PiersR

Definitely not cool, downright unprofessional. I'd make a complaint, or at the very least encourage people to look elsewhere.

I paid £125 for mine. I'm in Herefordshire, West Mids. I did look around for cheaper but went for quality and reviews over the price to be honest.

My dad is 16 years older than my mum, but they split up. So take that as you will Good luck matey!

It's in bits at the moment as I'm basically doing a rebuild on it. The frame needs powder coating and just general maintenance. Pain in the arse but it'll be worth it when it's done.

She'll tip 70.

I have a 2003 DT125R and I'm almost certain there's no immobiliser on it.

Damn, that sounds awesome but my bike needs an MOT. That, and the fact that it would take me around 7 hours to get up to Sunderland on my DT. Maybe in the future. (I'm 19)

I was excited to do it, but I was happy when it was over. i think if they guy was a little more supportive when I made a mistake it would have made it 100x better, but he just sounded really disappointed whenever I did something wrong, right from the start.

Did my CBT today and passed 3 other people, 2 women (early 20's and mid 30's) and then a bloke who was in his early 40's, so I was by far the youngest there (19) and instantly felt a little intimidated, as they were all drivers, and I have next to no road sense at all. Arrived at the place, tiny shed-type thing was the office, and then a small training area, much smaller than a car park. Maybe 4 x 10m at a push. Went through a few basic instructions at the beginning, explaining which parts of the bike did what, what you should check before you head out, then got given our bikes. 3 of us were on a geared 125cc (Honda CG), and I got by far the shittest one. The other two were 05 plates, mine was an X reg. Their bikes had disc brakes, whereas mine had drum brakes that looked pretty worn and there was quite a bit of play in the throttle. Then there was a girl on a 50cc twist and go, which looked like it was in even worse condition. At first we had to get the bikes off and then put them back onto the centre stand, something I'd never had to do before having only ridden bikes with a kick stand, so I nearly bloody dropped the thing the first time as I had no idea what I was doing, luckily the bloke grabbed it before it hit the floor. He showed me how to do it a second time and after that I had the hang of it, no problem. I was the first to go so I looked like a right twat. We then walked the bikes around in a figure-eight, which was no problem at all, the onto the manoeuvres. Started off by just finding the bite point, which on my bike seemed to be the last millimetre of the clutch, which was a pain in the arse, so pulling away was instantly a fuss. Got used to it after a while but would have preferred a heavier clutch. We then moved on to just going around the area slowly, letting the bike idle its own way round, then coming to stop and repeating until we were comfortable. Then moved onto figure-eights and u-turns, then emergency stops etc, etc. One of the women dropped the bike whilst doing a couple of manoeuvres, so the instructors gave her most of the tuition, which was good as it kept the pressure off me. We then went inside this tiny room, on four chairs that were all rammed together. I hadn't taken off my bike jacket so I was sweltering and my trousers were cutting into me a bit, so my concentration on the basic road instructions were overshadowed by my discomfort, but I managed to grasp what I needed. This went on for about an hour and a half of chatting about potential hazards etc. then we got ready to go on the road. We went out of the gate one by one, I was paired up with the bloke who had already ridden bikes for years, but gave up a number of years ago due to having children (poor bast*rd), so he was already fine on the road. I was told that I'd be leading us for the first part of the ride, so I was instantly shitting myself as I have never been on the road before, not even had a driving lesson. Got to the first junction, forgot to check my mirrors before signalling. In my brain it seemed more logical to indicate first, then do all the checks, and it took me at least half an hour to get the out of my head and start to do it properly. I was also bloody awful at cancelling my signals after I'd done a manoeuvre, which I hadn't even fully managed to master right at the end. I was definitely thrown in at the deep end as we were constantly doing big, 2-3 lane roundabouts, which shit me up quite a bit. had a few road positioning issues at first, and kept forgetting to use the rear brake, not that it helped much when I did remember to use it due to how SHITE the brakes were. We pulled into an industrial state area and did a few U-turns and emergency stops, which I did to a satisfactory standard. The bloke I was with was doing everything with ease, which made me feel a little uneasy and knocked my confidence slightly. We got into town and just did typical town riding, not too difficult but I was still getting moaned at at that point due to my lack of experience and to me there was a lot to think about at the time. We pulled over after a while to stretch our legs, at which point I thought we were pulling over because I was so terrible that I was going to be sent home - thankfully not. he said that I was inexperienced, but he could tell I had a natural ability and just needed to practice a bit more and I'd get it, which I did soon after. Eventually we got out of the town and away from all of the traffic, onto the A roads with the NSL, which I enjoyed greatly. The little CG was quite good at higher speeds, and it felt more stable. Thankfully there were no really impatient drivers around, the road was rather empty so I didn't have to worry too much about traffic. We got back and I was given my certificate then one of the women gave me a lift into town, which was very nice of her, where I got a lift home. /fin

I'll be using them on the road. So, I guess a half-decent intermediate between off-road and road tyres would be good. If they even exist... I have a spare set of wheels that I could modify to fit sticky tyres

Recently bought my first bike, but it needs some new tyres on it before I would trust it on the road. The wheels are for knobbly tyres, so if anyone could recommend a good set that would be excellent. I'm completely clueless when it comes to pretty much anything to do with the bike, but I've got my trusty Haynes manual as bed time reading.

Just been practicing on private land

I have the Mt Thunder in fluorescent yellow http://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/product_images/medium/mt_thunder_fluo-yellow.jpg I love the look of it, and the fluorescence helps with visibility greatly. Here's the SHARP link http://sharp.direct.gov.uk/testsratings/mt-thunder

So, I've been practicing U turns and Figure-eights for the past few days on my new (to me) Yamaha DT 125 R and today I got round to booking my CBT with James Robinson Motorcycle Training - Hereford, after a few recommendations from friends. It's a 1-day intensive course, which I would prefer. A nice woman on the phone explained what I needed with me on the day, but I needed to make a £30 deposit over the phone with my card, which I was slightly apprehensive about at first. £125 for the day, which was maybe a bit steep, but maybe the offer of paying in cash will drop it down slightly which includes a bike for the day, insurance and gear (which I won't need). Booked for Saturday 14th September, but a guy phoned today saying he was ill so I may be able to do it on Friday this week - great! I'll be donning my Fluorescent MT Thunder helmet. I just can't wait to get on the road! http://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/product_images/medium/mt_thunder_fluo-yellow.jpg