with an evasive manoeuvre through a speed trap and stop within a set space, followed by a U turn, then slow walking pace riding behind the examiner and then a another sweeping turn through a speed trap and then an emergency stop.

The module 2 test proved to be a bit more challenging. Although I had around 20 hours of riding under my belt around roads, national speed limits and general pottering around, I got a proper harsh examiner. The guy was a stone faced moody ***t, this wasn’t looking good for me.

I did better than I thought but my test was littered with minor errors which were the tell-tale sign that I was shitting myself – and I was. The test also has a new feature called independent rider where you are shown a diagram with a few directions which you must follow. I totally messed this up but thankfully you are not judged on navigation. FAIL.

Another lesson, another test and this time it all went much smoother. Great instructor who looked pleased to do his job, chilled out, and he was going to follow me in his car. RESULT!

It was a simple route, clear instructions and an easy run. I had much more national speed limit moments than anticipated, which was great fun. There were a couple of tricky lane and light changes, but I handled them with the correct sequences and got through the test. I had a good feeling as I tackled everything on the day, and felt confident that I had done everything correct. The examiner told me I’d… Passed… Yeah bwooaay – Get in!

I can now tick this off my list of ‘things I can do’ . My worry was not that I wouldn’t pass ‘eventually’ – but that I wouldn’t do it this year hence kind of missing my goal, so the pass was extra sweet. Another personal goal smashed and something I really wanted to learn since I was a kid. The ride home via motorways for the first time was awesome but very tiring, as your battling a relentless barrage of changing wind directions.

Next year I have skiing to contend with but that’s more of an evolution of Snowboarding. As a proper  new hobby for 2011 I fancy trying my hand at archery, my pal Jay in Liverpooool is pretty good with a Longbow, so will be taking some advice. Robin Hood, Rambo, Elves and martial arts movies must have had some influence, plus the modern bows look savage. But first, I need to get myself a motorbike – I fancy a Honda CBR600 RR – looks the biz.