R08zy

My Mod 1 experience. Test day Was I ready? Would I pass? If I fail how bad would it be? Would I lock the wheels up on the high speed runs and come off? After having several dreams or nightmares of telling my loved ones that I failed these were the only thoughts going through my head. My test was booked for 8.30 so I had an early start, after a coffee and a light breakfast I packed all my gear into the car and headed off to the training centre. When I arrived I found Chris (my learner buddy and competition) was sitting talking with the instructor, we sat and talked for a few minutes getting a final run through of what to expect and then we got on the bikes for some mod 1 warm ups on the training area, I put my foot down on one of the U-Turns but apart from that it was incident free. This had done wonders for my confidence and I now felt ready for the test, we had a short ride over to the test centre followed by an agonising wait to be called out, Chris went for his test first so I got to look out of the window and see him begin his test, shortly after he started my name was called and I made my way into the torture room (paperwork room). I signed the forms and the examiner told me roughly what to expect. I geared up and headed out to the bike. Once on the bike I made the slow ride into the test area and stopped, turning off the engine to hear the examiners instructions. I'm sure most of you are aware of the list of manoeuvres you have to complete and what order they are done in so I won't run through them all. Luckily the nerves had pretty much completely gone by the time I had finished the manual handling. After I was sitting on the bike with the engine running the rest of the test seemed to fly by, and before I knew it I was back at the gate waiting to hear how I had got on, it felt good and I wasn't aware that I had done anything wrong but was convinced the examiner had seen something that I had done wrong. Like all good TV competitions there was a long wait between finishing the test and getting into the room to hear the result... the examiners mouth opened and the words "I'm pleased to tell you have passed" came out... I asked how many minors I got and he said "none" I could have hugged him right then I was so pleased with myself. I immediately text my girlfriend and some other people who knew I was testing that day. Next step now is a few more mod 2 training sessions followed by the mod 2 test

Been a bit quiet on the forum for a while since announcing my cbt date, thing hadn't really worked out for me time wise and this is the first chance I've had to get some proper training time in. I've just finished 3 days of 4 hour training sessions with my mod1 this morning and I'm pleased to say I clean sheeted the test with no faults at all. I'm still not totally sure how I managed that as I was still having the occasional foot down while practising. I have also done a bit of mod2 training but still in need of a few sessions before I think I will be ready for the test.

Didn't expect that... That's amazing. Just proves what tlc and a reliable honda engineer are capable of Would you buy a used bike with that many miles on it though? At what point what you think it had seen its day and wasn't worth buying?

Yeah good point, What's considered high mileage for a bike? When I bought my car I was looking for up to 60,000 miles (petrol engine). Some of the 500/600cc bikes I've seen that are more than a few years old seem to have 20-30,000 miles on them, is that considered close to end of life? I know you can't give me a concrete answer as it depends on servicing intervals, riding style etc but what kind of mileage would you walk away from knowing that you wouldn't have much re-sale value when you were done with it.

Yeah good point, What's considered high mileage for a bike? When I bought my car I was looking for up to 60,000 miles (petrol engine). Some of the 500/600cc bikes I've seen that are more than a few years old seem to have 20-30,000 miles on them, is that considered close to end of life? I know you can't give me a concrete answer as it depends on servicing intervals, riding style etc but what kind of mileage would you walk away from knowing that you wouldn't have much re-sale value when you were done with it.

Yeah you're right, If I were to buy a 250 I do some money for a deposit and the rest would probably be 2+ year finance. I can see me late next year looking at my 250 with resentment wanting to upgrade but unable to due to the finance. The CBR500R is stealing my heart and possibly wallet at the moment, I would probably have to buy new though

haha but it's fine to get a quick bike because I'm more likely to only hurt myself if it goes wrong... can't see that line of argument working with my mrs lol. When it came to buying my first car I did the complete opposite, I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and could afford to get ripped off on insurance so I bought a mk4 astra 2.0T convertible... the wind in my hair convertible wasn't enough for me so I now I want a bike I have seen some people making the argument that they started on a quick car so they will be fine on a quick bike... I'm not that stupid however, the idea of getting on a 80+ horsepower bike worries me a lot more than driving my 200 horsepower astra away from the dealership did. Mainly because if I did something wrong in the car I was likely to still have all four wheels on the ground and still be sitting (fairly) comfortably in my seat.

Hi I've already done my theory, CBT booked and as I said above hopefully Mod1 and Mod2 passes will follow shortly after. What I was asking was for the guys who recommended going straight for a 'big' bike to explain some of the reasoning behind it. Half the people I have spoken to have said don't go any bigger than a 250 for a couple of years and I will be a better rider when I do get a bigger bike... yet the other half have said to go to a 650 or similar bike because it will have power to get me out of trouble. I'm struggling to make a decision on which train of though to listen to, maybe after doing my DAS course on a 650 it might make up my mind for me.

About time for another update... I've been a bit slow on getting things organised, mainly due to a busy few months at work. CBT is booked for the end of the month and hopefully DAS will follow shortly after, I've recently bought jacket gloves and helmet so I'm good to go. What I wanted to know was at the time I first posted here people were advising against a 250cc bike. I've still been torn between the two ways of thinking and really struggling to decide what bike I want, the cbr250 looks good but so does the sv650. I've had mixed opinions from all I have spoken to so was hoping someone can point out why they think a 600+cc bike is the right way to go for a first timer. Thanks

Not a lot to report really since I opened this thread up. I passed my theory test last Thursday but still waiting for what seems like decent weather to do my cbt. The place it's booked with has been chasing so I will bite the bullet and get it booked towards the end of the month, still planning to go straight for DAS once the cbt is passed.

If you've got an iPhone or possibly android try the app, it's only a couple of quid and is really good. I passed my theory last Thursday using just this app for practice... A good 80% of the questions in the test I had already seen on the app and the rest were just more or less common sense... Link to the app I used below https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/motorcy ... 86112?mt=8 Good luck next time mate

Yeah that's what I meant but didn't word it properly. The DAS courses I've looked at vary in length... Some include the cbt and some don't so I can do a course that doesn't include it for a cheaper price

The opinion seems pretty much unanimous then. You guys have helped my make up my mind to go for the DAS but use the CBT voucher I've got to knock a days training off the bill. Car needs tax and mot at the end of jan so I've that I'll get the money together and get the theory and the course booked. Now that the mrs has shown her encouragement there's nothing holding me back. Thanks for all you input

Ahh mate, now I feel kinda spoilt. I'm only a few minutes walk away from fried chicken on top of that I live within smelling distance of a dominos... Which does have its downsides. I'm going to my theory booked for sometime in the new year and then take things from there, I hope to be out on two wheels by the summer so I won't put too much pressure on myself and won't end up rushing to get the tests booked and training done

Thanks I had tried looking for which centres did the bike test but couldn't find it. It's a shame really I'm sure it makes the test slightly easier to do it on roads you're familiar with