Information

[Moe1991]

Hi guys my name Is Moh

Just a little background about myself before I ask my questions.

I'm 27 years old I live in Birmingham been driving a car for about 6 years and I have always had a passion for biking.

My new job is in Derby about 40 miles away. So 80 miles commute a day. I brought a little run around for work to stack the mileage on however it's still costing me roughly around £160 a month just getting to and from work. I'm currently a trainee Engineer so my annual salary isnt so much atm and someone at work I was having a conversation with told me he has a 125 and how it costs him a few quid to tank up his motorcycle cheap tax £17 year and cheap insurance which got me thinking that maybe it could be time to pursue biking.

I'm quite tall I'm 6"3 aboht 95kg. I'm a little confused on how I'd need to transfer my car license to a bike license. I know a cbt is compulsory and that woukd restrict me to a 125cc but would a little bike be reliable to a long commute on fast dual carriageways and rounabdouts 80 miles a day. If not than what would I need to do aftwr completing my CBT to step up to a bigger bike?

Any information would be useful to me and thank you for your time

Moh

[mikestrivens]

Hello and welcome. You might think about doing the DAS which would allow you to ride larger capacity bikes. Speak to the CBT instructor about what is required.

[geofferz]

Welcome. You can commute just fine on a 125 but they do take a while to get to 70 (like, 20 seconds), which you may find frustrating after a while. But 125s get you like 100mpg so they're insanely cheap to run. For a 125 you need a 1 day cbt at £100 or so.

For a bigger bike you then need to do a DAS which is usually a 5 day course at maybe £650 or so, with 2 tests at the end after which you can ride any size bike. But big bikes don't get such good mpg - mine does 40 so the same as the car.

[JRH]

As Geof says big bikes are not brilliant on fuel, but if you pass the DAS for an un restricted license then you could go for a 250. Better for dual carriageways and still reasonable fuel consumption.

[mikestrivens]

As Geof says big bikes are not brilliant on fuel, but if you pass the DAS for an un restricted license then you could go for a 250. Better for dual carriageways and still reasonable fuel consumption.

 

I remember the days when a 250cc bike was the highest of aspirations

[JRH]

As Geof says big bikes are not brilliant on fuel, but if you pass the DAS for an un restricted license then you could go for a 250. Better for dual carriageways and still reasonable fuel consumption.

 

I remember the days when a 250cc bike was the highest of aspirations

 

I remember when 250 was a learner bike.

Mate had an RD250 and I wanted the Suzy X7. Never got it.

Sorry

[Guest]

I had the yellow Honda CJ250T......my first new bike. It was dead by 35000 miles. But I loved it and would buy another.....I know a bit more about how to look after them now. It was plenty powerful enough for a long commute - I used to do London - Brum regularly. Their principal weakness was the centrifugal oil filter which invariably never got cleaned and this, coupled with the fact that the camshaft ran dirctly in the head, ensured that very few of them are around today.

[Moe1991]

Thanks for the response guys. Really helpful.

Anyone recommend any good places to take my full bike test in Birmingham?

Also I'm really worried about road safety what is it like riding a bike on the roads day to day driving and dual carriageway?

It would be great if i could get a 250cc for my commute what are they like in terms of reliability?

Would I need to do my CBT forst than full bike test? Roughly how much will it cost?

Thanks for the response

[geofferz]

Thanks for the response guys. Really helpful.

Anyone recommend any good places to take my full bike test in Birmingham?

Also I'm really worried about road safety what is it like riding a bike on the roads day to day driving and dual carriageway?

It's fine. If you crash you'll be in a way worse situation than were you in a metal box (car) but... Don't crash.

It would be great if i could get a 250cc for my commute what are they like in terms of reliability?

Japanese ones will generally be fine - Honda, suzuki, kawasaki, yamaha

Would I need to do my CBT forst than full bike test? Roughly how much will it cost?

You need a cbt before your das. I listed the rough costs above. You also need a theory test before your das which is £23

Thanks for the response

[Guest]

There's plenty of bigger bikes that still get good mpg. The cb500x or the NC series for example. Even a 650 vstrom is capable of 60mpg on the right route.

[Bender]

https://www-motorcyclenews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.motorcyclenews.com/amp/bike-reviews/suzuki/dl250-v-strom/2017/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorcyclenews.com%2Fbike-reviews%2Fsuzuki%2Fdl250-v-strom%2F2017%2F

[Gerontious]

65mpg was at the low end of the fuel consumption range on my F800S... most bikes that are sold as commuters will easily do very similar mpgs. And thats before you start looking at super scooters.. the burgman 400 can do anything up to 80mpg. with the mid 70s being normal.

[someone]

There's plenty of bigger bikes that still get good mpg. The cb500x or the NC series for example. Even a 650 vstrom is capable of 60mpg on the right route.

 

Indeed. My CB500F does around 79 to 80 mpg on average on all sorts of roads including plenty of overtaking on dual carriageways and motorways. Around 250 miles on a tank for about £19 at current prices. And up to 82 mpg on average with Tesco Momentum petrol, which have tested is slightly better value in cost per mile.

Today I was halfway into the reserve when I spent £19.89 for a full tank of Momentum and got home 240 miles later with one bar still showing on the gauge.

One thing to add to geofferz's advice to Moh, even though you have a car licence you still need to do a separate bike theory test. Despite most of it being the same as the car one. And most schools include the CBT in their training packages for beginners, so if you are planning on doing the DAS straight away that should be included in the cost. As will bike and clothing hire and insurance. So the only thing you need to pay for in addition to the training cost is the theory test.

[TimR]

What do you want?

i am not a number

[geofferz]

What do you want?

i am not a number

 

Your number here is 19472 https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=19472