Any bikers recently done there driving lessons / test ??

[ben_wheely]

After my holiday i will be saving up to start driving lessons / getting a car ect. (keeping the bike of course tho )

So just thinking of a rough estimate.

I think the average person needs about 40 hours of lessons before the test ?

But people say to me it should be much less, as i have been riding / on the road for ~5 years.

So how many lessons/hours did it take you ? And how long had you been previously riding on the road ?

ta
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[Mr Hammers]

40 hours is about right if you're that mental woman off the tele, but otherwise it's way too many for someone that knows roads and signs and already has a bit of roadcraft and (I hope) some common sense.

I only had 3 lessons and passed first time as I already knew how to drive for a long time previously.

To be honest, taking lessons to learn how to drive is a mistake. That can be done with friends or family in a car park. Learning to pass the test is what you should use expensive lessons for.
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[yuri2085]

[angryjonny]

As a non-biker at the ripe ol' age of 17 it took me about 30 hours, with no previous road experience at all. Passed 1st time. I'd imagine it'll take you quite a bit less than that. It'll mostly be a case of learning to operate the machine, rather than use the roads.

[RussG]

If you can drive round a car park in your friends car and learn clutch control then thats half the battle done. All the manoeuvres are done at really low speed, and (like learning to ride a motorbike) once your moving forward, actually driving is easy. Best of luck to you learning though
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[DrDonnyBrago]

40 is what instructors tell people, realistically people do it in 20-30 hours of training. If you know someone who can help you what you can learn from them is very valuable, save the expensive lessons for learning to pass the test.


If you ride regularly, I can't see you having a huge issue. Cars are easier to drive than bikes, they don't fall over for a start .

[Pie-Roe]

I took 17 hours after riding for 3 months.

It was easy enough, passed first time no minors.

Pyro
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[MaybeGuy]

took me about 8-10 hours for a pass, but that was after 2 years of bikes.

Then again i was a tearaway child that learned to drive at 9 in a field, and was on the road after stealing my grans car at 14
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[Irezumi aka Reuben]

[ben_wheely]

Ok thanks for the replies.

I will try and practise with mates cars ect. I have driven before. I used to mess about in my ex's automatic corsa, which was seriously easy to drive. Dont fancy an automatic though

I guess the main thing ill be saving for then is my first car insurance premium !!
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Rides: '05 Yammy WR290-F

[DrDonnyBrago]

[P.addy]

[steppen22]

how hard is the test?
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[trevoriv]

I've struggled with the driving a bit even though I've been riding bikes for the last 6 or 7 years.

Done 40 hours and failed my first test. Doing another one soon, will have done a total of 50 hours. To be fair i've been able to drive since the 20-30 hour mark but i'm a bit of a perfectionist!
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[Paulington]

Took me 23 hours I think, at a total cost of £552 in lessons.

The test isn't hard if you know how to pass it of course, passing your test doesn't mean you're able to drive.

I had to take my test twice, the first time I had a clean sheet apart from one serious for clipping a kerb reversing around a corner. I apologised and re-did the manouvre safely and properly......

I still failed. .

But does that make me a worse driver than someone who gets 14 minors and still passes? Hm. .

Passed second time with 2 minors.
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CBT: 27/08/08. Theory: 04/09/09. Module 1: 16/09/09. Module 2: 01/10/09.

[trevoriv]

[KLR600]

I passed first time with 2 minors after a 20 hour intensive course a few months ago but I think I still would have passed with less hours than that easily. Been on bikes almost everyday for the last 6.5 years.
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[smegballs]

Been able to ride bikes since I was 14, now almost 20... Been on the road since 16.


Took 4 hours of lessons this spring and I'd say the following...

85% of my driving (normal road stuff) was absolutely fine, didn't do any manoovers so can't comment on that.

The remaining 15% or the time I was worrying more about controlling the damn car than the roadcraft and hence made some errors.

Got some gems from the driving instructor.... (apparently a biker... aren't they all )

"This car (Citroen C1) is a whole 1000 cc's, your bike (ZZR600) is only 600 cc so this car has a lot more power than what you're used to...."

or

"The cars injectors mainly run on unburnt fuel from the exhaust, it only tops up a tiny bit of fuel so the cars really good on petrol..."


made me chuckle inside

[Paulington]

[bikertomm]

I'm learning to drive now, blasted the theory 50 out of 50

But yeah, I would say the best way to learn if you have someone 21 or older that's been driving for at least 3 years.. and a car would be to insure that and go out and about =]

That way you can dial how to drive and feel confident. Then go onto lessons so you don't waste tons of money on lessons to start with. Insurance for me for 1 month is 95 quid, clio 1.4 sport - Thats hella cheap when 1 hour lessons are around 25.

For the test you gotta learn a load of stuff and the 'correct' way of doing things - This is what lessons are for, just try not to get into any bad habits when learning with parents or whatever... I tend to give it a bit of a blast on nice clear roads, still no where near as fun as a bike though.

Roll on practical! Good luck
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[L4Isoside]

i had about 17 lessons

passed with....3 or 4 minors, cant remember and was only in May.

Would like to do passplus but dont have the money nor do i want to have any more time with an instructor

EDIT: I passed bike test in November with no lessons at all. Got 9 minors.