Today is the day! CBT Incoming!

[ChrisBiggsUK]

In just over an hour, my CBT will be starting!  I'm excited and terrified in equal measure.  

This will not only be my first time riding a motorcycle, but the first time in my 43 years on this earth that I will have been in charge of any motor vehicle on the road of any kind.

I'm heading in to the day admitting and acknowledging that I know nothing.  I'm the most novice of novices imaginable but I'm ready to learn, ready to take on board everything that is said and ready to break out of my comfort zone and (should they think me able to do so) hit the road!  Weather forecast isn't great and it looks like it is due to rain all day, but diving in at the deep end like this is the only way to truly learn.  

I'm excited.  I'm nervous.  I'm ready!

LETS DO THIS!

(stay tuned for an end of day summary this evening when I get back home)

[Old-codger]

Good luck but im sure you wont need it, hope the weather stays good for you and all the idiots keep away from your route.

[Simon Davey]

Good luck @ChrisBiggsUK

[ChrisBiggsUK]

Well ladies and gents, boys and girls, the verdict is in.  Drumroll please...

I didn't pass today.

I went in to today knowing nothing and ended the day knowing a whole bunch.  From where I started this morning, never having driven a car or ridden a motorcycle, and indeed never having been in control of a vehicle of any sort, to ending the day pootling along at 40 miles an hour, I truly have come on in leaps and bounds.

Where I'm still struggling (from my point of view);

1 - Moving off.  I'm having great difficulty in making sure I'm down in gears when I come to a stop, and making sure I ease the clutch and throttle gently to prevent stalling when starting back up again.  There were several mis-steps of this sort during the road ride section.  I know I'm struggling there, and indeed gear control was one of my big concerns going in to all this having never driven or ridden before.  Once I'm on the move, however, gears up and down are pretty smooth for me (well, they are jittery, but smoothness will come in time and with practice).  I know I need to work on this but that is only really something I can do on a bike.

2 - Staying focused whenever there were mis-steps.  Whenever something went wrong, although I didn't panic and would like to think I remained mostly cool, calm and collected, I know that I got flustered, and this made things worse.  A cool head on my shoulders is essential.  Mistakes will happen.  I need to focus on what I need to do to get back on track, and do so safely, rather than focus on what just went wrong and compound the problems.  Staying cool and calm and collected while riding is, again, something that will only come with time on the bike.  

3 - Controlling speed around corners. I came really unstuck here to the point that during the road ride, I came off on a roundabout.  Entirely my own fault as I accelerated from a stop too quickly, not fully grasping how quickly bikes (even my 2006 CG125) can actually accelerate.  Had I been going a few miles an hour slower, I wouldn't have went so fast around the roundabout, wouldn't have went so wide as a result, and wouldn't have clipped the curb and fallen off.  Rookie mistake and one that I most certainly fully acknowledge.  On a plus note - my kit works!  Not so much as a scratch on me (though a somewhat bruised ego).  Learning to control how much throttle I'm using will, again, come in time.  I am lucky in a way that I was riding the bike that I have bought so that all these little learning curve mistakes can be fully figured out and as I get to grips with riding, I'm also getting to grips with the actual bike I'll be riding.  On a similarly related note - I now have a scratch on the bike from when I came off on the roundabout.  First thing I said was that I was glad I was riding my own bike instead of one of the dealerships fancy shiny bikes as I would have felt awful had I scuffed one of their bikes.  Priorities, eh?

I'm sure that from the instructors point of view there were likely a great many more things that I either did or didn't do, but those are the ones that are sticking most in my mind.

I'm not going to say that I'm happy with not passing, but I am going to say that I fully understand where I went wrong, fully accept that as it stands, I'm not quite safe enough to be out on the road on my own.  I'm booked in again for an hour on Saturday morning which, the instructor informs me, should be sufficient to get me over the finish line, so to speak.  I know what I need to work on, what I need to focus on, and more importantly I learned a huge amount and had a great day!

All in all a great day was had, lots learned, and I can only improve and learn more from here.

Saturday can't come soon enough!  I'm psyched!

[Yorky]

Seems to me that you have a great attitude.

Everything will come together eventually, and you are savvy enough to know that.

For the sake of taking a little bit more time you will become a far safer and more proficient rider, and you'll enjoy biking a lot more for it.

Edited October 9, 2024 by Yorky

[Old-codger]

Sounds like you had a good day considering and you learnt a lot and more importantly you enjoyed it.

Just get back out there take your time soak up all the knowledge and you will get there.

[Fiddlesticks]

To be fair, if you've never driven or ridden before I think that's very good going. There's a lot to pick up starting from scratch, and the more time you can spend with an instructor the better.

Have fun next weekend.

 

[Simon Davey]

Sounds like you've made a huge leap forward, it'll only get better.

[Bungleaio]

Your attitude is great, so many have an unwillingness to accept criticism which really hampers the learning process. 

 

Enjoy saturday, I'm sure you'll have a great day and come out with the CBT pass.

[Hairsy]

Doing it in one day from your starting point would have been amazing but it was a huge ask. By the sounds of things, you've now got some really valuable first experiences and your willingness to learn from these experiences will do you many favours.

 

I hope Saturday goes really well for you.

[bud]

It sounds like you made good progress.

A lot of schools would have just put you on a scooter so you didn't have to worry about gears. You would have most likely got a pass. But still wouldn't have known how to ride a bike.

[ChrisBiggsUK]

22 minutes ago, bud said:

It sounds like you made good progress.

A lot of schools would have just put you on a scooter so you didn't have to worry about gears. You would have most likely got a pass. But still wouldn't have known how to ride a bike.

I was actually considering going down the scooter route, as not having to worry about gears would have made things easier.  With buying and wanting to ride an actual motorcycle though, doing the CBT on a geared bike just made more sense.  A significantly more difficult route, given that I have never driven or ridden before, but one that, when I am finally trained up enough, will have been all the more worthwhile.

You are absolutely correct though.  I may have passed on a scooter, but wouldn't know how to actually ride a bike.  This is, I think, a flaw in the CBT scheme as it currently stands as whether you pass on a scooter or geared bike, you are then 'allowed' to go off on to the street and ride either.  Seems silly and perhaps there should be separate manual and automatic CBT's.  The instructor did say during the end of day debrief that he believes there is something happening legislatively to make the CBT a two day course instead of a one day one as especially for complete novices like myself, it is a lot to squeeze in to one day.  

I'm certainly ready to hit the ground running for the top-up session this coming Saturday and will hopefully be able to perform much better.  I know where my mistakes were, I know what I need to work on (though the actual working on it can only really be done on a bike) and I know that as a complete novice, even after the crash course yesterday, I still know nothing and every day, even every hour of instruction is priceless and will serve to build me up into someone that (God willing) can ride on the road safely.  I'm determined.  I'm driven.  I'm going to ride!

[AstronautNinja]

40 minutes ago, ChrisBiggsUK said:

I was actually considering going down the scooter route, as not having to worry about gears would have made things easier.  With buying and wanting to ride an actual motorcycle though, doing the CBT on a geared bike just made more sense.  A significantly more difficult route, given that I have never driven or ridden before, but one that, when I am finally trained up enough, will have been all the more worthwhile.

You are absolutely correct though.  I may have passed on a scooter, but wouldn't know how to actually ride a bike.  This is, I think, a flaw in the CBT scheme as it currently stands as whether you pass on a scooter or geared bike, you are then 'allowed' to go off on to the street and ride either.  Seems silly and perhaps there should be separate manual and automatic CBT's.  The instructor did say during the end of day debrief that he believes there is something happening legislatively to make the CBT a two day course instead of a one day one as especially for complete novices like myself, it is a lot to squeeze in to one day.  

I'm certainly ready to hit the ground running for the top-up session this coming Saturday and will hopefully be able to perform much better.  I know where my mistakes were, I know what I need to work on (though the actual working on it can only really be done on a bike) and I know that as a complete novice, even after the crash course yesterday, I still know nothing and every day, even every hour of instruction is priceless and will serve to build me up into someone that (God willing) can ride on the road safely.  I'm determined.  I'm driven.  I'm going to ride!

Tbh learning gears, clutch, throttle, bike control, traffic interaction as an adult having never moved a vehicle is quite a list to learn, I certainly don't learn things as fast as I did when I was 16.

 

Apologies if I've missed the answer but what's the plan after the CBT? Direct access or some time on a 125?

 

All the issues you list will soon seem silly to you in a years time once you've got some miles under your belt. 

 

Obviously you know what needs to be done. As silly as it may sound I spent a good amount of time just thinking about my mod 1 and 2 tests, going through the check list of all the important bits in my head till they were firmly memorised. This definitely helped me having them drilled into memory so all I really had to focus on was traffic etc. 

 

Just press on as you say. It'll all turn out well

[ChrisBiggsUK]

1 minute ago, AstronautNinja said:

 

Apologies if I've missed the answer but what's the plan after the CBT? Direct access or some time on a 125?

 

 

After the CBT, I have every intention of staying on my little Honda 125 for a year or two.  I need to not only get to grips with riding, but also being on the road.  I need to get myself up to a level where I know, 110%, that I'm safe, fully in control, not a danger to myself or anyone else, and that I can handle anything thrown my way on a 125 before I can even think of moving on to a proper 'big boy' bike.  Speed and power are not my goals.  Being able to just get out there, have a casual ride around, maybe go on little overnight trips on my own, and just do more than my legs or my Wifes vehicle can do for me.  For that, the little invincible Honda CG will serve me well.  At least for the next couple of years.  

I've waited 43 years to start to learn how to ride.  I'm certainly in no rush to push ahead and on to the biggest, fastest and most torquey bike possible.  Slowly does it.  Certainly for the foreseeable.

[AstronautNinja]

27 minutes ago, ChrisBiggsUK said:

 

After the CBT, I have every intention of staying on my little Honda 125 for a year or two.  I need to not only get to grips with riding, but also being on the road.  I need to get myself up to a level where I know, 110%, that I'm safe, fully in control, not a danger to myself or anyone else, and that I can handle anything thrown my way on a 125 before I can even think of moving on to a proper 'big boy' bike.  Speed and power are not my goals.  Being able to just get out there, have a casual ride around, maybe go on little overnight trips on my own, and just do more than my legs or my Wifes vehicle can do for me.  For that, the little invincible Honda CG will serve me well.  At least for the next couple of years.  

I've waited 43 years to start to learn how to ride.  I'm certainly in no rush to push ahead and on to the biggest, fastest and most torquey bike possible.  Slowly does it.  Certainly for the foreseeable.

A decent stint on a 125 will do you the world of good. Light and being easy to ride will make the learning curve far more mellow. 

 

You'll soon move from having to think about every tiny bit to just feeling and doing instinctively 

[ChrisBiggsUK]

20 minutes ago, AstronautNinja said:

A decent stint on a 125 will do you the world of good. Light and being easy to ride will make the learning curve far more mellow. 

 

You'll soon move from having to think about every tiny bit to just feeling and doing instinctively 

That is certainly what my thinking is.  Unless and until everything becomes second nature, I dare not even think about progressing on to anything bigger.  Doing so without knowing in my heart that I'm truly ready and capable is just asking for trouble and would put myself and indeed other road users, at great risk and that is something I do not want.

[RideWithStyles]

33 minutes ago, ChrisBiggsUK said:

 

After the CBT, I have every intention of staying on my little Honda 125 for a year or two.  I need to not only get to grips with riding, but also being on the road.  I need to get myself up to a level where I know, 110%, that I'm safe, fully in control, not a danger to myself or anyone else, and that I can handle anything thrown my way on a 125 before I can even think of moving on to a proper 'big boy' bike.  Speed and power are not my goals.  Being able to just get out there, have a casual ride around, maybe go on little overnight trips on my own, and just do more than my legs or my Wifes vehicle can do for me.  For that, the little invincible Honda CG will serve me well.  At least for the next couple of years.  

I've waited 43 years to start to learn how to ride.  I'm certainly in no rush to push ahead and on to the biggest, fastest and most torquey bike possible.  Slowly does it.  Certainly for the foreseeable.

a better person to understand is when you make a mistake and learn from it rather than never make one.

know nothing and only learn from being told something by someone (if your lucky) is bit like the difference between real life experience and some college/university courses .

based on the previous posts included, Wise words,  your mentality is correct to have a positive and lasting biking experience in a whole.

keep it up.

[AstronautNinja]

16 minutes ago, ChrisBiggsUK said:

That is certainly what my thinking is.  Unless and until everything becomes second nature, I dare not even think about progressing on to anything bigger.  Doing so without knowing in my heart that I'm truly ready and capable is just asking for trouble and would put myself and indeed other road users, at great risk and that is something I do not want.

Jumping higher than the crack of your arse will indeed lead to a bad time 

[bonio]

Here's a thought for to mull over: once the cbt is done and you've got a few miles under your belt, you could go back to the school and see if they can offer you a lesson on your 125. Seems to me it might be useful to have some feedback on how you're riding early on... better than having to unlearn bad habits later.

[ChrisBiggsUK]

16 minutes ago, bonio said:

Here's a thought for to mull over: once the cbt is done and you've got a few miles under your belt, you could go back to the school and see if they can offer you a lesson on your 125. Seems to me it might be useful to have some feedback on how you're riding early on... better than having to unlearn bad habits later.

 

Hadn't thought of that. Now that you mention it though, it seems entirely sensible and something I shall most certainly do!

[AstronautNinja]

3 hours ago, bonio said:

Here's a thought for to mull over: once the cbt is done and you've got a few miles under your belt, you could go back to the school and see if they can offer you a lesson on your 125. Seems to me it might be useful to have some feedback on how you're riding early on... better than having to unlearn bad habits later.

 

3 hours ago, ChrisBiggsUK said:

 

Hadn't thought of that. Now that you mention it though, it seems entirely sensible and something I shall most certainly do!

 

I'll almost certainly be booking some form of future tuition come the summer. Plenty of advanced courses available, when I say advanced I mean anything above basic licence training etc. I may be wrong but I think it's RideSafe done by county police forces and is insurance recognised. Think it was £50 for a partial day out with Manchester police riders. 

 

I'd expect most schools to offer something similar to the CBT ride section, few hours riding under observation with a headset surely can't not be of use to 99% of CBT holders. 

[AstronautNinja]

https://bikesafe.co.uk/merseyside/

[ChrisBiggsUK]

4 minutes ago, AstronautNinja said:

https://bikesafe.co.uk/merseyside/

 

Yeah, I'd seen that one.  I can put my natural wariness of the Police to one side for a couple of days as it is certainly worth my getting booked on to (once I pass my CBT that is) as it will help me improve my skills and anything that improves my skills and helps me be a safer rider (not only for myself but for other people), is worth doing.

[Fiddlesticks]

1 hour ago, ChrisBiggsUK said:

 

Yeah, I'd seen that one.  I can put my natural wariness of the Police to one side for a couple of days as it is certainly worth my getting booked on to (once I pass my CBT that is) as it will help me improve my skills and anything that improves my skills and helps me be a safer rider (not only for myself but for other people), is worth doing.

I've done the Wirral one - well worth it, and the guys running it were great. 

[bonio]

It's worth it just for the chance to ride behind a copper. So smooth. So in control. And fast in all the right places.