Thanks yet again to the EU directives, we can all now expect the laws around obtaining a bike licence to change come January 2013.
In fairness these changes will only affect young riders (under 24) but it could be enough to stop potential new riders getting a licence before they have even started. The following is a brief outline of what we can expect:
16 years old, pass CBT and ride 50cc
17 years old, take a full theory and practical test
Ride a 125 for 2 years
19 years old, take a second practical test
Ride up to 46bhp bike for 2 years
21 years old, take a third practical test
Ride any size machine
In summary, if you wanted to learn to ride a bike as soon as possible, it would take 5 years, a CBT test, a theory test and 3 practical tests before you could ride any bike you wanted, not to mention any additional training that would be needed to get you through this lot, all of which will amount to considerable expense. Ok it is good to be keen and stick with it if you’re keen to ride a bike however these new changes all seem a bit excessive. Working in insurance it is clear that a lot of people do not understand the licence laws as they are, let alone if they get changed again:
Hi, I’ve just passed my CBT and bought a Honda CBR 600 that has been restricted to a 125cc, can I have a quote please?’
These new changes have the potential to make obtaining a bike licence prohibitively expensive not to mention overly daunting. We should be encouraging people to ride bikes not price them out of the game.
No problems if you’re 24 years old plus though, as this is the new age where you could obtain a full, unrestricted bike licence via the Direct Access route.
