Expensive full liscence?!

[skatefreak]

Hey,

The closer I get to getting on the road now the more i'm contemplating a bigger bike in the not toooo far off future but I'm wondering,

as I'v been driving a car for nearly 4 years I can say I'm pretty used to the roads although I will admit its from a different perspective to biking but more crucially,

if I do my CBT, get a 125, get to know how to ride that then decide I want to move on, how on earth would I get experience on a bigger bike for the full test?

I assume my biggest troubles would be getting used to controlling the bike on road, getting to grips with super defencive riding and getting comfortable without having a box around me, but without being able to ride anything bigger than L plates, surely it would be rather expensive to get enough experience through booked lessons alone

Just a curious thought here really,

being a student evey penny counts heh

-Jvc

[techno]

Its not cheap, but you would find as most do the extra power and weight actually make the bikes more stable and you have a slightly bigger prescence on the road!

[Susieque]

The actual 'being on a bike as opposed to a car' part of riding is not much different on a bigger bike than it is on a 125 - you still have to do all the things that you would when riding a 125.

The difference you'll find is in the power/speed/handling.

Best advice is to do CBT, get a 125 and get road experience on a bike first, then have lessons/do test on a bigger bike if you can. The experience on a 125 will hopefully help reduce the amount of training you need, thus reducing the overall cost

[Guest]

You can always take your test on a 125 and get a restricted licence that'll still let you ride a bigger bike provided it's within the 33bhp limit. The restriction lasts for 2 years then you can ride whatever you like.

Because of the need to be supervised by a qualified instructor when learning on a big bike, there's no cheap route to big bike experience. Obviously the more experience you have on a 125, the less extra training you're likely to need.

It sounds to me like the restricted route might suit you best:

- get a 125, practise on it, enjoy it for a while on 'L' plates

- get some training on it

- take your test on it

- trade it in for a bigger bike that would meet the Direct Access requirement, but fit a 33bhp restrictor kit

- ride, enjoy!

- if you feel the need to derestrict it or change to a more powerful bike within the 2 years, remove the restrictor from your bike and take the Direct Access test on it - total cost only about £100

[skatefreak]

All sounds rather tempting

I think i'm going to have to get some experience on this 125 once i find it

Definatly going for an off road style bike at first but maybe once I'v done further tests I might have to try out something a little more onroady

Cheers for the advice!

-Jvc

[asharin]

You can always take your test on a 125 and get a restricted licence that'll still let you ride a bigger bike provided it's within the 33bhp limit. The restriction lasts for 2 years then you can ride whatever you like.

Sortas what I plan on doing, have already been riding a year, and will probably be on a CBT/125 for another year or 2 yet, when I finally get around to doing my test, I'll have a couple of lessons first, to break any bad habits I picked up, then do the test.

Not in a real big rush though, as I'm still quite happy with a 125...sad I know...