Dav3y

I sent off mine on Monday the 29th so hoping early next week. As it's my first photo licence i had to send photo/application form and pass cert as well as fee (which they have yet to cash) and old falling apart car licence. Also filled in the bit about using IPS for identification rather than sending identification documents as i have an electronic passport barely over a year old so that should make things easier for them. 12th will be a fortnight and insurance company want scans within 23 days of the start date of the policy although i got an email reminder this morning saying they now want it within 7 days or they'll cancel my policy. Fingers crossed.

Great, thanks. I see you did your Mod 2 two days before mine. Hopefully I'll have it back any time soon.

Hi, Just a quickie if anyone has recently passed their test and had their licence updated. Do you know what they put down as the start date of your new entitlement ? Do they use your pass certificate pass date or some date that it gets processed after the pass date ? Thanks in advance if anyone knows or can enlighten me. Currently at day 11 of my 3 week wait for my postal licence application update with the pass certificate and no sign yetof the new licence.

I guess it comes down to finances and time availability and training date availability. I was lucky that when i booked my Theory, they had availability for the weekend in like 4 days time or i would have had to wait until the end of July. Once i'd passed the Theory i was able to crack straight on with booking CBT and organising my DAS course and a week off work (which i was going to book anyway) and everything fell perfectly into place to get things done quickly. I did about a weeks studying for the theory with the DSA 2013 edition of the bike Theory book and the Focus Complete Motorcycle Theory and Hazard perception tests which i found usefull as i'd never done a theory test when i passed my car test. If you've ridden bikes before and have been driving a car, i wouldn't think you'll have too much of a problem getting through things fairly quickly. All will become clear if you do your CBT and intend to do DAS with the same company.

Congrats on the Mod 1 and enjoy you Mod 2. I did and found it all fairly relaxed as the examiner was following from some distance a lot of the time. Just keep your eyes out for speed limit changes at junctions and have a good safe ride.

If you want to ride a proper bike without restrictions, do what I did and go straight to DAS from your CBT and Theory. The instructor I did my CBT with said I needed a 3 day DAS course which I did. The first 2 days were training and covering test routes and practice for the Mod 1 elements as well as picking holes in potential errors and correcting them. The third day was Mod 1 in the morning and Mod 2 in the afternoon. Some people might like to split the Mod 1 and 2 up incase you fluff up the Mod 1 and then can't do Mod 2 because you haven't passed Mod 1. My DAS instructor does additional training for free if required but test fees would have to be paid for if you fail one/both. My 3 day DAS course including bike hire and Mod 1 & 2 test fees was £500. I did have prior experience of riding a 125 20 odd years ago for about 4 or 5 years so I didn't start as a complete novice which all came flooding back as soon as I did my CBT. The beauty of doing the DAS is that you'll have a far wider choice of reasonably priced bikes available to you as well instead of being limited to the high priced 125 market and to be honest there is just little point not doing DAS if you want to get the A category unrestricted license as there's pretty much no easy way to get it without doing the DAS course and using the school loaned/hired 600cc bike. Think I'm rambling now so I'll stop but I recommend looking up your local schools that do DAS and see what thay offer/say.

I enquired with my DAS instructor whether he did the ERS having just passed my DAS and he told me not to bother as what it would likely save me on insurance with a company that recognises it might get beaten by a cheaper company anyway. Guess that kinda of makes sense although i guess there could have been a hidden agenda in he makes more money from DAS candidates ? Out of interest how much was your ERS course Wolf ? (Oh and nice bike ) My DAS instructor did say to me though if i wanted to do another course to get on one of the police training courses instead of ERS.

Thanks for all the congratulations people. Called into my local bike shop this morning having looked at an FZ600 Fazer the day before at another bike shop which i liked the look of. I should be picking up my new 2012 Diversion F ABS at the weekend. Can't wait. Sent my D1 form/photo/pass certificate off this morning with my old paper licence. Anyone know realistically how long i should expect before my new licence arrives ? I Know they say within 3 weeks but was hoping it might be a fair bit sooner.

Truth be told I probably wouldn't have chosen to do both on the same day myself. This is how my DAS instructor does it though included in my 3 day course. Had I cocked the MOD 1 up, I would have had to pay for both tests again. The other guy doing the course with me this week got a clean sheet on his MOD 1 but a major on the MOD 2 so has got to pay for the MOD 2 test again.

Nervous as hell this morning incase I messed up the MOD 1 but passed that with 1 minor. MOD 2 this afternoon and got a clean sheet. Well happy. Now for some bike shopping. Did my DAS on an XJ6 Diversion this week and I must say I do like them.

Did my CBT yesterday in preperation for the DAS course i have booked next month. I did do CBT about 20 years ago so i guess i had a little of the expectations beforehand. Day started out with making sure we were all kitted out with safety gear and a check on own helmets for those of us with our own. We then walked across to one of the instructors when called over and received a nice name sticker and a quick eyesight test. Once we were all stickered up and ready to go the course was outlined to us as to the purpose of giving a rider the basics before going out on the road. We then had the two different types of bikes explained to us in terms of controls/instruments/starting/basic maintenance. From there we proceeded to the first exercise of taking the CG125 off and on the stand. I was 6th out of 8 of us and got it right first time. Having done this many times before when i had a bike 20 years ago it was useful to be reminded the correct way of doing things especially in terms of keeping it balanced and under control at all times with the front brake. We then pushed our bikes over to one of the lines in the playground and lined up and then got on the bikes. The instructors got us to start the bikes up and put them in 1st gear and back to neutral. When i got to my turn i missed netral and when straight to 2nd and then automatically did a slight push down to find neutral again. The instructor commented that we learn a lot from that. We then proceeded to slow riding using the clutch and rear brake to control our speed instead of altering the engine speed. Other exercises followed including figure of 8 and slalom around cones, emergency stop. The emergency stop i had 4 goes at. First time although i stopped fine i faffed around changing through the gears so i did it again. 2nd time i locked the back wheel breifly so was told to do it again without the back brake at all. This was fine so then did it again with the rear brake as well. Next we did our maneouvers for junctions after an explanation and demo. A stop and a give way for going left and then the same for going right and then one more for major to minor road without and with a vehicle coming in the opposite direction. We then had a road safety talk and some questions and then the first 4 of the group were kitted up with radios and went out with the 2 instructors while the other 4 of us were left to wait for them to come back. The instructors said we could practice while they were out with the others. We all took this opportunity and i particularly practised getting used to the indicators as i'd had a few troubles with getting them to come on or change from right to left which it seems you can't do on the CG and i suspect most bikes now as you used to be able to do when i had my RD125 many years ago. 2 of the others seemed to improve in their riding style while we waited and the other guy like myself had a quick practise but was fairly o.k. with things as well (he was doing a CBT renewal for the third time although he currently doesn't have a bike) and we both commented there's only so much you can practice in the confinement of a playground. The instructor i was going out with returned and i went out with him and the other guy doing the CBT renewal. We took tuns at leading with the instructor following and the 2nd of us following. Both of us us did pretty well and we got to practice a u turn and emergency stop on a nice quiet road (got it spot on first time with the stop). Did a bit more riding out through some country lanes, housing estates taking in roundabouts and junctions and then headed back to the training centre. Both of us got issed with our certificates and my instructor asked me if i was doing the 3 or 4 day DAS course. I replied i don't know, whatever i need i guess. He said i only need the 3 day and should be fine with that based on the riding he'd witnessed. Overall a pretty good day and it seems the other guy that's 24 might well be doing the DAS course as well as he's a tall lad and will have trouble finding a reasonably priced 125 bike to really fit him and what's the point anyway if he wants to move onto a bigger bike later on. That's my experience, hope it might help others.

I've got a couple of GoPro Blacks i used for skiing this past season. Very impressive piece of kit with impressive picture quality if you need it and crank the settings up. Yep they are quite expensive and the battery life on the latest models is not the best (especially on wifi) but i've yet to see a review for an alternative camera with better picture quality. Unfortunately the nearest i've got to a set of handlebars with my GoPros so far is a snowmobile so i'll spare you the video on that.

Cheers, Just contacting my local approved training centre now to see when i can get the CBT sorted. Might have to go skid lid shopping to celebrate

Woohoo, Did my Theory this morning and got 49 out of 50 for the multi choice and 63 out of 75 for the hazard perception. Seems the only question i got wrong in the first part was one i flagged about tread depth and went back to. Shame i didn't have the balls to change my mind on that question. Did all my reading up from the latest Official DSA Theory Test for Motorcycles book (2013 edition) Now for the CBT and practical tests. 1 step closer

Hi Stu, Yes, i did see that thread but i passed my car test in 86 before the CBT or the Theory tests were introduced. Have a recent passport too so no worries with that. I'm wondering now if i wont be better to get the updated photocard licence first as i believe there's no additional cost adding an entitlement but i'm not sure what the crack is with photos. Surely if i update now and add bike later if/when i passed my test they may not need a new photo, but if i did the replacemnt/upgrade at the same time would that mean i have to send photos or could they still use the electronic ones from the passport office ?

Thanks for that. Exactly what i wanted to hear. Best i get that Theory booked now.

Hi folks, I'm about to embark on my Theory and CBT prior to my main training/tests. I have a 27 year old pink paper licence with Car (group A) and Moped (group E). Does this work as motorcycle provisional for DAS or do i need to swap it first ? I was trying to avoid being without it so i can get my theory and CBT done asap. There seems to be some contradictory advice around depending on where you look. Anyone know the deal for us middle aged learners ? Thanks in advance.