Bike training schools are a rip off?

[Ryder2889]

Having decided that I want to get my confidence back and enjoy riding again without the fear of falling off (something I have really been having trouble with), I need to get some training for my MOD 1 & MOD 2 tests as discussed in a previous thread I started.

I am looking to learn on a budget, ive spent a lot of money and have a taxed and insured 125 of my own, so have no interest in handing over 500 - 700 notes to a riding school for about a weeks training. With the wage packet I take home that is about 100 hours work to earn 500 post tax British pounds.

Anyway I called a riding school, one of the few to offer training by the hour (minimum of 2 hours, maximum of 4 per session). The prices quoted were pretty much ridiculous.

£30 per hour using their bikes

£25 per hour using my own

What do you get for this? You get followed around (and get to follow another student around) for half a morning), £50 well spent? I am not so sure.

I need another course of action. I am just not sure what.

[Stu]

then start to add in to that the instructors wage fuel insurance bike maintanence then liability insurnce too

i dont think its a bad price

[Ryder2889]

then start to add in to that the instructors wage fuel insurance bike maintanence then liability insurnce too

i dont think its a bad price

 

I agree... £25 - £30 per hour for USING ONE OF THEIR MACHINES is perfectly reasonable.

But £25 while using your own is what shocked me. I was hoping for about £15 per hour on my own machine.

[Aaron]

£25 per hour is cheap. If the instructor isn't the company owner then his wage and contributions have to come out of that before any profit is made. Then factor that working like this means that you can't guarentee that you'll get a full days work every day.

Now I earn a little under £25 an hour, which I'm happy with (although with petrol the way it is it doesn't go as far!), but I get that guarenteed every day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks per year, 5 of which I don't have to work for. It costs my employer more than that with NI contributions etc. Plus I get sick pay, death in service insurance, etc.

So £25 to book a random hour's work seems reasonable to me. A plumber will charge a £40 call out fee before he even does any work.

[Ryder2889]

£25 per hour is cheap

 

Unless you earn £5.93 per hour BEFORE TAX

[Aaron]

£25 per hour is cheap

 

Unless you earn £5.93 per hour BEFORE TAX

 

I mean when in the market for an individual hour of someone's time then £25 is cheap. It'd cost you a large chunk of the £15 you was hoping for just to hire a cleaner to come to your house for 1 single hour. Something anybody can do with no prerequisit skills, and with no operating costs other than perhaps a few miles of petrol.

But yes, ofcourse, it gets expensive! Do you know anyone who could just ride with you a bit? An instructor might be needed to pass the test (probably not everyone has lessons), but with regards to confidence in not falling off then just some time in the saddle will sort you out, especially with somneone around to see you doing things wrong.

[Rymez2K]

Hi mate,

At least you could find hourly lessons, all the places near me would only do a days lesson, which is impossible to fit around work.

I therefor chose to do mod1 and 2, on my own.

Mod1 is easy enough to practice for, you can google the measurements and buy some cheap cones, and practice.

The actual mod 1 test layout is huge.

In all I have been on the bike for about a month and done about a 1000 miles.

Mod 2 is basically just listening to the examiner and driving sensibly, lane position, obs etc.

In that time, I have read up loads and watched heaps of videos online to help.

I would recommend the road craft its a bit slow in places but gets you thinking.

I will now be using the money I saved to in this to do, bike safe, enhanced rider scheme, iam/rospa etc etc.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Pete

[Boro Jake]

The prices quoted are cheap, the instructer cant do anything about your cash intake. Learning yourself on a 125 will be difficult and you mean spend more cash on retests. I thought i was a decent driver (clocked my 125 to 15k miles) how wrong was i when i started training! picked up loads of bad habits.

But Yeah... will cost you 400-700 quid to pass your test.

[Susieque]

IMO from your circumstances as described, I would 'teach' yourself. You've done the CBT, you've got a bike (something that a lot would envy!) so if I were you I'd get out on the road & ride to gain the confidence and ability.

It would be sensible to maybe have an assessment by an instructor to tell you how many hrs formal training you might need & to definitely have a few hrs training pre-test so you can make sure you have the skills to pass your test.

[TC]

Training isnt cheap where ever you go I Thought £25-30 was a good price. It irrevant what the pupil earns. That is the price to cover all the overheads That Stu mentioned.

If everything was based on indivdual wages your Car Insurance would be £200 instead of £4,000.

[Guest]

I'm paying £60 for 2hrs mod 1 training on my own bike, and £120 for 7.30am - 1pm mod 2 training. The prices you were quoted are fair. Stop moaning about your salary. Its not the training schools fault you earn £5.93.

[Remy]

After I did my CBT I rode round myself for about six months clocking up over 2000 miles. This enabled me to slowly build confidence and practise on things I wasn't good at, then had a few hours' instruction to pick up any weaknesses before my tests.

I paid £200 to get me through Mod 1 - this was one afternoon's practise of the manouevres and again an hour before the test, and the test itself, but for me it was money well spent as I don't think I'd have passed without the training. I then paid £85 for 3 hours' instruction prior to Mod 2 so I think your prices are as cheap as you are going to find!

[Guest]

After I did my CBT I rode round myself for about six months clocking up over 2000 miles. This enabled me to slowly build confidence and practise on things I wasn't good at, then had a few hours' instruction to pick up any weaknesses before my tests.

I paid £200 to get me through Mod 1 - this was one afternoon's practise of the manouevres and again an hour before the test, and the test itself, but for me it was money well spent as I don't think I'd have passed without the training. I then paid £85 for 3 hours' instruction prior to Mod 2 so I think your prices are as cheap as you are going to find!

 

Hi,

If you dont mind me asking, which manouevres did you find hard? Is it hard to get up to 30mph on a 125cc?

Thanks

[Susieque]

Stop moaning about your salary. Its not the training schools fault you earn £5.93.

 

That really isn't a helpful thing to say! A lot of people don't earn very much and have to be careful with their money!

Please keep those sort of comments to yourself!!

[Guest]

Stop moaning about your salary. Its not the training schools fault you earn £5.93.

 

That really isn't a helpful thing to say! A lot of people don't earn very much and have to be careful with their money!

Please keep those sort of comments to yourself!!

 

So are you suggesting training schools and other businesses should base their prices on your salary? What he earns is completley inmaterial, he should have never have brought it up in the first place. Bottom line is £25 p/h is their price take it or leave it. I doubt training schools have the same massive profit margins like companies such as dominoes/ pizza hut etc.

[Susieque]

Stop moaning about your salary. Its not the training schools fault you earn £5.93.

 

That really isn't a helpful thing to say! A lot of people don't earn very much and have to be careful with their money!

Please keep those sort of comments to yourself!!

 

So are you suggesting training schools and other businesses should base their prices on your salary? What he earns is completley inmaterial, he should have never have brought it up in the first place. Bottom line is £25 p/h is their price take it or leave it. I doubt training schools have the same massive profit margins like companies such as dominoes/ pizza hut etc.

 

Not suggesting that at all - I made no reference to training school prices. I am assuming that the OP mentioned his salary as it has a direct impact on the amount of training he can afford.

What I AM suggesting is that to tell someone to 'stop moaning' isn't a constructive comment. That might be what you were thinking but there really was no need to post that thought!

[Bogof]

After I did my CBT I rode round myself for about six months clocking up over 2000 miles. This enabled me to slowly build confidence and practise on things I wasn't good at, then had a few hours' instruction to pick up any weaknesses before my tests.

 

My son did something similar.

He rode around for a few months and booked Mod 1, passed it on 2nd attempt, then booked and passed Mod 2 first attempt.

Personally I think professional training should be compulsory, as there is a huge difference between training to pass a test and training to stay alive on the roads. It worries me that people like my son have missed out on that vital training.

10% of newly qualified riders are killed or seriously injured within their first year as a full licence holder. Professional training increases the chances that you will be amongst the 90% and not the 10%

No matter how little you earn, what price do you put on your life?

[Stu]

Seem to be getting a lot of keyboard worriers about these days

[Aaron]

Training isnt cheap where ever you go I Thought £25-30 was a good price. It irrevant what the pupil earns. That is the price to cover all the overheads That Stu mentioned.

If everything was based on indivdual wages your Car Insurance would be £200 instead of £4,000.

 

Dude! where do you live?! Lol. 4k?!

[Remy]

If you dont mind me asking, which manouevres did you find hard? Is it hard to get up to 30mph on a 125cc?

 

Well all of it was useful - handling the bike in the slow manoeuvres via throttle/clutch/back brake - I had got into the habit of using the front brake more and needed to practise this. I also had a bit of a mental block about the u-turn (don't find it easy turning circles to the right!) and it was very useful to see how much space you've got; and how hard you've got to cane it to get up to speed in the space allowed, and which gear it's best to be in.

We had to get up to speed from standstill, then if we could do that theoretically it was easier on the actual test because you are already (or should be) doing 19mph from the turn so have the momentum going. But you have to try to gain the right speed all the way through the turn, as if you go too fast you will have to slow down and then have to try and pick up your speed again for the trap - this is what cost me 1kph on the swerve! I went through the turn in second, accelerated out of it and moved up to third for the speed trap - did it perfectly for the emergency stop but went too fast into the turn for the swerve. What I found tricky was getting it up to speed then knowing you have to either do an emergency stop/swerve immediately after, it goes against your instinct!

I should imagine you have to accelerate much harder on the 125 than you would on a 500 to achieve the right speed.

Some instructors hire the test centre so you know exactly what you are up against - ours had doubled booked so we had to practise at his yard.

Sorry to hijack your thread OP!

[Throttled]

The schools I have used are more like £40 per hour.