The Dubai Motorcycle Road Test, Point by Point (I Filmed the Real Route) — Part 3

I have been riding since before my instructor was born — four years of it, daily, back in the ’90s. And on the morning of my RTA road test, I was shaking. Not because the test is hard, but because I stood in the queue and watched rider after rider come back having failed; one was sent back at the first roundabout inside a minute. So I went back, filmed the entire Academic City route on two cameras, and narrated exactly what should be going through your head at every point. This is Part 3 — the finale.

How the Road Stage Works

Pass the yard test and you move to road classes: for us, 10 hours — six at night and four in the day, because the test can be either. The gift is that you train on the same route you’re tested on. So if you learn the loop, there are no surprises — only the same handful of decisions, repeated.

The 6 Golden Rules

The whole route comes down to six things the examiner is really watching:

1. Head-check before every move — turn your whole head; if they don’t see it, you didn’t do it.
2. Indicator on before, off after — every time.
3. Never lean the bike on a lane change — keep it upright and deliberate.
4. Hold the speed limit — they mark you for going under as well as over.
5. Every stop: left foot down, first gear — at the stop sign, the signal, and the finish.
6. Check every roundabout entry — left going in, all entrances, indicate on the way out.

Master those and the route is just choreography. In the video I walk the whole loop — start, pedestrian crossing, stop sign, two roundabouts, the high-speed merge, the signal U-turn, and back to the same parking spot — with the rule called out at each point.

Internal Test, Then the Real One

Before the final exam there’s an internal test — your own instructor playing examiner, a simple go or no-go. My daughter and I both passed ours, and that’s what makes you eligible to register for the final RTA road test: live traffic, usually two riders at a time, the examiner behind you calling directions. Fail it and it’s around AED 550 to redo classes and rebook — so you want this one in a single go.

The Result

I passed. First attempt — redemption after the yard-test disaster of Part 2. And my daughter passed first attempt too. I had four years of riding and three decades of stubbornness; she’d barely touched a bicycle — and she earned her UAE motorcycle licence at 17, first try. We both failed the yard test and came back; we both nailed the road test the first time. I may have tied her on paper, but let’s be honest about whose story this really is.

That’s the series. New to all this? Start with Part 1 (preparation and gear), then Part 2 (the yard test). The UAE Rider Guide has licences, gear shops and clubs in one place.

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