Dombo

Sounds very much like my experience last year at a large franchise school, two on scooters and me on geared. I’m over twice your age but driven cars for 40 years and ridden road and mountain bikes for similar. One of the scooter pupils was a pizza jockey on his fourth or fifth renewal so aced everything. I was left to my own devices and told at noon to go home as I wouldn’t be road ready in time but to come back at a later date. I changed schools, went with a local independent instructor, got my CBT, then back to him a year later for my full licence. Much better experience - this instructor had been teaching for almost 30 years, very keen on biking and a natural teacher. Oddly enough, I have since found it easier to ride a geared bike than scooters as gears, feathering the clutch, dragging the brake etc just seems to give more control, even though I still consider myself a total novice, just without L plates. Oh, and bigger bikes are much easier to ride than little 125s on the road.

Don’t worry. I was also sent home at noon last year for not being able to control a geared bike on my CBT. The other two learners were a pizza guy on his 4th renewal so aced all the figure 8s , U turns etc, and a young woman who was doing ok as well. I, aged 60 at the time, kept over revving, stalling, couldn’t turn for toffee, which was annoying as I have ridden and raced mountain bikes for 30 years, and had a driving licence since 1980. I then changed schools, everything suddenly clicked - which may have been due to different, better handling bikes (Honda Grom instead of the standard CBF 125 at the previous school), and nicer weather, sunny instead of pouring rain. Since then my only riding has been a week rental here of a 125, another week touring Vietnam on a small dual sport, and in June this year did my DAS. Practice does help massively as since doing my DAS all I’ve done is a day touring off road on green lanes on a 250 dual sport bike and I found my slow speed stuff had deteriorated somewhat. However the best bit of advice I was given was to look where you want to go, really turn your head, and the bike will follow.

Well done. You’ll find everything so much easier on the bigger bikes for full licence. I also struggled on CBT hill starts, mainly because I’m used to putting right foot down when cycling, so kept trying to hold the little 125 on the front brake while attempting to give enough throttle not to stall. Luckily my bit of Surrey where I learned is quite hilly so we got lots of natural hill start practice without realising.

I had exact same experience trying to contact them last year, just got voicemail and emails unanswered. Hence I went with AJH for CBT and DAS, as detailed above, and very pleased I did so.

I did my CBT and DAS with AJH. Very good trainer, friendly, extremely patient and excellent bikes. For CBT we had Honda MSX which handled very well, and Yamaha MT07 for the DAS. Both times was just two of us trainees and the instructor. He has plenty of helmets and gloves and also provided waterproof overtrousers for the days on our DAS course when it rained. CBT training ground was a school playground marked out with cones and after safety briefing, full explanation of the bikes and importance of always wearing proper kit we practised everything until he was happy we’d be safe on the road, then it was two hours riding on a full mix of high street, country lanes and suburban roads. The area has a few hills so we got to do hill starts naturally as part of the ride. DAS was lots of riding and a great deal of Mod 1 practice (which I certainly needed). I did 5 days to get the most training, and passed both modules first time. The bikes are in very good condition and he is a very keen biker. Tests were at Mitcham and Burgess Hill so we got a real mix of roads, from busy South London to fast country, A roads with roundabouts and even a bit of 70mph dual carriageway. I would definitely recommend AJH to anyone.

Several times as a cyclist and riding motorbikes (I have a month-old licence so am no way a “biker”). Finished a road race, came to a halt, forgot I was clipped in and toppled off. Mountain biking down some steep rocky and rooty trail I braked, looked at some roots and fell off - my mates of course looked beyond the roots, took the trail at speed and sailed past unscathed. Pedal bike again, hit black ice on a bend, bike went down instantly. That one was the most painful. All the others just embarrassing. Practising U-turns on a rented YSR 125, looked down, touched the brake as the bike felt it was going to fall, stalled and fell. Top tip, give it more gas and the bike will right itself. Rental bike in Vietnam, trying to keep the bike moving in mud, eyes fixed on the front wheel as it ploughed its own furrow, crossed the trail buried itself and I fell off. Same thing on DAS, stalled the MT07 while making a Horlicks of figure 8s. Then dropped it while doing the wheel the bike from one space to another practice.

Or one of these, Harley Electra Tri-Glide

My advice for the slow stuff, having stalled enough times on CBT and managed to drop an MT07 on DAS, is to keep the revs up, around 3k, and slip the clutch. Bike clutches are wet so don’t mind being slipped, unlike car clutches. Also keep your head up and look where you want to go. A mate showed me a neat trick, he put a glove on the ground, told me to look at it and asked “can you see the top of the tree?” I could. Then he told me to look halfway up the tree - “can you still see the glove?” I could. “Then you don't need to look at it and you won’t hit it will you?”

Some of the peripheral kit can be sourced on eBay. For example I got a pair of leather Alpinestars Sp-1 gloves for £25, Sidi Black Rain boots for £50. Bullit armoured Covec jeans were £60 in the sale from a big online store. Armoured jacket - I got a summer Revit one and can wear waterproofs or warmer jackets over it. As for helmets you have to try them on in a shop. I find HJC fit me very well so got their C10 model and a pinlock visor, about £120 total. I also have their i30 half face model with a sun visor but found I never use it. The C10 has no fancy features but is the latest EC 22.06 standard, and fits perfectly. CBT and A2 lessons are about right at £1k total, I did a 5 day DAS course. Insurance is down to your age and with luck it’ll come each year down with no claims discount. As an example I am 60, got full licence a month ago and was quoted £500 for standard 400-500cc bikes, Hondas, Royal Enfield etc, second hand value around £3-4k. I had no prior bike experience, even 125 on L plates.

Change schools. I did a five day course with an independent school, sole instructor training two of us for DAS, I am similar age bracket to you. Instructor had been doing it for close on 30 years and was a very keen biker with an impressive collection of bikes. Mod 1 was on day 4, Mod 2 the following week on the final day. Every one of the first four days we practised Mod 1 stuff and the instructor never took his eyes off us - luckily for me as I was struggling with the fig 8 and U turn right up until we headed off to the test centre ( where I somehow nailed it). Riding between car parks for the Mod 1 sessions was our Mod 2 practice. The bikes were in excellent condition, with crash bungs and bar protectors and I had no trouble getting into neutral or any other mechanical issue. Both of us passed first time with only one minor in my case. Definitely try another school.

You should give Spain a try. The Pyrenees are great and there are some fantastic routes in Navarra. Check navarider.com.

Congratulations on the Mod 1 pass. I found that by far the harder test, having just done both in the last couple of weeks. As well as lifesavers, don’t forget to cancel indicators on Mod 2. Other than that, just treat it like a ride. I have seen the same issue with insurance quotes, car licence for 40 years, garage the bike, looking at Honda CB500. Cheapest quote is £500 and that’s with £1250 excess, so I’m thinking maybe get something small and cheap for a year to continue learning on and hopefully get some NCD.

You pass through a couple of yellow cones which has a speed trap. The examiner puts his hand up once you’re through so he knows your speed is recorded. The issue I had when practising this was looking at the speedo so barely getting past 30mph. By the time of my Mod 1 test I pretty much knew what 30 and 40 felt like so just wellied it through. The engine note helps too. Leave it in second as you’ll probably have changed into third in real life before getting to 30 so if it sounds a bit more revvy than usual chances are your speed is ok. I had been changing gear far too early on the road rides, treating it like a car. It was only when joining a dual carriageway and getting up to 70 I realised how quick these bikes are. 50-70 knocks spots off a 911!

I have just done mine. I spent four days of the five day DAS course, including morning of my Mod 1 test on day 4, making an utter Horlicks of my figure 8s and U turns. I kept looking down at the cones rather than up, keeping the gap between them in my peripheral vision. U turn practice I kept hitting the opposite line as I was looking at it. Test was in Mitcham at lunchtime so a slow crawl through 20mph and walking pace South London traffic then it all came together. Figure 8s I kept my head up, ignored the cones and made it, U turn I twisted my head round like an owl as I started the turn and looked way up in the distance, ending up with a foot to spare from the line. In both instances I kept clutch and throttle steady to provide drive and used the back brake to control the speed. For the emergency stop and hazard avoidance I left the visor open to judge speed better - there’s a good run up to get up to speed so I managed to inadvertently hit 65kph through the trap on both. They seem pointless as exercises but we later had some tight mini roundabouts where the slow, tight control of the figure 8 helped, and later in a petrol station, coming in tight then round to the pumps. Then in real life you’ll have tight corners, hairpin bends going up or downhill, manoeuvring around car decks on ferries, etc. Several mates of mine who ride tell me they still practice slow speed stuff, as they hate being seen paddling anywhere.

Pleased to say I passed Mod 2 today. Details on the Mod 2 thread for those interested.