I was allowed to take History O level - it was the only one I failed, mostly on account of having no interest in the aforementioned Chartists. There again, I hadn't wanted to do it in the first place, but I wasn't allowed to do Art (the only other choice in that option column) by virtue of demonstrating no discernable talent. Given how much art I've done since, in all sorts of media - some of it in exchange for quite reasonable money - I can only agree: education is wasted on the young. Wish I'd actually learned something when I'd had the chance, instead of having to teach myself later!

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

Welcome to my Guide to biking for Newbies, by a Newbie. This is an ongoing project of mine, which I will be adding to over time. If I have missed something from here which you think is important, keep checking into this thread to see if it gets covered, or PM me and I’ll add it to the ‘To Do’ List.

I’ll start at the beginning of my journey into two wheeled motorised transport!

Being a user of public transport for nearly 10 years I had always envied those people who skipped to the front of every queue, didn’t have to stop at every bus stop and was generally slightly quicker than the 10 tonne monstrosities that are busses. When I was at Senior School, I dreamed of being able to cruise into the playground on my Harley, pull all the girls and generally be Mr Cool. I always wondered why 16 year old run around on dodgy 2^nd hand 49cc scooters and not a babe magnet instead. When I looked into the facts behind biking at a young age I was horrified! Until you turn 17 you’re restricted to a measly 50 cc engine with a top speed of 50Km/h (around 32 mph) REF Link1. These scooters can easily cost you 500-600 pounds (there are cheaper ones available! Just have a good scout around) and probably cost the same to insure (as you’re a young, reckless teenager). On my meagre part time salary of 60 quid a month this was beyond my financial reach and so had to wait.

By the time I could afford to run a bike I had reached the grand old age of 20! With a full time job in a busy city centre office, unreliable public transport and sick of getting a lift of everybody I decided it was time to take my CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) and make myself mobile.

What You Need

-          A Valid provisional License (these can be obtained via an application form from the post office, or over the internet. The cost is £50, plus the cost of passport size photos (around £4). REF Link 2

-          Once you have this you can find a local Training Centre (Google is handy for this, or Yell.com) and ask them for a price. Mine cost £115 (on a Saturday). You will find that prices vary from area to area (down south costing slightly more) and it will be cheaper during the week.

-          Book a date!

Please note: When you apply for a provisional license, you are agreeing to the fact that you have read the latest version of the Highway Code. It is important to know what is in this book; it may well save your life and stop you breaking the law inadvertently.

On the Day

I can honestly say on the day I was bricking it. Having never driven anything other than a quad bike on holiday I had no clue how to work a gear box, when to change up and down etc. DON’T WORRY! It’s not actually all that bad.

Before you go to bed (early! You need plenty of sleep) make sure you pack your bag with:

-          Your provisional, the Photo Card and the Counter Part. This is very important!

-          A packed lunch, high in sugar and carbs. A soft drink will go down well too. You have a lot of information to soak up so you need your brain active

-          Moneys for the Training Centre if you have not already paid.

-          Your mobile phone (on silent of course) to let everyone know how you’re doing at lunch time and whether you passed or not at the end of it!

Don’t forget to take your bag with you. That would put a downer on the whole day. I very nearly did!

When you arrive, there will be a few bits of paperwork to sign, covering you for insurance, maybe loaning out the gear and bike etc.

Once this is out of the way the CBT will begin. The first part is all about classroom based learning. This covers the Do’s and Don’ts Biking, looking after your gear etc.

After this you will be taken outside to meet the bike you will be riding for the day. I had a Honda CG 125(REF Link 3). This part of the CBT covers basic maintenance, checking the amount of wear on the tyres, brake pads. Checking chain tension/condition, the amount of oil and brake fluid in the bike.

Once this is out of the way you will be shown how to work the controls of the bike. The clutch (left hand lever), the front brake (right hand lever), the rear brake (right foot pedal) and the gear lever (left foot).

Next you will be on the bike, turning the key, checking you’re in neutral, making sure all the lights are working then finally starting it up. I can guarantee you will stall more time than you can count in the first couple of hours, don’t worry, its part of the learning process. My Instructor said that every time I stall I will owe him £5. We worked it out to be near £100 within 2 hoursJ.

Next you will learn about pulling away (don’t worry you’re not on a road, the Training Centre will have a ‘Pad’ to work on). This involves putting the bike into 1^st gear (down one click from Neutral) then releasing the clutch slowly with a small amount of throttle. My Instructor said to think of the clutch as a flower slowly opening (I found this slightly disturbing for some reason).

Once this has been mastered along with stopping gently you move onto slow speed manoeuvres. This involves a little bit of throttle, feathering the clutch and use of the back brake. This gets you moving at a slow and controlled pace. You will be asked to navigate some cones like this.

Next is changing up and down gears while moving, this easier than everything above so no worries there.

Then you move onto emergency stops, left and right turns etc. There is a load to take in just a morning. Try to get as much as possible in your head. Don’t forget your lifesaver glances (checking your blind spot before any manoeuvre), MSM (Mirror Signal Manoeuvre) etc. This is all covered in the Highway Code if you want to have a read.

Link 1: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/WhatCanYouDriveAndYourObligations/DG_4022547

Link 2: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/NeedANewOrUpdatedLicence/DG_10012514

Link 3: http://www.ukbike.com/UserReviews.aspx?ID=-1463054

 

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But - £50 for a provisional? And over a ton for CBT? That's pretty salty, even before adding in the "stall box" ()! Hadn't realised just how much the prices had shot up. Plus theory and full test, no wonder it's off-putting for youngsters, especially when the reward is being stuck on a limited-bhp bike for the next two years.

Did you rent the gear or buy your own? It might be nice to include a recommended minimum (if there was one) from the training centre, or what you thought was appropriate for the day.

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

Endo -  I will add that into the copy I have, seeing as we don't have permission to edit our own posts I can't add it in on here.

The minimum gear was: a helmet that was ECE 22.05 approved, a thick jacket or motorcycle jacket, jeans (NOT TRACKSUITS, apparently if you crash they will melt to your skin. I wonder if any Scousers ride bikes?) and motorcycle gloves. Trainers were permitted. No flipflops or sandals.

If you brought your own bike you had to have valid insurance, tax and MOT. Not sure how you would get it there though seeing as your provisional isn't valid to ride a bike without the CBT cert. Had I have brough my own stuff it would have been £95 on the day rather than £115.

Yeah it is expensive, not as expensive a driving though! 1k worth of lessons anyone? Or approx 2 years worth of road experiance for £115?

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I just rang up to see how much it would be to take my Direct access, just out of curiosity for this thing i'm writing.

Depending on how good you are on two wheel it will be from £620 - £530 plus £80 test fee. That is 5 days training at the max price. But that is half my wage!

Might be a year or so before I attempt that!

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If you leave it a year or so, it might be best just to sit out the extra year and get the upgraded license for free! Depends how affordable/urgent the need for a bigger bike is.

I'm going to count myself fortunate, in this case, to be a bit older...it cost me something like £75 including lessons to pass my driving test and slightly less than that to get the bike license (didn't need lessons, just tooled around on a Honda 100 for several months). Back then, if you had a full driving license, you didn't need CBT to be allowed on the road, but you did have to have done it before taking the full test. That was kinda strange - having already spent years, on and off, on two wheels -  to end up in a school car-park riding around a few cones for the sake of the paperwork. You got a fifteen minute observed ride, as well, but because I was in with a load of genuine newbies that was on roads about 3% as dangerous as the ones I used to get to the test...

If they'd sort out the new "super test centres", I'd say today's regime makes more sense than the muddled part-legislation of the 80s and 90s. But possibly less sense than the straightforward rules before that: if you survived your first season on an Elsie, you took your test and that was that!

Probably. But less likely that they buy them first.

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

By now it should be around lunch time, time for a de-briefing (as my instructor called it) and some food. In the afternoon you will be taken out on the road!

So now you have eaten, pumped yourself full of caffeine (and possibly nicotine) your ready to get on the road. This is where it can go two ways. To bike, or not to bike.

Due to my lack of knowledge with gears and my nervous tendency to stamp on the gear lever to early, the instructor decided i should go out on a Scooter. He said “there is no shame in riding round on a hairdryer with go cart wheels”. Now I believe him. Passing your CBT on a scooter allows you to ride either a scooter or a geared 125 cc bike. My instructor advised me to pass on the hairdryer then when I get my bike, take my time learning the gears in a quiet area.

When your out on the road, the instructor is looking for the ability to perform all the things you learned in the Pad on the road with moving traffic around you. Also you need to show you have common sense and don’t get yourself nearly run over at any time. As long as you take your time, don’t panic and listen to the directions your given you will be fine. The instructor is specially trained to deal with people like you! All the trainers at the centre were very amiable, i suppose it has to go with the job. So on that theory your trainer will be a nice guy (or gal) too!

When you get back to the pad, you will get another De-briefing and hopefully issued your CBT Certificate.

CONGRATULATIONS!

If you didn’t pass,, some places offer another day of training at a discounted price! So try again!

Looking For a Bike

This is where the fun begins, the future looks bright, shiny and two wheeled. You smile whenever you hear a bike roar past and your palms get sweaty when you see one!

If you take any advice away from this guide, please let it be at least this. Don’t go buying a shiny new 125cc bike! It will cost you upwards of £2000. It will lose 25% of its value as soon as it leaves the dealership and new bikes don’t get on with newbies as they need running in gently at first. As a newbie to biking you will probably (for around 2-3 weeks):

-          Stall Regulary

-          Change down gears to fast when stopping (the decrease in speed is very sudden and can potentially throw you off!)

-          Not change down fast enough and end up trying to pull away in 3^rd.

You shiny new bike will not appreciate this! Have a look on ebay or local add sites for some bargain hacks. Bikes which are known to be reliable are:

-          Yamaha SR125 (the bike i have!)

-          Yamaha TW125 ( a nice mix of offroad and on road looks)

-          Yamaha YBR (Slightly pricier than the above)

-          Suzuki GZ Maruader (Lots of style!)

-          Honda CBR 125 (little sporty number)

-          Honda CG125 (The most renowned and used 125cc bike)

There are a plethora of other bikes and scooters from all sorts of different manufacturers but these are (in my mind) the best of the bunch. Other people will have other opinions, but they didn’t write this guide :-P

All the bikes mentioned above should be able to be purchased for under £1000, my bike cost be just under £600.

Insurance

SHOP AROUND! As a newbie, young rider with a provisional license your insurance will be hideously expensive. Try to get the best price possible. Don’t be tempted to put an excess of 900 quid just to get the price down slightly, as you will have to pay up to that amount if you ever crash!

Keeping the bike off the street when parked up will help keep the price down, as will investing in a Sold Secure lock. Don’t lie to them saying your bike has top of the range security etc......you will get found out if you make a claim. Plus it counts as fraud.

Road Tax

£15 -  not too shabby!

In order to get your vehicle taxed you need valid MOT and insurance.  Can be done online (REF Link 4) or by post. For the post option you need to head into the nearest post office to get the right forms.

Gear

Now you have Provisional license, a CBT certificate and a road legal bike...whats missing?

A Helmet! This is the only piece of protective apparel that is required by law. So in theory riding in undies is permitted providing your head is protected.

I would not recommend this at all. The minimum you should purchase before going out riding is:

-          An ECE R22.05 approved helmet. You can pick up a decent one for £60 plus.

-          A motorbike jacket with either some padding or armour where its required (Elbows and shoulders). These can cost from £60 - £200

-          Some gloves. Not necessarily bike gloves but they would be recommended. Even in blistering heat your hands can get chilly at 40mph. These can be bought for around £20.

-          Sturdy trainers at least, boots with a high ankle are preferable.

-          Jeans, or biking trousers. NO TRACKSUIT bottoms. My CBT instructor told me some horror stories of people have them melted to their skin. Not nice!

Please don’t go snooping on Ebay for the cheapest of cheap items to fit the above. This is your (and other road users)  life your protecting with these clothes/Items. Go to a reputable dealer in your local area. They will not sell poor quality mechandise as it will affect their reputation.

The place where I have bought all my gear from is J & S Accessories:

https://www.jsaccessories.co.uk/

They have quite a few stores around the country as well as an online store.

Link 4: http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/application?origin=vnav_bar.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=Apply+for+a+tax+disc+NOW

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