Hi

[Ribenapigeon]

Im getting a bike (Yamaha WR125X) and then going to get the CBT. The process of getting a licence doudent worry me except for the Hazard awareness wich looks to me like a bad ideo game and easy to fail just because of its bad design. Any tips on how to pass it?

Im also crappin myself about my first day on a bike. My bike is getting delevered to the training school to do my CBT on, then after the CBT im on my own. My fear is I will be fine for half an hour after getting the CBT, then the next day I will go out and mess it up.

[P.addy]

Its a bad idea doing it on your own bike.

Hazard perception test is simple, get some practice ones sorted and then just go for it.

Good luck with the CBT

[Speed]

[Ribenapigeon]

The training school is a big well established one I think I wil ask to do my initial rides on their bike. An aantage of haing my new bike delivered to them though is I get an experienced rider to give the new bike the once over to see its been sorted by the dealer properly.

The really daft thing (realy really daft!!) is im afraid my neighbours will be having a laugh at me when i go tottering down the drive hahaa

The hazard test really does get my hackles up it looks like a way for the DSA to make money out of people having to repeat it because the stupid computer doudent register properly the hazards you identify. Thats just my conspiracy theory though.

Ive been driving fro 27 years so the theory dousent bother me at all. I bought a copy of the highway code and a theory test handbook and have no problems answering questions in those books.

[kerr]

Id stronghly advise against using your own bike, as said above there is a high chance of you dropping it.
Also you might not get the certificate on the first day, and tbh you might not be ready to ride it home unsupervised after your cbt, depending on how far away you live from the school, i myself needed a bit of practise in roads i knew after my cbt.
Spend the extra ££ and use the school bike
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aprilia 125 Af1 Futura >> Suzuki gsxr 600 srad >> J1 zx6r >> cbr 600rr >> Speed Triple

[kerr]

PS : you dont do the hazard perception test on your cbt.
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aprilia 125 Af1 Futura >> Suzuki gsxr 600 srad >> J1 zx6r >> cbr 600rr >> Speed Triple

[P.addy]

Don't worry about other people and how they look at you riding down your drive with big L plates on.

Never bothered me, if I borrow someones L plated bike for a day I notice how you get bossed around on the road, just own it!

[Ribenapigeon]

I mention the hazard awarness test in relation to the whole process of getting a licence.

I know I will probably drop my bike at some point so I'm sort of resigned to it. The bike I'm getting is a Yamaha WR 125X and seems well designed for taking a few knocks. Its well protected with small panels that are cheaply replaced so I don't envisage it being any more roughed up than any other 125 when I go to sell it on.

[Rogerborg]

I can't see any upside to doing the CBT on your own bike and you'll be gutted if you stack it. There's also the (remote but not impossible) issue that your insurer may try to get shirty if you run over some kittens before you've validated your provisional entitlement.

Get a theory DVD from a supermarket, and treat the hazard perception as a game. The goal isn't to spot and react to the hazard as quickly as possible, it's to figure out where the goon that scored it decided that Joe Learner should see it. It'll aggravate you no end, but you'll quickly figure out where the scoring zones are.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Taught2BCauti...]

[andy-b]

I did my CBT last Monday and have the theory test on Wednesday.
I have the dvd and am still confused as to what they decide is and isn't a hazard.

So far I have passed every mock test so fingers crossed for Wednesday.

As the others have said, use their bike for the cbt.

I am going down the DAS route as I did 125's 24 years ago and now I'm too fat and old to go back there.


Andy
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CBT passed 13/02/12 Theory passed 22/02/12 Mod 1 Passed 28/05/12 Mod 2 Passed 29/06/12
Current bike 59 plate Keeway Speed 125 Now sold - 1989 FZR 1000R EXUP - 1996 SLR 650 and 2003 ZX9R

[kerr]

[Ribenapigeon]

Well the juries verdict seems pretty clear, I think I will use the bike schools machine for my CBT then maybe have a couple of lessons after that on my own bike.

[Teflon-Mike]

Hello, welcome, and enjoy.

CBT is Compulsary Basic Training.

Forget you can drive a car. Forget you are a long standing motorised road user. You are a NEWBIE... approach with an open and inquiring mind, devoid of pre-conseptions or presumptions, and you are likely to get an awful lot out of it, and it is likely to answer ALL the silly little things you are worrying about here and now.

Pretend you are 17 again, and enjoy.

Same advice for the Hazard test. Its a video game designed by and for know nothing teenagers... stick learner head on, and treat it as a video game, and dont try and rely on 'experience'.

As a more mature new rider, you will probably lack the over exuberance and nieve optimism and sense of immortality enjoyed by the typical teen-ager, and will undoubtedly 'over think' everything.

STOP THINKING - START RIDING

Teenagers dont give it a second thought; nor should you; just get on and do, and be a teenager again for a day.

ONE word of warning.... as a long standing car driver, you WILL 'default' to what you do in a car.... this can be unhelpful... typically you will forget to cancel indicators or do rear observations by moving your head.

But the most embaressing one on CBT.... you will do all the excersizes on the playground, fine. Its all new, its all like you expect, there is nothing familiar about it; its like any other 'new' thing you have done in the last twenty years from a works team-building course to taking hang-gliding lessons!

But after lunch, you will ride OFF the playground on to REAL roads, and be back in a familiar enviroment.....

When you reach that first T-Junction, at the end of the road outside the training centre.....

REMEMBER TO PUT YOU FEET DOWN!

I have actually witnessed it with a couple of students; existing car drivers; soon as they are on 'real' streets, they default and are driving the car, and at that junction, they 'fumble'.... and daftest is just sitting there like they would in the car, not put their feet down and fall over.... though I have had students stop, and instinctively reach for the hand-brake or gear-lever, letting go of the ruddy clutch, or looking around for where the rear view mirror ought to be, or any other of such 'habbits'....

So soon as you are on the real road... just have a look around you, and take note of the front wheel you can see beneath you and the tarmac rushing under it.... a glance will do.... but serves to remind you you ENT in the car, AND you are THAT much closer to whats going on around you, and there's nothing between it and you!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Ribenapigeon]

Thanks Teflon Mike really helpful points. I'm already looking on the CBT as being like a work training day. In fact that's not far off the mark as I work for a charity and spend most days traveling around the city by bus but a bike will change that

[Taught2BCauti...]

I bought my bike a few days before my first CBT, so had no choice but to use the school's bike, as I couldn't legally ride my own to the CBT site. I suppose I could have had it delivered there, but I would have been stuffed if I didn't get through and couldn't ride it home.

There was another bloke in the same position as me, and another who didn't have his own bike yet, and the Instructor suggested that as soon as possible, we practice the same exercises that we did on the CBT on our own bikes, and practice on the road in similar conditions to what we had just done - before deciding whether to book lessons or not.

I'm sure he was hoping we would all come back and book lessons, but he said he would rather spend his time (and our money) with people that had built-up a bit of confidence and experience.

I see what he was getting at - I wouldn't be pleased if the whole group was being held back by some duffer who couldn't bother to teach himself the basics - and if I turned out to be the duffer, I guess I wouldn't be too popular on the day

Lessons on a bike are going to feel a lot different to lessons in a car - your instructor is going to be some distance away and having a one-way conversation with the whole group (you can't talk back or ask questions over the radio) so I think that's going to require a bit more confidence than sitting next to an instructor in a dual-control car!
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Honda Varadero XL125(V8)
www.TheFutureIsHere.eu

[Ribenapigeon]

I'm looking at the CBT rather as if I've been sent on a work training day. Just get on with it sort of thing.

[harscot]

Hi bud, I'll only say pay heed to all the above comments, there's some very good advice from very knowlegable people up there, good luck
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First bike R reg Suzuki 125 GT twin in 1978:
2nd bike X reg Honda 650 Deauville in 2011:
Wish bike a Triumph Thunderbird: Dream bike Triumph Rocket........