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CBT - Experiences of other Members


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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi all,


I had a very interesting experience at a place outside of Glasgow.

First day, me never having been on a bike, a woman in the same position and a 16 year old doing moped.

We were told by 11:30am we would not be on the road, by then I had reached gear changes up and down.

The woman only reached this by about 4pm.

The woman fell and took some time inside to regroup.

The young boy was taken to do slow manoeuvres, meanwhile i was left standing watching.

We were then taken inside to cover the afternoon portion so the young boy was able to go out as there was only one instructor.

We skipped figure of eight, U turn etc and went straight to Highway Code. Then asked to stay off the training pad so the boy could do emergency stop.

I was never told why I could not progress.


At the time I had full intentions of doing DAS, but after that I started to shop around. I found a school in Glasgow that I had a much better experience with, even just talking to. So I took a lesson with them, re sat my CBT with the original place and it went fine.


Now, on my second day there were four of us.

Myself, another woman, a guy who’s CBT was due to run out and a motocross rider.

The guy renewing had to use his own bike and the motor cross guy on a moped without gears and was advised to not tell anyone and just use his geared bike.

Many things happened this day, my bike would jam open at 4K revs which is daunting for a new rider but I was told it shouldn’t have been an issue as my clutch control should have taken care of that which is a huge ask for a brand new rider.

The guy renewing and the woman were unable to complete the figure eight, kept puting their feet down.

The woman had over all issues with control, did not do well on the emergency stop either.

We all set off on the road, the woman dropped the bike twice well in motion but was told to carry on. The third time at a notorious junction at the Strathclyde park, if anyone knows this area it’s always extremely hectic.

She went down, smashed the bike and had to get pillion back to the centre.

I absolutely do not blame her, her man is a police officer and the instructor ex police so I believe he was trying to get her passed as a favour.

Which the sentiment may be nice, he should have not spared her feelings but been honest and kept her safe.

My mrs was due in for her CBT with them which we could not get a refund for and I had to be very clear to not do the road ride if she was not sure.


After we returned from the road ride, the other two had already been and back. They were only out for 20 minutes and back in.


I have moved to another centre for my DAS.


My better half had to do another day for CBT which was fine, but when re booking she was told ‘we didn’t think you would take so long so it’s no longer £30 for a continuation but £100’

Out of principle and concern for safety she moved elsewhere to.


I have given serious consideration to reporting the place as I seen things that were very unsafe and actually illegal.

It cost us way more than it should have through a reputable place and the woman that crashed the day I was there should never have been allowed out for her own safety.


Me and my wife had a good talk about it, the centre it’s self treated woman very different from the men. Both woman I seen were let go on things that lead to dangerous situations where the men were held back and reprimanded for far less.

Which I prefer, I want to be safe and relayed this to my wife. Don’t let their overly positive attitude for woman get you killed on the road.

In a purely skill based pursuit, gender should not come into it.

The centre also offered lots of deals, half price CBTs, reduced DAS courses only for woman, as well as dolls and things in the club house.

I’m all for promotion etc but it was unprofessional and unsafe.


I don’t have Facebook or anything to leave them an honest review but I do want to share my experience as I fear something is going to go wrong when someone puts their faith in instructors like that.


Sorry for the long post, I hope that made some sense

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  • 3 weeks later...

CBT completed and certificate issued :cheers: ,


All in all the day went really well, there were four of us and the first part was in a school playground with just 1 instructor working with each of us in turn on a 1 to 1 basis, but we worked in stages, which was great as we could share the experience with the other trainees, and watch the others do their parts, then on the ride out, we were split into 2 groups, and we covered riding in all manner of situations, country roads, dual carriageways, town centre, plenty of traffic lights, roundabouts, we were out for a good 2 and a half hours, i can really recommend EAW who did the training, great couple of guys, :cheers: :thumb:

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  • 10 months later...

Hi All,


Took my CBT last year but thought would share experience. I'm 49 had a couple of off road 125s when I was 16-18 so long time since I'd ridden. Turned up there was 7 of us there that day two guys around 40, four guys in their 20's and myself. Had the usual classroom chat and bike walk around, the 2 instructors seemed ok had a bit of a laugh. Walked bikes to paddock and all seemed to go well no foot down on slalom , figure of 8 , u - turn emergency stop we all seemed to get it but it was evident to me that the rest of the guys were a bit better than me. Got ready for road ride but they said they were only allowed to take 3 each so they asked if I could wait a come out by myself. I had a sneaky suspicion that they wanted to take me out one to one because I was the weakest but we're being polite about it. Anyway the other all came back smiling, laughing and slapping each other on the back looks like they had a great time. They all passed. Anyway came my time to go out and I went to bits with clutch control, I had been fine all the way through the paddock exercises but couldn't get it and the more I stalled the more if a state I got myself into. We pulled into a dead end and the instructor told me to take 5 and some deep breaths and calm down. Once I had he said I need you to u turn here, I tried and tried but kept putting my foot down then he looked and me and said " I really need you do this " I guess meaning if I didn't that was it. Anyway I couldn't we went back to center and I stalled again at a big busy junction. When we got there he said sorry but you have not made the standard today you need to come back for a hour if additional training. Feeling gutted I went home and was unsure if I even wanted to get back on a bike again. After a night sleep I rang up center as soon as it opened booked for two days time. Turned up different instructor seemed really nice guy. Took me to paddock and asked why I had to come back and I explained due to lack of clutch control. He took me through all manoeuvres again and seemed puzzled as I sailed through. Took me on road ride and it all just clicked helped by loads of praise and encouragement from 'Nev' turned out to be 30 minutes of heaven. Got back he wrote out my certificate and I grinned like a self abusing monkey for the rest of the day.


Don't be disheartened if you don't get it first time, we all learn at different speeds.


Edit - After I wrote this I read back through some others and was amazed at 2 day courses and 2 hour road rides. I think my instructors must have wanted to get home, pretty sure the whole thing was over in about 3 hours start to finish.

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  • 5 months later...

I did my CBT the other day and I have to say it was an unmitigated disaster.FIrstly I wanted to start by saying how much I was looking forward to it and was really excited.


There were 4 of us 2 lads who were Uber eats drivers who spoke no English and me and another guy who wanted to learn On geared bikes .


The instructor straight away said complete novices like me should learn on scooters but I said no...plus the fact I’ve had my licence so long I don’t even need a cbt to ride a 50cc scooter and I really had no interest in scooters.


Anyway after a brief chat we fired up the 125 and my nerves kicked in but what I felt was the worst part was after about a minute when I went forward and lost all sense of what I was doing and pulled the wrong levers and even pulled he throttle down.the instructor seemed to lose it with me and told me he was a traffic cop and had I heard about the guy in Aylesbury who died on a cbt and I clearly had not got i what I takes so get on a scooter.


I did what he said and it was going ok but it wasn’t what I wanted to do and I lost all my confidence and felt like a dick and the weather was shit absolutely pissing down.


He said we were going out on the road after lunch and I felt so bad and out of confidence that I decided to jack it in and go home....


I really felt like a failure last few days but haven’t lost the drive to want to learn how to ride.This experience was miserable but I really feel like the instructor was a terrible people person.I know he had my safety at the forefront of his mind and maybe all cbt places are the same but so many people seem to have a great experience and I’m disappointed mine wasn’t .


Maybe I don’t have the knack of gears and clutch etc but I can manage a car and bicycle so surely it can’t be beyond me.


Thanks for listening.

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Find another instructor but before you go ahead with the CBT ask to do a couple of hours tuition on a geared bike, it will cost you extra but having that tuition first will give you the chance just to concentrate on your clutch control :thumb:

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Guest Swagman

I did my CBT the other day and I have to say it was an unmitigated disaster.FIrstly I wanted to start by saying how much I was looking forward to it and was really excited.


There were 4 of us 2 lads who were Uber eats drivers who spoke no English and me and another guy who wanted to learn On geared bikes .


The instructor straight away said complete novices like me should learn on scooters but I said no...plus the fact I’ve had my licence so long I don’t even need a cbt to ride a 50cc scooter and I really had no interest in scooters.


Anyway after a brief chat we fired up the 125 and my nerves kicked in but what I felt was the worst part was after about a minute when I went forward and lost all sense of what I was doing and pulled the wrong levers and even pulled he throttle down.the instructor seemed to lose it with me and told me he was a traffic cop and had I heard about the guy in Aylesbury who died on a cbt and I clearly had not got i what I takes so get on a scooter.


I did what he said and it was going ok but it wasn’t what I wanted to do and I lost all my confidence and felt like a dick and the weather was shit absolutely pissing down.


He said we were going out on the road after lunch and I felt so bad and out of confidence that I decided to jack it in and go home....


I really felt like a failure last few days but haven’t lost the drive to want to learn how to ride.This experience was miserable but I really feel like the instructor was a terrible people person.I know he had my safety at the forefront of his mind and maybe all cbt places are the same but so many people seem to have a great experience and I’m disappointed mine wasn’t .


Maybe I don’t have the knack of gears and clutch etc but I can manage a car and bicycle so surely it can’t be beyond me.


Thanks for listening.

 

Try not to panic if you can drive a car then you should be able to get to grips with a bike, when I learned there was no such thing as a CBT it was a case of jump on and get on with it, started with a 50 cc moped at 16 and as soon as I turned 17 straight on a 175 with no practice just bought the bike and rode it, I think the instructor must have upset you badly and that is the problem not that you can’t do it, as Dynax says get another training school with decent people and you should do fine. :thumb: :thumb:

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Remove it from your mind, ditch them and get another bike school.


A decent school wouldn't attempt to shoehorn you into a twist and go.


A decent instructor would have laughed off your first mistake, but kept an eye on your progress and suggest you come back for more training if you needed more tuition.


A CBT can be quite an intense day as there's a lot to learn if it's your first time (I know, I did it a couple of years ago) but with the right instructor you'll be fine. Clearly being a traffic cop doesn't make you a good teacher.


For what it's worth, I'm still in touch with the bike school and all the instructors I learnt with through to my full licence. A great bunch. That's what a good bike school is all about.


This isn't me in this vid, and it's mod 1 practice but not CBT, but reading your experience made me think of this video I watched when I was learning so I sought it out again. If your instructor isn't like this chap in this vid, change bike school

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Thanks everyone i appreciate the messages...somenother things came to mind that the instructor also said as I booked my test a month before why hadn't I looked up some stuff on YouTube to familiar myself with his the gears work ...i said I didn't do this when I learnt to drive but he then said this is a CBT! Not a lesson...should I have done this before?

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Thanks everyone i appreciate the messages...somenother things came to mind that the instructor also said as I booked my test a month before why hadn't I looked up some stuff on YouTube to familiar myself with his the gears work ...i said I didn't do this when I learnt to drive but he then said this is a CBT! Not a lesson...should I have done this before?

 

No! the school provide you with basic training, the instructors are there to teach you the basics and guide you how to ride safely, any instructor that bullies you into a situation should be reported as they are not doing their job to the correct standard :thumb:

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[mention]Blackholesun[/mention]

I thought my first CBT instructor was an idiot, well yours has aced him.


Find another school tell them what happened, because of that experience you will need an understanding instructor...


Maybe ask on Facebook to find good local schools...

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he then said this is a CBT! Not a lesson...

 

Erm, that's exactly what it is - compulsory basic TRAINING! Sounds to me like he just likes doing renewals, I'm sure if you go to another local school they will have had plenty of students go to them with similar stories.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I posted on here about a month ago about a bad CBT experience but I'm so happy now as I did another one yesterday at a diff school and gained my certificate and had a brilliant day.it was so thorough and so different to the last one with over an an on safety talks at the start and the guys made me feel so at ease and gave me so much confidence. I know I need to buy a bike to gain more practical experience but I can't reinforce enough how much more happy I am after the last one!


So now to a 125cc..I want a Japanese bike so no keeway or lexmoto etc but should I buy on something like AutoTrader or is Facebook or gumtree ok ? Also what is the max mileage to have on the clock as my budget is circa £1500 also I've seen some for sale with no mot..should I give these a wide berth or not? Thanks guys

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Excellent that you had a proper instructor this time around.

I've had a Honda cb125f as my first bike. Basic works horse but very reliable however not hugely entertaining after a while. My current bike is a Suzuki gsxs125 and I think it's probably the best 125 out there albeit still just a 125.

Enjoy shopping around for a bike. Sit on a few before deciding what's best.

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Cheers everyone went mad and bought myself a yamaha ybr 125cc today ...rode it home the 10 miles! Not a bad deal i though as though it's an 08 plate it had 13 months on the mot and 5k miles on clock for £900

 


Did you barter them down - or was that the asking price.. I'm rubbish at this kind of thing - and have just started looking myself :)

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