125cc CBT help

sgxmodz wrote:

. Any recommendations?

Yamaha YBR125 is my top recommendation.
Neither the most inspiring or stylish, it's the accountant's choice, so what's more important to you cheap or looks & how much exta will you pay, or how much less performance or practicality or reliability will you tolerate for the sake of style?

But, putting the cart before the horse; a bike is actually the very last thing on the list of things you need; top of the 1st is getting your provisional driving licence, and doing a Compulsory Basic Training Course to validate its entitlement.

From that; CBT isn't a licence, its a lesson, and does not make you a safe competent qualified rider in one day... ight let you ride around unsupervised on L's for a couple of years until you have to do it over, but its a learner's permit, intent is to let you practice for the tests for the proper 'full licence'.

At 17 that will be an A1 125 only entitlement that doesn't let you ride anything more exiting than the 125 you can ride on L's, and many suggest is 'pointless'. But, its a full licence, like any othr, and it lets you dump the loose-plates, which will do more to make any bike look better, f you are bothered about style!

Lets you carry pillions, and use motorways, which may or ay not be so important to you, bu more usefully it starts the clock on the 2 year New Driver Act probation, where they can revoke your entitlements completely for half penalty points.. ditching the L's is also a good precaution against collectig them, when they can dole out a couple of clicks a time for each 'L' thats missing, broken or under sized.

Biggest boon, though is that you dont have to repeat CBT in two years time, and as the tests cost about the same as a repeat CBT, that can save you money, while if you wish to go on to higher licences for bigger bikes when you're old eough, you turn up for training or tests with a full licence that says you know the ropes and have passed the tests once, and you only have to do it over on a bigger bike; so you stand more chance of a 1st time pass and with less, and less costly training to do so.

Tests aren't particularly hard; you have to from the Theory Hazard test for a motorcycle; takes about 20 minutes and costs about £30 and its all simple highway code type questions, of which many are common sense, rest you learn by rote from the book or practice programs, like your five ties table, a seven year old aught be able to do it!

You have two practical tests to do, both on a bike you have to provide for the tests; conveniently for an A1 licence, the same 125 you can ride on L-Plates to and fro the test centre. Again, tests are not exactly demanding; Mod 1 is round the cones machine control a bit like first part of CBT. They expect you to show you can do such difficult things as put a bike on and off a stand.. when it in and out of a parking space, and make it go ad stop and left and right when you want it to! Mod 2, 'on road' costs about £75, and takes about 45min - hour; and ALL they ask you to do is get fro one side of town ond back again, on the bike, without killing any-one or making a recusance of yourself, or a ride much like you'd make every day to and from work or college.

So, IF you are safe enough after a week or two practising on your own on L's as their intent, to get to and from work or college every day.... you are good enough to pass the tests and do it on a full licence. If not, you probably shouldn't be on a motorbike at all!

There really is no excuse for 'planning' to pretend to be a learner for two years avoiding earning your road room taking the tests, riding on L's and CBT...

£121.50 at last tally, if you cant afford that, you cant afford a bike, basically; be a smart boy and factor it into your plans!

BAc to th list, then; you need to sort your provisional, which I thk is about /330 and some hassle gettig a photo signed by your doctor or teacher.

CBT course, which is usually around £125, and you need to have the provisional licence for before you turn up.

All else, including a bike to do it, can be provided by the school, BUT, you might like to have your ow Crash Helmet and gloves and you will ed some more 'sensible' outdoor wear, if not dedicated bike-wear for riding in.

Crash hat, budget around £100... you ca get'em cheapr buy you need to e able to buy on fit and comfort.

Gloves? About £30 or so up.

Most other bike wear may be improvised, but you are looking at around £50 up for boots, £50 up fo trousers, and £80 up for a jacket.

First, though I'd buy a water-proof over-suit... which start from about £20-30.

So, before 'bike' you eed to set asside around £200 or so for ike gear.

Then, whlst in the shop, bikes get icked; so before you buy one... good idea to get some locks against the folk who wont, and will just nick yours. Decent chain to tie it to lamp posts and the like, ted to start at maybe £30, you ought be looking at £50 up for ones more likel to be useful. Add a Disco-lock, for convenience and secondary security, another perhaps £20 and up.. but, still long before bike, there's another £50 - £100 or more.

OH-Kay.. getting close to being able to go look at motorbikes now.... but hold your horses.. INSURANCE....

You need as a minimum 3rd Party indemnity, so if you crash into some toff's bently, the insurance company pay for the damage to it... wont pay for anything you bend on your bike, but that's your look out.. But £rd Party cover is a legal requirement, and penalties for ot having it are a little draconia.. like they take your bike off you, your licence and any money you have left!!

Third Party Fire & Theft that covers the bike against being nicked can be useful given how oft they get nicked, but, they only give you the market value of the bike, if t's stolen, less what are called excess's; which for a yougster can be pretty high, so that it's likely they''ll never pay out more than you have paid, and even f they do, get another bike and they'll bump up the prices of the next policy you want to isunre that, to get it back pretty quick.

Insurance prices are calculated by voodoo.. they sort of give an accountant an acid tab ad stick on Sos of Anarch video, and let them imagine all the horror... (spending money!0 you could cause and let them think of a number! Prices vary hugely...

Ball park for a 17 year old on a 125 on L' though will be somewhere between £500 and £1000 depending on your post code, whether you can keep bike in a locked garage or have to leave it on the street, how many miles you estimate doing on it, and whether you declare using it for 'commuting' to get to ad from work or college every day.. if so, expect a price at the higher end of the field.

Also, effected by the bike you are thiking of buying, ad the more appealing the bike is to you, either on looks of presumed performance, the more you are going to pay for insurance.....

Unless you are loaded, the insurance is usually going to be the deciding factor over what you can have, not how much different bikes go for on gum-tree....

Also worth note; you are only 17 years old; you CANNOT legally take out a credit plan; so YOU, in your own name (othing stopping mum, dad benevolent idiot on your behalf!) taking out a credit plan to buy a bike on the mothly for you, or insure it for you on the monthly sceme... which again, worth otng is NOT a 'pay as you go' policy, its a years policy, paid for up front, with a credit agreement loaning the money to buy it at the beginning...

On-Line comparison and quote sites and even the broker i the shop, will often not be so diligent as to note this when you ask for a price, or even if you thik its pretty good and pay it! And its ot unheard of for 16 or 17 year olds to pay the deposit and thik they are sorted, until they get the documents come through the post askig for a copy of your licence etc, and then a ouple of weeks later when they have looked at all that crap, some-one has spotted the mistake, and they cancell the insurance! Which gets logged agaist you, and even though its thier mistake, makes getting insurance more difficult/expensive later... so be ware, and dont fall in the trap, and budget to pay your first years insurance premium, in full, up front...

IF you have anything left n the piggy bank... NOW... you might, after pondering wisdom of sticking £150 of it asside to get a propper licence.... start looking at e-bay and gum-tree ad the post cards in the papershop window.

At which point, again, remember you cant have credit in your name, options are likely limited; you can only buy a bike some-one actually has for sale; and what may be in the buyers guides or we could suggest or recommend might be utterly irrelevant.

Less than 1% of road transport s motorbikes... there is less than one of them around for every 99 cars you see. About 1/2 to 2/3rds are, usefully for you, sub 12cc Learner-Legals, but sales suggest that 1/2 to 2/3 of them are twist and go scooters not geared 'motorbikes'... so, choices are getting a bit slim... and you dont have the luxuary of choosig the 'perfect' bike by style and speed from the buyers guides and then just picking one up a Tesco's whe mummy does the groceries!

You will have to hunt outthe specialist bike shops; and go through all the small adds, in shop windows, o the net and i the free papers to find anythng useful, AND likely not to be in convenient walking distance of your doorstep...

You need to figure out some logistics of how far and wide you ca look for bikes, and how far and wide you can actually go to see one, and if its worth it, actually do a deal and try riding it home.

Sort that and at THAT poit, buyers guides and our recomendations are of even less relevence; Learner legal bikes suffer from usually being owned by know-not-a-lot learners, who thrash'em, trash'em and crash'em quite a lot.

What the pundits in the buyers guides might suggest about a brand new show-room example of a bike, ean fuck all, after just a few onths of real world use have take thier toll, ad the speed and reliability and looks can be completely ruined by owner abuse!

Which brings us back to the Yamaha YBR125, which is the 'sensible' choice of the accountant, that as far as models go, tends to ofer potentially most bike for least money, 'all in' insurance and maintenance an everything tallied, and generally one of the easiest 125' to live with, a known quantity in the data-bases and part supplier's catalogues, ad as such is the 'bench-mark' by whch to judge anything... after CONDITION as an actual real bike presents itself i the metal, when you can lay your sweaty mits on it with cold hard cash burning a hole in your pocket.

But as said at the top... its the LAST thing o the list and not one you need worry about just now, and when it comes to it... buyers guides and our opinions will mean squat,.. it will be down to what you can lay your hands on in the real world and what condition it is actually when you get there.. and YOUR common sense and discretion to make the choice to buy or not... your money, your call, pays your money and takes your chances like the rest of us!
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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?'