Free M1 practice test 2026: 60 questions with answers

This sign faces you on a damp afternoon, just before a stretch of resurfaced road. What does it ask of a rider?

Correct answer: Slow down before you reach it, then keep the bike upright and your inputs gentle

A motorcycle loses grip at one of two small contact patches and has nothing to catch it when that happens. Slowing before the low grip section, then holding a steady throttle with the bike as upright as the road allows, keeps the demand on both tires low while the surface has little to give.

You are riding straight through on a green light. An oncoming driver is waiting to turn left across your path and is looking directly at you.

Correct answer: Slow, cover the brakes and keep a way out, because the driver may still turn across you

A motorcycle is a narrow shape with no width to judge, so drivers read it as further away and slower than it really is. A driver can look straight at you and still decide the gap belongs to them, which is why the answer is speed in hand and an escape path rather than trust in the look.

You are riding at road speed on an open road and need to change direction to the right for a bend. What actually turns the motorcycle?

Correct answer: A light forward press on the right handgrip, which leans the bike to the right

Above walking pace a motorcycle turns by leaning, and the fastest way to make it lean is to steer the front wheel very slightly the other way for an instant. Press the right grip and the bike falls into a right lean. Riders who never learn this find they cannot make the machine go where they want when a corner tightens.

You are riding behind a car at city speed on a dry road, sitting in the same part of the lane as the car ahead.

Correct answer: Leave more space than a car would, and offset your position so you can see past it

A bike does not usually stop shorter than a modern car, and the rider needs to read the surface as well as the traffic, which the vehicle ahead is hiding. More space gives you time to spot the pothole or the diesel spill, and an offset position gives you the view to spot it early.

You are riding a straight, dry city street in moderate traffic. Where in the lane should you normally sit?

Correct answer: In whichever part of the lane opens up your view and keeps you easiest to see, changing it as conditions change

A lane gives a rider three usable strips and none of them is right all the time. The one you want opens up your view, keeps you off the oily middle and puts you where the drivers who matter are already looking, so it moves with the traffic, the surface and the next corner.

You are parking on a hot afternoon at the edge of a car park where the asphalt is soft and the ground slopes slightly.

Correct answer: Point the bike so it cannot roll away, leave it in gear, and put something firm under the stand

A side stand is a small foot carrying a lot of weight, and it sinks into hot asphalt or soft ground until the bike goes over. Leaving it in gear stops it rolling off the stand, and choosing which way it points means gravity holds the machine in place rather than pushing it away.

It is a bright, clear morning with the sun high. What is your headlight doing for you in that light?

Correct answer: Giving drivers a bright point to notice, which is why a motorcycle runs it in daylight

The problem on a bike is not seeing, it is being seen, and a headlight turns a narrow shape that is hard to judge into something bright that catches a driver mid glance. It is not a promise that you have been seen, so ride as though you have not, but it stacks the odds your way.

A rider argues that one drink before setting off is fine, because riding takes less concentration than driving.

Correct answer: It is the wrong way round: a bike needs balance and fine control, which alcohol takes first

The first things alcohol takes are balance, the judgement of speed and the ability to do two things at once, which is most of what riding is. A car keeps rolling in a straight line while a slow driver catches up, and a motorcycle does not, so the margin a rider has is smaller rather than larger.

You passed the M1 knowledge test this week. Dinner across town runs late and you want to ride home after dark.

Correct answer: You cannot ride at night on an M1, and the same stage bars passengers and any alcohol

The M1 is a learning stage, and its conditions strip out the situations that catch new riders: darkness, a passenger changing the balance, alcohol, and the fastest provincial highways. Riding outside those conditions is riding without a valid licence, however well you ride otherwise.

You need to stop as quickly as you safely can, in a straight line, on dry pavement.

Correct answer: Squeeze the front brake progressively and add the rear, since weight moves forward as you slow

The moment you start slowing, weight shifts onto the front wheel, pressing that tire into the road while the rear goes light. Squeezing rather than grabbing gives the weight a moment to arrive, and that is what lets you use the front brake hard without locking it.