Questions about CBT and full licence

[mako2015]

I may be totally ignorant but I thought that once you have your car driving licence you could automatically ride small motorbikes. Not taking about huge ones but scooters or the smaller motorbikes.

Please can you help me with the following:

I understand I need to do the CBT to ride bikes of up to 125cc. What if I want to start with something above 125cc?

So the CBT is valid for 2 years and then I'm basically "forced" to do my full motorbike licence if I don't want to repeat the CBT. Is the full licence valid forever? And do I have to get the full licence even if I never want to ride anything above 125cc?

Thanks in advance for answering!

[Tango]

125cc is the max you can ride on L-plates......so you'd need to do the full test to ride anything bigger, irrespective of whether you have a full car licence or not.

The CBT needs to be renewed every 2 years unless you pass your bike test.

The full bike licence depends on age......There are 3 tiers.....17-19 yrs is the A1 licence , which would allow you to ride up to a 125cc without L-plates.....19-24 yrs is the A2 license, which allows you to ride a bike up 47KW output........24 yrs and over (21 if you pass your A2 test at 19) is the full A licence, which allows you to ride any bike. There are some other caveats, but that's the gist of it.....

[Bobber Dave]

Also you don’t need to take compulsory basic training (CBT) to ride a moped if you passed your car driving test before 1 February 2001. You’ll still need to complete CBT to ride a motorbike, however.