Learning in London

So I am totally new to this, but thought this a good place to start.

Having driven for 10 years, I'm now looking at doing my CBT and then DAS, but being in central London (Chelsea), I am a bit stuck for recommendations on places to learn which won't take me an enormous amount of time to reach. I have considered a variety of places, Metropolis Motorcycles in Vauxhall (well known and a big operation, but pricy and seem to have mixed reviews), Off The Kerb MCT in White City and I have just found a place called Fusion Motorcycle Training in Battersea.

What I would like to know is if anybody has any recommendations, things to look out for etc, as once I have started with a school, I would rather complete the whole process, as opposed to changing part way through!?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

p.s. Theory booked for this Saturday, so fingers crossed.

I'm in a similar situation to you.

The best thing I have found to do, is request an assessment ride/lesson. This is usually free and can give you an idea of how much effort/funds will be required for you to pass and to also see if you feel comfortable learning under that instructor.

Have booked a CBT at Metropolis, but may change to another school that does midweek training for DAS.

On the plus side, passed my Theory today, so one less thing to think about

If you guys can let me know how much your lessons etc are please I'd be very interested. Just looking for somewhere reasonably priced with nice instructors.

My theory certificate runs out in October (failed Mod 1 early last yr) and I'd like to do Mod 1 & 2 before it expires, but ideally need a lesson or 2 and to use a 600cc bike for the test.

Sutton Motorcycle Training wanted £140 for a 1hour lesson before Mod 1 and to use their bike for the 10min test (the same cost me £40 in Cambridge!)! My lovely car driving instructor wants £60 for a 1 hour lesson before and to use his car for the 45min test !! God knows why 1 hour training + Mod 1 is that expensive...

And when I asked SMT about a couple of lessons just to get used to the bike I'd be doing the test on etc (I've been riding over 3 years and had about 5 lessons, don't need much training) they came up with some £500 training programme . Not really bothered looking into it since.

I go to Metropolis every now and again, got bike MOT'd there last year...I don't mind traveling for the right place...I would guess they would be costly though.

Have booked a CBT at Metropolis, but may change to another school that does midweek training for DAS.

On the plus side, passed my Theory today, so one less thing to think about

Also, congratmoolations!!!

If you guys can let me know how much your lessons etc are please I'd be very interested. Just looking for somewhere reasonably priced with nice instructors.

My theory certificate runs out in October (failed Mod 1 early last yr) and I'd like to do Mod 1 & 2 before it expires, but ideally need a lesson or 2 and to use a 600cc bike for the test.

Sutton Motorcycle Training wanted £140 for a 1hour lesson before Mod 1 and to use their bike for the 10min test (the same cost me £40 in Cambridge!)! My lovely car driving instructor wants £60 for a 1 hour lesson before and to use his car for the 45min test !! God knows why 1 hour training + Mod 1 is that expensive...

And when I asked SMT about a couple of lessons just to get used to the bike I'd be doing the test on etc (I've been riding over 3 years and had about 5 lessons, don't need much training) they came up with some £500 training programme . Not really bothered looking into it since.

I go to Metropolis every now and again, got bike MOT'd there last year...I don't mind traveling for the right place...I would guess they would be costly though.

My CBT was £85, Theory Test was £25, my current instructor is £20 per-hour and another guy is £25 per-hour but only books on two hour slots. He also offers a nice, flexible "Unlimited" package for £645. This includes unlimited lessons and test booking fees until you have passed. If at the end of it, you didn't get your money's worth of £645, he will offer advanced bike training lessons free of charge.

The two Motorcycle Training companies I am speaking of are; Ride Now in Eastbourne, and 1066 Motorcyle Training in Bexhill.

If you guys can let me know how much your lessons etc are please I'd be very interested. Just looking for somewhere reasonably priced with nice instructors.

My theory certificate runs out in October (failed Mod 1 early last yr) and I'd like to do Mod 1 & 2 before it expires, but ideally need a lesson or 2 and to use a 600cc bike for the test.

Sutton Motorcycle Training wanted £140 for a 1hour lesson before Mod 1 and to use their bike for the 10min test (the same cost me £40 in Cambridge!)! My lovely car driving instructor wants £60 for a 1 hour lesson before and to use his car for the 45min test !! God knows why 1 hour training + Mod 1 is that expensive...

And when I asked SMT about a couple of lessons just to get used to the bike I'd be doing the test on etc (I've been riding over 3 years and had about 5 lessons, don't need much training) they came up with some £500 training programme . Not really bothered looking into it since.

I go to Metropolis every now and again, got bike MOT'd there last year...I don't mind traveling for the right place...I would guess they would be costly though.

I spoke with the guy at Fusion in Battersea and he said their CBT course works out at about £160 per day for a six day course with exam fee on top. I have also been told elsewhere that the going rate for daily stuff is around £140-£160. I guess being Central London that prices are never going to be low.

I tried Fusion for my CBT last year, and while my experience may not be representative all I can say about it is that it was awful.

The instructor made us all go on scooters despite me saying I wanted to do it on a geared bike. The training area was tiny, the geared bike he showed us was really badly maintained (he actually said "my boss is a **** and doesn't look after the bikes" ) and the road ride was only about 30 minutes long.

The instructor I had was far too interested in chain smoking and looking cool and openly took the piss out of people when they got things wrong too which was awful.

Honestly, it almost completely turned me off getting my license as it was such an awful day. Luckily I tried again (Camrider in Hendon) and loved it, so just chalked the Fusion debacle up to experience.

So after having a pretty appalling experience with Fusion, I have to agree with the above post. Very bad training area, where you crawl around in first gear and can't get to second, chain smoking instructor wanting to look cool and pushing to do CBT on a scooter rather than a geared bike... I think I know what I want to take it on and a general poor attitude, I would never ever recommend anyone to use them.

However...after my bad experience I did some more digging and found Phoenix Motorcycle Training, wow what a difference these guys were, extremely professional while still having fun and a laugh when mistakes were made off the road, but a good level of constructive advise when riding on road.

As Phoenix is a franchise system, they share information and can access your details no matter where you trained before. They have a variety of locations in the UK. I used Footscray for CBT, which has an excellent off road training area that will give anybody with nerves plenty of space to potter about in, and Ewell for DAS Mod1/2, these were purely chosen due to distance.

Mod1 gave us the opportunity to actually go to the test centre and practice on the test pad, not something I had seen any other company offer. This certainly boosted confidence and allowed you to have practiced on the exact surface, cone layout...so come test day everything should be a breeze. Mod2, you get to do lots of practice around the test centre you will be taking the Mod2 exam, so you have an idea about perculiar junctions etc you may encounter. I happily passed my Mod1 one on the second attempt with no minors, after kicking a cone on avoidance the first time, and passed my Mod2, with only two minors for stalling, on first attempt.

I cannot recommend Phoenix Motorcycle Traing enough and would highly recommend them to anyone looking at doing any level of bike training, I will certainly go back to do some further training. Ben at Footscray and Stuart and Robin at Ewell were fantastic help!

I'll echo that. I did the zero to hero thing (cbt day one, das day two) with robin and Stuart in Ewell. Robin is meticulous in all aspects, the bikes are well cared for, the kit is and so are you. Both Robin and Stuart were great at adapting their teaching style to the level you were at, interesting to see how they can herd two types of rider down the road seemlessly. As an aside we bumped into a fusion ride on the road, the instructed was sloppy to say the least, a real contrast to Robin who had everything sorted