Advice required

[Tank63]

My first post to this group.

I passed my CBT 16 yrs ago but never got around to getting myself a bike. Now I’m 55 and want a bike, finally having funds to get one. Question is do I go for a 250 or a bigger bike. I’m 6ft and 21stone fat git. Looking for advice.

[Itchy]

You might as well get your full motorcycle licence.

As the choice for 250cc motorcycles is fairly limited.

Off my head I can only think of a few:

CB250
CBF250
XT225
GT250

While a full motorbike licence gives you a much bigger choice. Plus if you find your 1000cc or 600 or 500 cc bike too much nothing stops you from going down to a 250 or a 300cc motorbike.

While if you just have the light motorbike category you have to take a whole extra test to get be allowed to ride anything above this category.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[pepperami]

Get a bigger bike fatty!

Seriously, after doing your tests and finally passing, a 250 is gonna struggle.
I’m over 6’ and weigh 17&1/2 stone, I love my 250’s , I have three.
However I am under no illusion that my size is an issue for a 250.

Whatever you do, make sure you get back into bikes
Good luck with your tests.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[Evil Hans]

[Ste]

Get your full license.

Once you've done DAS then you'll have some experience of riding probably 500cc bikes, you'll know what you did and didn't like about the bike and from there BCF will be able to suggest what bikes to consider.

[waffles]

Book DAS, get a full licence then you can ride whatever sized bike you want to rather than limiting yourself to a 125 that you could ride on a CBT.

You will need to do four things (presuming you have a bike provisional entitlement on your licence already). Your CBT training, theory test and hazard perception, Mod 1 and Mod 2.
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Theory test - 19/8/09, CBT - 11/10/09, MOD 1 - 16/8/10, MOD 2 - 27/10/10
Past rides Yamaha XT125X, Triumph TT600, Honda XR250
Current rides Suzuki GSXR 600, Honda MSX125

[Teflon-Mike]

Well CBT is only valid for two years, so lets forget that you did one over a decade and a half ago.. you'll need a new one to ride anything.

Next CBT is the first lesson, 'Compulsary-Basic-Training.... it validates your provisional entitlement, it is NOT a licence... lets you ride a 125 on L's....

If 55, you would have been, err.. mental maths... born, 1963?... you might just have eeked a 250 on L's when you were a teenager... for a few months... but Learner-Laws haven't let any-one ride a 250 on L's since 1982!!! And you SHOULD know this!

This probably makes the 250 question rather redundant... but, get licence, get whatever bike you like.

A little bike is no safer than a bigger one just cos it has a smaller fire hole in its engine. Myioic idiots in cars dont look full stop... let alone look and think "ah? Look at dee cutesey liddue moty-bike! I better let him grow up before I kill him." Like a hunter looking down the barel of a shot-gun at a baby rabbit!

And 125's can go as fast as any other vehicle is legally allowed to go in this country; kerb stones, trees and Mac trucks are just as hard, you just cant be quite as stupid so fast as on a bigger bike that might go faster.... but, you can still be very very stoooopid on one! (I know I am!)

The danger is the padlock in the saddle, not the bike... you choose daft bike to ride daftly, you gonna do daft stuff; you buy sensible bike to ride sensibly... you probably wont be so daft.....

And now whole gambit is wide open; and cc STILL means bugger all except to a few ego's....

There are 1200cc+ cruisers out there that make as little peak power as a typical commuter twin half the cc. The style, the charecter, and the nature of the machine are what makes one more of less suitable to any particular purpose; and even weight isn't significantly influenced, let alone proportional to cc.... most stuff tends to weight around 400lb these days; and there's 125's that pork that heavy, and liter bikes that ballerina in lighter.

Tell learners the same thing time after time..... The BIKE is the last thing on the list you need worry about; the LICENCE really is the first.

Sort that; and if you have been say in a box for the last thirty plus years, done presume you know anything particularly 'useful' about riding bikes, they is NOT cars; and whatever transferable skills you take to lessons, you will take as many errant misconceptions..... so start with lessons, and a completely open mind, and go get a licence....

THEN, a bit more clues up, what bike might be a more pertinent question, and you will probably be able to answer it for yourself.... 'cos we cant!
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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?'

[ThatDippyTwat]

Tef - If if I get my mate to let you hold a clipboard while he does CBT's, will you STFU for a while and not Tef newbies straight away? You'll have to promise to hand the clipboard back before you have a happywank about it though.
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'98 VFR800 (touring) - '12 VFR800 Crosrunner (Commuting) - '01 KDX220 (Big Green Antisocial Machine)

[Johnnythefox]

My mate was 22 stone until he lost 7 stone going to Slimming world, made his bike a lot faster.

[Tank63]

Thanks for all the advice

[Ilikemyspleen]

[turningCircle]