CBT - Experiences of other Members

ooooooh 125 in the wind! We all remember how terrifying that can be

Top stuff glad you're enjoying it

In preparation for my CBT, I've enjoyed reading other people's experiences so I thought I would add mine. I'm no literary genius but I hope it's useful to someone.

Some history about me - late thirties and been driving for 20 years, fairly keen cyclist (both road and mountain bikes) but never ridden a motorcycle until the CBT.

My CBT was done after a couple of days of very hot weather, I was a bit worried about it being too hot for me but thankfully it was cloudy so it was ok. I didn't have my own jacket, gloves or helmet so I was borrowing these from the school which was fine apart from they had been used in the heatwave so were a bit stinky but after a couple of minutes, it was fine. I'm glad I didn't have to buy the kit as I wasn't sure whether it was something I would want to take further so I appreciated being able to borrow it even if it did smell a bit.

There was three of us on the course, I was the oldest and only driver, there was a lad in his early thirties who had a 125 a few years ago and there was a lad that had only just turned 16. The youngest lad was riding a 50cc twist and go moped so some of the exercises were different for him. I was training on the 125 so I won't mention what he was up to.

Before doing anything we did a sight check from a few meters further away than the legal minimum then we went through the talk about kit which took a while but I knew quite a bit of this from my online research beforehand. Then the main event for me really - hands on with the bikes. The school had Yamaha YBR125's.

We were run through safety checks, pre-ride inspections and how to get on and off the centre stand which was simple enough really. We then got to walk the bikes from where they are stored to the training area. This had a gravel base so we could experiment with the front brake to get a feel of how much was required to lock it up.

We sat on the bikes and learnt how to move away in 1st, slipping the clutch seemed bad to me from a mechanical sympathy point of view, I understand the theory but an engine at 2-3k revs and a slipping clutch really felt bad to me. It took me a few starts to get away smoothly. We moved onto turning right and braking, again more clutch slip then getting up into 2nd gear. The more time we spent doing this the more natural it felt to me. I was a bit worried at the start as it felt awkward. I just had to remember I was operating a bike throttle, clutch and gearbox rather than a car.

Next was onto emergency stop, I wasn't the best at this and stalled it a couple of times, I was also conscious of not locking the front wheel so I wasn't pulling the brake as hard as I could. The instructor got on my bike and gave me a demo and then I had another go and I was a lot better.

We then got shown how to set the mirrors and what shoulder checks were then we had a go at U-turns. I was getting a lot better with the clutch, and I'm also quite used to checking over my shoulder on my pushbike so this went pretty well.

This concluded the morning session at about 12:30. We went back to the training room and had lunch (I had lunch, the other two had ignored the instructions to bring a packed lunch so they didn't have anything) during this time we went through road positioning and junctions as well as don't drive when angry or drunk etc.

At the end of this we were then asked if we would like to go out on the road. I think we all felt a bit nervous but we all said yes. I was to go out with the other lad on the 125 but we were asked if we would like to go out on a bigger bike and we both said yes.

We were shown around the Yamaha MT07's and they immediately felt more comfortable, I'm 6"3 so had felt a bit squashed on the YBR. We had 15 minutes to toddle around the training ground then onto the road. This is where it all started to come together for me, despite the bike being bigger it felt so much better. We did 20-30 minutes of slow speed residential areas with loads of roundabouts then onto a NSL road. Feck me these things are amazing! The wind on the chest and helmet was a surprise, I'm not sure why I was surprised, a naked bike at 60mph is bound to be windy!

We were out for about an hour before we stopped for a 5 minute break. I was fine but the other lad looked worried. Turned out he had lost his wallet at some point. We were about 10 minutes from the base so we went back so that he could look for it there then we went out and retraced our steps. I was happy to do that as we'd been on a really good mix of roads. We didn't find it.

On the 2 hour+ drive i still stalled a couple of times but I recognised what was going on and soon got on the move again, it takes me back to my learner driver days.

When we got back to base the instructor said it was one of the best rides he'd seen on a CBT for quite a while. Seeing as I'd never ridden a bike until 5 hours before I was very pleased.

Overall I loved the experiance, theory is booked now and then onto DAS soon hopefully.

Quality stuff Bung, hope you get on with the DAS

Hi all, well I took my CBT last week and passed ..... BUT ... on an unrestricted moped .

Here's my experience but I'd be really interested on your thoughts:

Turn up for the day and out of the group of about 8, 3 of us we're complete novices. In my case I last used a bicycle when I was 11 (I'm 38!!) That's my complete experience on 2 wheels. However I've been driving since I was 17 and I'm confident with my awareness and road knowledge. It was controlling the bike and getting a feel for the technique of riding that I wanted to learn - leaning, counter steering, clutch control etc.

We talk about the usual safety stuff and then went out to the 'playground' to get started.

It was then that we were told as we were novices we would have to start out on mopeds. This was to get to grips with balance, brakes and controls. I was frustrated at this (not that I showed it) because I was eager to get comfortable with the controls of a geared bike. I was a bit heavy with the brakes and my throttle control was a bit erratic but I was able to do the slow manoeuvres, emergency stop, figure of 8 and eventually the U turn but just before lunch the instructure said he felt it would be better to stick with the moped. He said the same to the other girl I was with (who seemed to have more control than me at the start). The guy we were with wasn't even allowed on the road.

So, we were fine on the road, got good feedback and she and I are going back for a free conversion session on the 125's next week.

Obviously the instructors know what they're looking at and must have felt we weren't quite up to scratch but we both feel that if we'd started straight on the geared bikes we would have got used to them and able to pass the CBT on them. Have any of you heard of CBT courses where novices are put straight onto mopeds, even though when at booking you make it clear you want to pass on the 125's?

Having taken some advice I'll be looking at getting a 125 to pootle about on to build up my confidence - any suggestions on that would be great, although there's probably another thread for that elsewhere I'll track down.

Thanks

It's sometimes used as a tactic to get you to pay for a geared conversion course but as they are doing that for free I'd say you been lucky.

At the end of the day the instructor is legally responsible for you on the road and if they "feel" you are not ready for a geared bike then not much you can do about it.

You got your CBT for 2 years without the stress of clutch and gears which quite a few novices don't crack first time, and now you get to learn them in a session that will be a lot less stressful

You've not even rode a bicycle in over 20 years and that showed in your heavy handed braking. Combine that with clutch control and you could have had a really bad day.

You are getting an extra session of training for FREE. Enjoy it as one that's done there is no turning back... enjoy

Strange they made you ride a moped rather than straight on a geared bike that certainly wasn't the case for me but at least they are giving you another day of free training so at least it's only costing you your time.

Did terrible on my first cbt. I won't bore you with the whole story but my nerves and poor decision making on the road were embarrassing and dangerous, we returned before finishing it and I left. I almost gave up completely on getting into motorcycling but I went back and did it, I'm nervous about my big test and I'll probably cock it up first time round due to anxiety so that's half the battle with me.

Did my CBT last week with Advantage Wimbledon. It was done on a YBR 125.

Having driven on the other side of the road for all of my life up to now, I confidently made it through the CBT up until the point we went out on the road. Once out on the road, it took me a few minutes to adjust to driving on the other side, but I made it through okay. The parking lot maneuvers from slaloming to figure 8 to u-turn were actually quite easy. The emergency stop was probably the hardest thing in the parking lot. Even though I say it was the hardest thing, it was still relatively easy.

Was a great refresher and introduction to driving on the left.

Did my CBT back in January this year. I think I was the only person there who hadn't ridden a bike before. There was about 8 others out there. I couldn't get the hang of the clutch and after about 20 stalls I got put on a moped to complete the yard training on. Somehow I managed to not fall off it.

Once the training in the yard was done we hit the road. I've not driven a car before so it was my first time out on the roads. I was extreamly nervous. It made my feel slightly better that I was driving an automatic so I could focus on the roads a bit more. I was out with someone on a YBR125. I quite enjoyed the ride and it went much faster than I had expected.

Since I wanted to learn how to ride a manual I went back to do a "Gear upgrade" the next week. Just got my licence after 9 months on L's.

In preparation for my CBT, I've enjoyed reading other people's experiences so I thought I would add mine. I'm no literary genius but I hope it's useful to someone.

Some history about me - late thirties and been driving for 20 years, fairly keen cyclist (both road and mountain bikes) but never ridden a motorcycle until the CBT.

My CBT was done after a couple of days of very hot weather, I was a bit worried about it being too hot for me but thankfully it was cloudy so it was ok. I didn't have my own jacket, gloves or helmet so I was borrowing these from the school which was fine apart from they had been used in the heatwave so were a bit stinky but after a couple of minutes, it was fine. I'm glad I didn't have to buy the kit as I wasn't sure whether it was something I would want to take further so I appreciated being able to borrow it even if it did smell a bit.

There was three of us on the course, I was the oldest and only driver, there was a lad in his early thirties who had a 125 a few years ago and there was a lad that had only just turned 16. The youngest lad was riding a 50cc twist and go moped so some of the exercises were different for him. I was training on the 125 so I won't mention what he was up to.

Before doing anything we did a sight check from a few meters further away than the legal minimum then we went through the talk about kit which took a while but I knew quite a bit of this from my online research beforehand. Then the main event for me really - hands on with the bikes. The school had Yamaha YBR125's.

We were run through safety checks, pre-ride inspections and how to get on and off the centre stand which was simple enough really. We then got to walk the bikes from where they are stored to the training area. This had a gravel base so we could experiment with the front brake to get a feel of how much was required to lock it up.

We sat on the bikes and learnt how to move away in 1st, slipping the clutch seemed bad to me from a mechanical sympathy point of view, I understand the theory but an engine at 2-3k revs and a slipping clutch really felt bad to me. It took me a few starts to get away smoothly. We moved onto turning right and braking, again more clutch slip then getting up into 2nd gear. The more time we spent doing this the more natural it felt to me. I was a bit worried at the start as it felt awkward. I just had to remember I was operating a bike throttle, clutch and gearbox rather than a car.

Next was onto emergency stop, I wasn't the best at this and stalled it a couple of times, I was also conscious of not locking the front wheel so I wasn't pulling the brake as hard as I could. The instructor got on my bike and gave me a demo and then I had another go and I was a lot better.

We then got shown how to set the mirrors and what shoulder checks were then we had a go at U-turns. I was getting a lot better with the clutch, and I'm also quite used to checking over my shoulder on my pushbike so this went pretty well.

This concluded the morning session at about 12:30. We went back to the training room and had lunch (I had lunch, the other two had ignored the instructions to bring a packed lunch so they didn't have anything) during this time we went through road positioning and junctions as well as don't drive when angry or drunk etc.

At the end of this we were then asked if we would like to go out on the road. I think we all felt a bit nervous but we all said yes. I was to go out with the other lad on the 125 but we were asked if we would like to go out on a bigger bike and we both said yes.

We were shown around the Yamaha MT07's and they immediately felt more comfortable, I'm 6"3 so had felt a bit squashed on the YBR. We had 15 minutes to toddle around the training ground then onto the road. This is where it all started to come together for me, despite the bike being bigger it felt so much better. We did 20-30 minutes of slow speed residential areas with loads of roundabouts then onto a NSL road. Feck me these things are amazing! The wind on the chest and helmet was a surprise, I'm not sure why I was surprised, a naked bike at 60mph is bound to be windy!

We were out for about an hour before we stopped for a 5 minute break. I was fine but the other lad looked worried. Turned out he had lost his wallet at some point. We were about 10 minutes from the base so we went back so that he could look for it there then we went out and retraced our steps. I was happy to do that as we'd been on a really good mix of roads. We didn't find it.

On the 2 hour+ drive i still stalled a couple of times but I recognised what was going on and soon got on the move again, it takes me back to my learner driver days.

When we got back to base the instructor said it was one of the best rides he'd seen on a CBT for quite a while. Seeing as I'd never ridden a bike until 5 hours before I was very pleased.

Overall I loved the experiance, theory is booked now and then onto DAS soon hopefully.

Good CBT story Bungleaio! The MT07s are cracking. Lucky you!

Good CBT story Bungleaio! The MT07s are cracking. Lucky you!

Cheers mate, almost 6 months ago now and I've now got a full license and an MT07 of my own now.

I wrote up my MOD 1 and 2 experience too if you're interested

https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=23633&start=435#p1003861

https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=23634&start=555#p1012315

Good CBT story Bungleaio! The MT07s are cracking. Lucky you!

 

Cheers mate, almost 6 months ago now and I've now got a full license and an MT07 of my own now.

I wrote up my MOD 1 and 2 experience too if you're interested

https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=23633&start=435#p1003861

https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=23634&start=555#p1012315

Good reads, congratulations on eventually passing your Mod 2, what chaos the 2nd time you went in to get it done! Might have been different if you had turned up an hour late instead.....

Passed the 2nd time same as me, nice you got an MT07 though, cracking first bike imo and loved riding it.

Cheers, glad you enjoyed them. It was a bit of a rollercoaster of events getting my license but if it were easy then there wouldn't be the sense of achievement.

I've done just under 600 miles on the MT07 which is less than I'd liked to have done but I'm enjoying it. I'll be out quite a bit next year.

So i did my CBT this morning, or some of it.

Their were 2 of us, i actually expected more but was kind of relieved as i knew we'd get more attention and more help with it been a smaller crowd. The other lad was a nice lad so we got on well.

We went through all the briefing of equipment road safety etc and was hummng and arghing wether to ge through with it due to a little ice on the grounds. We did though and just took it steady, after 3 laps round though of the slow maneovuring i lost balance of the bike, panicked and used the front brake, obviously not the best thing to do. I dropped the bike, fell off with it and broke the clutch lever, he didn't have a spare so we've had to call it a day and I've got to go back next week.

I'm having major doubts now though about my skills, i felt as if i couldn't steer properly even in a straight line, the bike felt as if it wanted to go both ways. I guess i just need more practice but I'm snookered now till next week. I've been looking forward to it for so long then that happens after the 3rd frigging lap round. Pretty gutted to be honest, has anything similar happened to anyone else? I want someone to tell me they did that on their first try but it get's easier with practice lol.

Don't worry about it mate, just give it another go. The slow speed riding is the hardest of the lot to do so don't worry about not getting it straight away.

booked my CBT for sunday, just me and my wife on it I believe. Not sure if it's wise us both doing it together at the same time

We've both been driving for over 10 years and I cycle to work sometime so I'm used to road positioning, shoulder checks ect. We'll see if we can get to the end of the day without killing each other.

My wife and I are going to be doing our CBT soon so I will be interested to hear how you get on. I too wasn't sure if we should do it together or separately. Good luck with it.

Cheers

Steve

Well that is the CBT out the way. There was only me and my wife on it which was really good. We briefly went through the classroom stuff, since we've both been driving for so long it was pretty straight forward. Then we were taken to a nearby car park. It's pretty large and the trainer was saying it was inspected and approved and they have an agreement with the owner. Went through the usual controls, starting, stopping, bite point ect. Then onto some gear changes, and observations (life saver ect) finally emergency stops.

All that done then back to the shop to be radio'ed up. Then out we went. We both had a couple of stalls, but nothing to worry about. I found I kept forgetting that the indicator doesn't auto cancel, and I sometimes forgot which gear I was in. First half I led, second half she led. We had a short stop in the middle to discuss what we had done well and what not so well. Stuff like not doing a life saver check when avoiding parked cars was something I didn't think about.

I definitely feel like I could do with some more practice but I guess that's the whole point of being on L plates, you're not going to be ready for the test after one day.

I was swaying backwards and forwards all day to whether to get a 125 to practice on for a few months. But for the price of them, for how short a time I'd have it and for having to avoid a motorway part of my commute means I've booked my first proper lesson for next saturday. Made me feel good when the owner asked the cbt instructor if I should start on a big bike and he said "oh yea".

Doing it with my wife was actually really good, we were able to advise each other and were unusually supportive of each other

I think the plan going forward will be for me to do the lessons and tests the buy a bike. Once we've done that then I'll take my wife to the car park so she can do some pre-lesson practice so it takes her less time (and costs us less) when she comes to doing the full lessons. Can you be taught on your own bike, obviously if your insured? Can you get insurance if your not a bike school? She likes the idea of getting used to riding one bike.

First step done, you can get insurance for 125 with cbt but after that you need to pass first test and then insurance only valid with instructions from qualified instructor, or go days and be done.

My cbt is booked ! Anytips for short riders lol ! I’m hpping To do it on a geared bike

You won't have a problem reaching the ground with the bikes they use on the CBT. It will be after you have got your licence that you need to find a bike you are comfortable with a short leg problem.

Hi mike , I’ve just brought a Honda shadow 125 it’s perfect x

Hi mike , I’ve just brought a Honda shadow 125 it’s perfect x

Jolly good. Enjoy the experience.

Ok did my cbt today and not passed . Got it re booked for 2 weeks . I’m happy tho . Was much harder than I thought and by the afternoon was tired lol !!! It’s hard to grasp the gears and balance for me anyway so he said I pretty much smashed it hit need an hour on the pad not tires and peaked ! Then I’m road ready all I would say is I’m so glad I knew the controls before hand as it made it easier for me to understand !!!! Wish me luck people !

Ok did my cbt today and not passed . Got it re booked for 2 weeks . I’m happy tho . Was much harder than I thought and by the afternoon was tired lol !!! It’s hard to grasp the gears and balance for me anyway so he said I pretty much smashed it hit need an hour on the pad not tires and peaked ! Then I’m road ready all I would say is I’m so glad I knew the controls before hand as it made it easier for me to understand !!!! Wish me luck people !

Good luck for 2 weeks time......