Jump to content

Complete Noob! Looking for advice when starting out


NE150N80
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi All!


Complete newbie to motorbikes. Have wanted to do my bike license and get a bike for years but not had the opportunity.


Long story short, COVID has now given me that opportunity. I’m 40years old and have been driving for 23years. However, I know NOTHING about motorbikes, so I have a lot of questions!


In the first instance I’m just looking to understand where to go to understand the basics - I’m googling, but there so much and it’s hard to understand whether I’m getting hitting reputable websites or not.


So, aside from this fine forum, are there any other information based sites where I can understand costs for training, clothing, different types of bikes etc.


Sorry if this is a silly question, but keen to get into this as soon as possible, so want to learn the basics from the right places/people.


Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello and welcome :thumb:


Which ever way you go you will need to do a CBT first, have a google for local training schools and speak to the instructors, it might be worthwhile to have an initial one to one session if you have never ridden before, once you have done your CBT you will know if going straight into doing DAS is the way forward or spending some time on a 125 and get in some experience before going for your full licence, but the first step is find an instructor :thumb:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Step 1 no one will disagree with Book CBT With local School £120

Make sure you have learner entitlement on your licence, I think you should.

Rules do change you may need to do a theory test first,

Worth using FB for recommendations for school,

Don't buy gear just do it, they supply gear.

If you need a second CBT don't worry, I was in your shoes and did it was not a bad thing I used different school which I found better.


Step 2 - Assuming you enjoyed your CBT

Here you get into Choices and options:

You will need bike gear from here on - Helmet, Gloves, Boots, jacket, trousers £250 to Thousands. Think £300 to £1000 ish..

Many choices here leather? textile? some say buy the best you can get, I advise buy good mid range when you know what you want you can buy more (warning bike clothing is lie women and shoes you always want more!) take advice make your decision.


A: Look to complete your licence - A 2 Part Test to get you full licence*

Cost is about £1000 Can be done in week or over many months.


B: Buy a 125cc Motorbike and start Riding - Then go back to Step A - when ready.

125 cc Bikes cost between £400 to thousands.

£400 - Cheap Chinese 2nd hand if you like maintenance and fault finding

£1200 - 2nd Hand - Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki -

£1200 - Brand New Chinese brand 125cc - A quick way to loose lots of money IMHO

Do your homework and buy what you think best.


DAS or 125? Depends what your aspirations are and location, I did 125 route then I live in an area surrounded by good 40 mph speed limit roads & not many steep hills, it was also good for learning to ride in towns and traffic it was light and forgiving (and did not accelerate too fast).

I enjoyed my time sold the bike for £100 less than a bought it for and gained allot of confidence. It also made me more aware of the type of bike I would like, I never thought I would be sports tourer type rider.

If you need to use the motorway or fast dual carriageways routinely, I would suggest DAS.


DAS* Full licence? yes there are different versions I think it will be universal to obtain full unrestricted licence unless age restricted as you can then ride anything in future. I never thought I would want more than a 600cc motorbike thought about smaller licence, hell I now have a 1200 as my favourite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm similar to you, always wanted to learn to ride but never got around to it, then my husband said he wanted to learn and I knew I could never be a pillion.


My cbt was about £90 I think with a local school, I bought my helmet, jacket, gloves and boots in advance (£130, £230, £40, £80) but that's just because I wasn't sure if the school would have stuff that would fit me. I then bought a 125 from a dealer (£1800) which was a good thing in the end as it needed loads of work which was covered by the warranty. I finally did my full licence after about 9 months of commuting on my 125. I took a few goes to get my mod 1 so that added up but third time was the charm and I found the mod 2 easy thankfully. I dare not think how much those tests cost 😂 but it was all worth it 😁

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much everyone!! This has been a great introduction this forum & community and I really appreciate the warm welcome and all the helpful advice!


Onesea and Magpie84 - that’s really helpful advice and great to hear from experiences similar to my own humble starts!


I’m sure I’ll have many more questions, but this has been great!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Step 1 no one will disagree with Book CBT With local School £120

Make sure you have learner entitlement on your licence, I think you should.

Rules do change you may need to do a theory test first,

Worth using FB for recommendations for school,

Don't buy gear just do it, they supply gear.

If you need a second CBT don't worry, I was in your shoes and did it was not a bad thing I used different school which I found better.


Step 2 - Assuming you enjoyed your CBT

Here you get into Choices and options:

You will need bike gear from here on - Helmet, Gloves, Boots, jacket, trousers £250 to Thousands. Think £300 to £1000 ish..

Many choices here leather? textile? some say buy the best you can get, I advise buy good mid range when you know what you want you can buy more (warning bike clothing is lie women and shoes you always want more!) take advice make your decision.


A: Look to complete your licence - A 2 Part Test to get you full licence*

Cost is about £1000 Can be done in week or over many months.


B: Buy a 125cc Motorbike and start Riding - Then go back to Step A - when ready.

125 cc Bikes cost between £400 to thousands.

£400 - Cheap Chinese 2nd hand if you like maintenance and fault finding

£1200 - 2nd Hand - Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki -

£1200 - Brand New Chinese brand 125cc - A quick way to loose lots of money IMHO

Do your homework and buy what you think best.


DAS or 125? Depends what your aspirations are and location, I did 125 route then I live in an area surrounded by good 40 mph speed limit roads & not many steep hills, it was also good for learning to ride in towns and traffic it was light and forgiving (and did not accelerate too fast).

I enjoyed my time sold the bike for £100 less than a bought it for and gained allot of confidence. It also made me more aware of the type of bike I would like, I never thought I would be sports tourer type rider.

If you need to use the motorway or fast dual carriageways routinely, I would suggest DAS.


DAS* Full licence? yes there are different versions I think it will be universal to obtain full unrestricted licence unless age restricted as you can then ride anything in future. I never thought I would want more than a 600cc motorbike thought about smaller licence, hell I now have a 1200 as my favourite.

 

What this guy said, except your das should cost a fair bit less than a grand all in, depending on which eateries your instructor stops at (not if you're lunching at The Ritz, for example). Mine took me to the most hellish greasy spoon, I shudder upon recallection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definitely to some research on training schools as there are good ones and bad ones ( plenty of stories here) . Look at Facebook reviews and Google reviews. You will probably pay more for a well respected decent school but that is money well spent. I did my CBT with a school through Groupon (£65) but you get what you pay for course was rushed through only took about 3 hours from start to finish only had about 30-40 mins road riding in that. I didn't really feel much more confident when I left than when I turned up having not been on a bike for 34 years ! When I got home and started watching trading videos it was evident how much they left out. Also when I look on Google the school had a few quite scathing reviews and when I went to book my DAS with a better training school they refused to accept my CBT certificate from my previous school as they knew how poor thier training was.


I have noticed that because if covid some training schools are requiring you to have your own gear and some (like the one near me) are offering quite good deals on new rider gear if you book a CBT with them, one I saw was helmet , jacket , gloves and trousers for £250.


Once you have done a CBT you will have a much better idea where you want to go with your biking . You may find that a 125 is enough for you if all you want is a little bimble round the country lanes every now and then.


Bikes - 125's. I'm not a hater of Chinese bikes but as stated earlier you have to really look after them to keep them in good condition where as a jap bike will be much more forgiving. I guess it all depends where you fall on maintenance. If you are someone who feels part of the fun of the biking experience is getting your hands dirty and working and cleaning the bike then a Chinese bike may not be a bad idea. If however you would find maintenance a pain and just really want to do the minimum and jump on and ride then go Jap. The other consideration is depreciation. A well looked after Jap bike will hold its value well. If you buy a decent one a few years old and look after it in a couple of years if you decide to go for a bigger bike you will loose hardly any money. If you go Chinese the second you sit in that bike you can forget about getting much of that money back. I guess it's down to you and what your financial considerations are.


Whatever you decide to do...be safe and have fun !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lots of great advice already. One thought, if you've ridden a pedal bike regularly you'll already have a good feel for handling two wheels. People often talk about things like counter steering which people used to riding pedal bikes know instinctively, but those coming straight to motorcycles often lack that experience.


There's still much to learn of course but there's a lot that carries over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All of this is superb advice!


I’ve heard that the biking community really is a great community and this forum definitely testament to that!


I’m in the Grantham area and the following school (Think Bike) seems to have lots of good reviews (they run out of a Kawasaki dealership that has a cafe there etc):


https://thinkbike.kawasaki-krts.co.uk/courses


They seem to have lots of options for courses especially for beginners. Would welcome any bodies thoughts on this.


Thank you all so much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've only ever dealt with a good bike school but can only believe it makes a difference, having read experiences from people who got a bad experience. I'm still in touch with them today.


Maintenance you pick up as you go along, don't worry about that. If you have Amazon Prime Witham's Workshop is free on Prime Video and covers most basics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Welcome to The Motorbike Forum.

    Sign in or register an account to join in.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Please Sign In or Sign Up