stuff that's not on the CBT that you wish had've been

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

One thing I kept muffing after the CBT was hill starts (the stalling thread reminded me of this). Round here it's so flat - but there's this one junction that's on a gradient, and it's a quiet lane pulling into a comparatively busy A road. I spied my chance, after an eternity of waiting - and....blup. Nothing. What made it dire was that there were two cars behind me. Inside my lid I was all , crimson pulsation unto death.

To make it worse when the next gap finally came I totally over-compensated and gave it a fair fistful of beans, de-clutched and flew out of the junction, and because my positioning hadn't been very good (I like to slant right slightly for a right turn), I arrowed out and nearly ran it up the opposite curb. Ugh. Rubbish.

Course, over the next few days I sorted it all out by doing loads of practising. Luckily for me there was a little hump back bridge along this tiny dead end lane, and I took full advantage.

So yeah - hill starts. If there're no junctions on gradients near you, and you've never really had to get to grips with 'em, they can easily catch you out in those first few days and weeks. What's more, I think a muffed hill start *could* (theoretically) land you in a dangerous situation. Needless to say it's something I wish had been on the CBT.
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Ja7]

Another thing is putting your bike on a centre stand, as there's a thread on here where a guy can't do it........
Just take your time you have l plates on so people should be aware that your a learner, I know this is easier said than done, just keep at it practise makes perfect.

[U_W v2.0]

trevor, i dont have any problems with hill starts, i just wack it in 1st, put on the rear brake, keep the revs and up slowly let you the clutch.

with the rear brake i literally have JUST enough presure to stop it rolling back and let the engine pull the bike forwards, once it has that forward motion i release the rear brake.

its funny, i had 3 practice sessions prior to my cbt and while waiting for the YBR to become free for my slot i asked if i could practice using the center stand.

might be worth a shot for the guy having issues going back to his cbt school and having them show him again.
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BCF's biggest cunt list: Cansa, Pits, Rob

[andy_uk]

[J.M.]

Guessing you're coming from driving cars where the clutch isn't so heavily used.

On a bike you need to slip the clutch to get going on a hill start. Too little revs and you'll stall. Too many revs and dropping the clutch with either see you stalling, 12 o clocking or flying off in to the distance depending on your bike's power/grip.

When stopping on a hill use the rear brake to stop the bike rolling backwards. Practise this:
- sit on the hill with the rear break on
- keeping the brake on, give it 2-3k rpm
- keeping the brake on, slowly let the clutch out until you can feel the bike slowly trying to pul, but the brake is stopping it
- keeping the brake on, pull the clutch back in

This point will be your baseline for the clutch. In order to get going from a hill start you'll want to hold the cluch in the position and give it those revs (maybe a bit more) and as you start to pick up speed you slowly let the clutch out.

The distance that you slip the clutch over varies greatly between a car and a bike.
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[Themightyimp]

I think the Teory test should be done before CBT.No Theory certificate no CBT.
I'm simply amazed by the ammount of people who have ridden 125's for ex ammount of years,yet still fail Theory when trying to pass their tests.
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1998 Yamaha FZS 600 Fazer
Now turned gay and got a cruiser.

[Ollie1995]

Hi, I passed my CBT on the 8th and the only things I struggled with was a hill start, I forgot I needed my brakes for this and rolled backwards down the hill and getting it on the stand. It was only a CG125 but whenever i almost got it on it's stand the bike rotated almost 90 degrees and left me looking a reet tit
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XR 125, DT125 LC, Greeves Scottish, RS200, XS400, GPX600r

Theory Passed - 18/7/13 MOD1 Booked - 24/9/13

[Ja7]

Sorry but would have loved to have seen that

[Dave70]

Yeah...I too found the hill start to be a bitch to get the hang of.

Used to either stall it, roll backwards or (and probably the most scary) pull a wheelie. Usually a combination of all three would happen until I cracked it.

In fact, on the way home from the supermarket, I used to take a 10 minute detour to avoid a particularly steep hill start from a stop junction. It turned a 10 min ride home into a 20 min one

Every now and then, if the roads were quiet, I'd give it a go until I mastered it.

Don't have any issue with them now, to the point that I don't even think aboutwhat I'm doing. It soon becomes second nature.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[Matt B]

[ScaredyCat]

[Pigeon]

[socringe]

I like to think that we are humans and we learn from our own experiences. you don't have to be spoon fed all the time...

I did a cbt on a 50cc twist and go with no experience of anything not even a push bike on the roads, then straight into 6 day a week 6 hour delivery shifts on a c90 type scooter and no problems really.

[Pigeon]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Picking the bike up - that's a good 'un. The technique where you back your arse into the seat, and do it backwards as it were.
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[U_W v2.0]

[Matt B]

[yaigi]

Putting bike on centre stand was on my CBT, I couldn't get it right first couple of goes but then the instructor said it was all about technique and placement rather than strength and the third time I got it. After that with my own YBR it was easy peasy... but then I got a Fazer last week and now it feels like I'm back to square one - there's definitely some strength involved now! My boyfriend stood and laughed as I tried with all my might, determined little face, he told me to just stick it on the side stand and I was all like "Oooooohhh no, you'd love that wouldn't you....." and then I did it He sure knows how to push my buttons!

Hill starts were on my CBT too, maybe because you'd be hard pushed to find a route that didn't involve one round here, but yeah, it probably varies by school.

The guy who did my CBT said there was no such thing in his day - just decided he wanted a bike, so he bought one, 20 miles away from his house. Having never ridden a bike before in his life, he got the bus there, paid his money, got on the bike, realised he didn't know what to do, knocked on the guys door, got a quick lesson in how to change gear, and attempted the 20 mile death ride home. He did it. And he's never in 30 years had a crash
____________________
What would you do in life, if you knew you could not fail?
Currently own - Fazer 600, 2000, Red. (But no riding as baby on board atm)

[Ribenapigeon]

I think more time on road riding and less of the "this is the wheels this is the choke" talk.

As for hill starts, they never bother me, in fact as there's a little resistence it seemed to help me when I started riding. I actually find downhill starts fox me more as its easy to over power when pulling away as gravity is giving the bike a bit of a shove.

I couldnet pull the little CG on my CBT onto the centre stand at all. It was totally embarissing I'm 6'2" and 15 stone and even this little young woman could do it. I felt like a total tube :-/

[kernow24]

I don't think there's anything they could realistically teach you on the CBT that would
massively benefit you in real life.

There's no substitute for learning on the roads, and the CBT gives you to basic tools
to do so fairly safely.

You will lean more pottering around for a day than you would learn with extra training
on a CBT / test.

There's only so much an instructor can do to ensure you are fairly safe out on the roads
people have to take some personal responsibility, if they don't feel safe or need extra help
with something, then a couple of hours extra training won't cost much.

I'm sure that most who gain a CBT spend the next how ever long just riding around
aimlessly either to have 'fun' without necessarily realising they are picking up more and
more, or purposefully building on their 'skills'

There's only so much 'theory' you can do before you have to just get out and do it.

An instructor can say to do xxx in any given situation, but as we all know, what is taught and
what you actually do in day to day riding is completely different, and for that reason I
think the CBT is sufficient to give people a set of basic skills to go out in to the wild and
to build on.

Let's face it, you can't really compare the training for a car to a bike, a car has the potential
to do some serious damage to others and the possible 5 people in it. A bike on the other
hand has very little scope to do a similar amount of damage, and the training and the
level / amount of training to achieve this is greater.

Saying that I think a CBT should be spread over 2 days, the first day for the 'theory' and off
road stuff, then a whole day on the road, I'm sure many more would benefit from an extended
road ride.

I'd also like to see the CBT to cover filtering etc, although I'm sure a lot of the decent
schools touch on that and a lot of extras that don't have to be taught.
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[Ohmz27]

I was amazed when I learned you could ride a machine capable of doing ~65mph, everywhere apart from motorways, with nothing more than a CBT course completion certificate.

A theory test pass cert should be mandatory for people who ride with nothing but a CBT. Not saying schools should decline CBT bookings without a theory cert, but the CBT certificate should be invalid if you dont pass a theory test within 4 or 5 months after passing the CBT, unless you already have a theory pass of course.

But then again, if you reach a safe standard in riding a bike, & know/follow the highway code well enough, there's not much value in a theory test other than meeting the requirements for the full licence. And everything regarding staying safe and obeying road laws should be covered in the CBT. I'd imagine not a lot of people come out of a CBT with a broad knowledge of riding safely, but the potential is there, and the instructors have the power to not hand out CBT certificates to unsafe riders.

The only meaningful things that I learnt whilst practising for my theory test, were things that my instructor went through anyway.
____________________
Full UK Driving Test Pass - 6 / 12 / 2012
Car Insurance Quote Search - 7 / 12 / 2012
Completed CBT - 8 / 12 / 2012, Picking CBF 125 up on 22nd Dec =D

[Ribenapigeon]

If you don't think people learn anything useful on the CBT just look at some american utube vids of people showing off their new bike. No rear obs, no signals, weaving all over the lane, bad positioning at junctions etc etc. All stuff we get introduced to on CBT.

[Lord Percy]

For me I'd say the CBT needs more of the safety drilling into you, instead of just how to ride the bike. I had already learned to ride in India where it's generally a free-for-all and you learn by jumping in at the deep end. So for my CBT I could control the bike already. The safety part was just, "wear gloves, wear helmet, be safe, y'know, bla bla, let's go".

Hill starts didn't even enter my head until I had to do one for the first time on my mod2. Revved a fair bit more than normal, all was fine.

Hill start advice from me would be for you to get used to having your foot pressed on the back brake at EVERY stop out of habit, as it's safer anyway, so then the hill start is just like any other start, to some extent. Also, maybe consider that the hill start is kind of in the same category as slow control, just with so much pressure on the back brake that the bike isn't moving.

[Ohmz27]