Is your view that you shouldn’t do it as he suggested, because it’s DSA or because a different way is better ? ....
So to answer your question ....
Firstly, I hear what Mellors says above, and I have no doubt that the basic bike test has come on a long way from certainly what I remember (used to be a DSA instructor many many moons ago). My view, and whilst I can't speak for the likes of Mike O, Micky or any of the other Job / ex Job / instructor / IAM examiner folks ... I'm sure they'd agree with me that ....
There's GCSE's, theres A levels, theres uni degrees, and there's PHD's...etc. Whilst the basic bike test probably has come on leaps and bounds, they (DSA) are still required (and rightly so) to be a little bit black and white and a little bit Janet and John with certain aspects of bike riding. Positioning? Lane discipline? indicating? straight lining roundabouts? overtaking ? You name it, the DSA, and a DSA examiner will have a view on it.
And that
is right. If I had a 17 year old son who was doing his bike test, I
would want him to be taught the basic foundation stones of a DSA standard, even if that is a little bit Janet and John for now. I would expect him to be taught for example, lane discipline at a roundabout. I would not expect him to be to be straight lining it and missing the centre island by an inch! I wouldn't expect (or want) him a few weeks into a life on two wheels to be straight lining a country lane, borrowing a little bit of the offside to iron out that kink, overtaking a car and then using the offside that he's found himself in to his advantage as he now approaches that left hand bend ... Yet ....
A little knowledge two weeks in is a dangerous thing ...
But there comes a time to move on from GCSE's and to start your A levels, your uni degrees ... Life here in the world of driver training is a bit more grown up, and yes ... to answer your question, it is a 'better way'.
Sometimes on the Rapid days, I'll follow a motorcyclist into a roundabout. It's empty - nothing on it, nothing anywhere near it, nothing behind us. We slow, we have a life saver behind us, we have three looks into the empty junction to our right (that we would potentially give way to), we go all the way round the outside, have another couple of life savers, indicate to nobody that we're leaving, stick another life saver in for good measure and then carry on down the road. It's painful !! (and the irony is that the rider thinks he's being very safe and very 'advanced').
Is there a better way than that? Yep .... a PHD way. It's relaxed, its get on with it, it's mirrors every six or seven seconds, it's knowing theres nothing behind me, it's looking into that roundabout from 200 metres away, it's systematic use of positioning, brakes and gears on the approach, it's confirming there's nothing in that right hand junction to give way to, it's over the roundabout in a dead straight line (quick mirror check confirming everything we know as we exit) and it's picking up on that vanishing point in half a mile, and setting ourselves up for a position for that bend ... now .... as we briskly accelerate up the gear box towards it ... (KTM 1290 just wafting the front wheel as we go ....
).
My daughters have both relatively recently past their test. My eldest did it all by a driving school and when she passed told me "Hey Dad, I must be a really good driver - I only got two minors .. " She bought herself a little first timers car, and we went out. Fuck me !!!!! I tell you with no word of a lie that I was genuinely shocked at how bad her driving was!! her vision was .... well, it was the end of her bonnet ! She has sooooo much to learn. Planning? Anticipation? Hazard awareness? Car control? Not a clue .... (And we haven't even touched on things like matching engine revs and smoothing out those down changes - we are light years away from that!)
So we've been out for a day, and we'll continue to go out every now and then and work on vision, planning, limit points, system, acceleration sense (she was constantly tapping her brakes - no sense of acceleration sense at all ... it had never even been mentioned to her ...), and all the things that take you from GCSE to uni, to PHD. (I doubt we'll ever get that far ...
).
Look at what people do to their bikes to make them quicker .. smoother. How many hundreds of pounds do people spend on exhausts, remaps, carbon bling ... all to make their bike perform better on the road. (I am guilty too !!).
Your biggest / safety / smoothness / performance gain?? Training. If you never take training ever, from the day you past your test, then you've probably just been compounding basic errors in your riding for the last twenty odd years. Your brain, your vision, your planning, your decision making .... that is the source of the biggest gains in driver improvement you can make. That, is where all those performance gains will be found, not a flipping £700 akraprovich exhaust !
I have no problem with the DSA way, I'm confident they've got it pretty much spot on, and every body has to start there. (and there are good instructors, and there are great instructors). But it really is just the start ...