xMachina

Erm, that's exactly what it is - compulsory basic TRAINING! Sounds to me like he just likes doing renewals, I'm sure if you go to another local school they will have had plenty of students go to them with similar stories.

Going to buck the trend slightly - I'd say it depends on a few things on which route is best for you. 1. Do you have any previous experience of riding - even if its offroad? 2. How serious are you on progressing to full licence 3. Budget I went with the CBT/125 route and lasted 6 months before I upgraded. Just consider your options carefully, especially if you have a car license and can already ride a bike as you are 90% of the way there anyway and its a massive waste of time and money to get a 125 and want to upgrade a few months later.

Probably wish my bikes weren't still in pieces after deciding to use lockdown time to do all those jobs I've been putting off!

Many years I used to do urbex and I went to a car graveyard, this was all behind a tiny derelict bungalow in Herts which is long gone now. http://urban-ghost.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-car-graveyard.html

You can get hearing protection ones like isotunes, etc. Just seems like a redundant gadget to me, but then I spent years as a driver before sat navs were common and you actually had to use a map to find your drops so remembering routes is something I'm used to.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious if you need to plan the route on a smartphone why wouldn't you just use that? I have mine in my pocket and 1 earphone in so I get the audio directions and I can't say I've ever had an issue with that. I'd much rather have audio to follow than a tiny arrow on the bars.

Personally I wouldn't bother. I'd much rather them undo a couple of screws than rip off what ever the plates attached to.

Can I get 13 again please.

School bikes are all battered to hell, most of them have got bent bars and twisted forks and ride like an utter dog.

Quoted for truth.

Why would you have to re-learn to ride a different bike? I've never got on a different bike and not known how all the basic controls work or forgot that I need to put my foot down when I stop or I'll fall over. If your local school wants a grand for someone who can already ride I'd suggest looking for a school that isn't in the business of ripping people off! Mine asked me about my experience and as I'd been riding about on my 125 we went straight out on the 600. I did 1 lesson and the tests. As said, its up to you but why you would want to limit yourself for no other reason than the old '125's are enough' argument is beyond me - if in 5 years time you decide that you've changed your mind you have to go through the EXACT SAME test again. - not exactly money saving.

When I decided to get on the road with a bike I bought a WR125X, I had been looking at buying a new Lexmoto Adrenaline for around the same money. After realising my fond memories of screaming 125 2 strokes were not going to be relived on a modern 4 stroke (They are shite) I sold it 4 months down the line - for more than I paid for it. Had I bought the Lexmoto it would have been a very, very different story.

I used to like Spicy, when his videos were him riding about, but his recent stuff can be a bit boring and in some cases poorly researched so the stuff he’s on about just isn’t correct. There’s only so many clock videos you can take too.

They're all the same, its like when there was the trouble at the anti-capitalist demonstrations and the protestors were filming the police 'brutality' on their iPhones. For every 1 who actually does care about the cause there's 99 there just to cause disruption and claim they are 'part of the solution' - not entirely sure what that means though. Usually it involves an overly simplistic solution to a very complex problem with little to no understand or care for the repercussions.

Get the lexmoto, we could do with a laugh...

Would you call that a restomod?

Awesome, well done!

As said, what are your tyres like? When I got my Bandit it felt really heavy at low speed, initially I put it down to it actually being quite heavy and new to me. I replaced the tyres and what a difference it made! I knew the rear was quite squared off but the front wasn't much better either. New rubber totally transformed the bike and while its never going to be light it certainly made it much more nimble. Pressures can make a hell of a difference too, even being just a couple of psi down.

Could all get demolished tomorrow to build a hyperspace bypass.

What annoys me is the 'save the planet' crap. The planet has survived far worse than the human race and when we blink out of existence I'm sure it will continue on its merry way. If you don't believe me, ask a dinosaur.

1/2, 3/8, 1/4 is the drive size, this is less important than the torque range in the applications most people will be using them for - i.e. if the bolts you need do torque to 25Nm a torque wrench that covers 40-200Nm isn't going to do it regardless of its drive size. It's unlikely you will get a 'one size fits all' wrench, I have one that does 10-80Nm and one that's 40-200Nm. To give you an idea my caliper bolts, pinch bolts, etc are 25Nm so they are the smaller 10-80Nm wrench but the axle is 110Nm so is the larger 40-200Nm one. Generally the higher the torque rating of the wrench the bigger the drive will be but at the lower ends there will likely be a choice.

For the sanity of the rest of us can someone get the biscuits.

I rode a crosser loads as a teenager, had a car license for 20 years and did my CBT and then rode a 125 for 3 months before having 1 lesson and then the tests. The courses are designed for outright beginners, speak to a school as lots will do hourly/day rates. Try getting insurance as a new rider if you have just been done for riding otherwise in accordance to your license and having no insurance (as its going to be void) and then tell me £500 for training is steep!

Yellow wires, black wires, green wires, doesn't matter as long as they are all the same thickness.

If you are already thinking about moving on to bigger bikes I would say buy used and buy something popular so that when you shift it on you aren't going to lose too much. You also say you are open to different styles of bike, you may find that a sports bike style one doesn't 'fit' you or a supermoto's hard seat is just too uncomfortable on longer rides, you don't want to spend big bucks on a bike only to find riding it causes you issues and you are stuck with it for 2 years or face a big hit in depreciation.