Considering direct access, never driven a bike or a car. Advise please

JonJ678

JonJ678

JonJ678

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Joined
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England
I'd like to be riding by October. The motivation is that I'll be spending silly amounts on trains if I'm not. Motorbikes appear to be cheaper & more fun than cars- easy choice really. I applied for my first provisional driving license this evening at the ripe old age of 24.

The most obvious route is CBT -> cheap 125 which I expect to drop/crash at some point. I have an idea that a 125 would be quite dangerous on a motorway, based on it being both light and slow (I'm about 85/90kg) and believe I'd want to be on a bigger bike within a year or so. So the route would be CBT -> cheap 125 -> the accelerated learning thing.

As such, I'm considering direct access. I think the main drawback is being unable to ride around with L plates before passing a test (mod2?), so paying by the hour for practice. Insurance will be higher, initial searches suggest cost of bike is pretty much a wash.

And so, questions. I think I'll need to take the CBT on a 35kW+ bike. Anyone know a place near Bristol I can go to which will provide a not-completely-knackered 35kW bike for me to spend the day on?

Provided I pass that, I think I can just go out and buy an appropriate motorbike. I'll have to work out some way of getting it home, am I right in thinking I can insure it for long enough that a friend can drive it back to Bristol?

Please let me know if my assumptions or reasoning look rubbish, I'm still terribly uninformed at this point. I'm expecting to drop the bigger bike at some point too, though I'll try quite hard not to stack it into a car.

Thank you OcUK :)
 
Genuinely. Go into your local garage that does bike training and book yourself a bike trial. It'll last about an hour or so, and speak to them about it. They can tell you everything you need to know and give you an idea of how you are with the bike.

That's your best bet, by far. ;)
 
i had about 10hours in a car learning. I got bored and never saw it through to the end.

however i took my CBT and was hooked. after saving for months and months for enough to do DAS and buy the bike insurance etc. i jumped into 4 days of training on the bike. Its a lot to take in but if you are a reasonable learn then it's fine.

I wouldn't worry too much about keeping the CC on a bike low.

i was worried about buying too mucfh power but all it does is give you the ability to use it if you need to.

TLDR;

take CBT if you enjoy it, take full DAS scheme.
 
A 125 wouldn't be ideal on the motorway, you'd be stuck in lane 1 all the time, to overtake you would need power that just isn't there, and you don't want to take a long time overtaking considering car drivers hardly do livesavers and sometimes don't even check mirrors properly.
 
Just need to point out, if you do just do the CBT & cheep 125cc, you won't be able to ride on the motorway, you'll need a full licence for that.

Best thing you can do is do your CBT, see if you enjoy it, and if you do, book your DAS. Once you have a full licence, you can choose what ever bike you wish.

A CBT will be on a 125cc bike which is around 11kW. If you do your DAS however, you'll most likely end up on a ~500cc bike after a couple of days.
 
Cheers guys. I'm sure I want to do the CBT and think this will probably serve well enough as an introduction that an extra one hour trial is redundant. Speaking to nearby shops/training centers is solid advice, I'll start doing so shortly.

Slightly mixed options on 125 + motorway then. I can't imagine it's a great deal of fun even if it is legal on a full license, time spent overtaking is a factor I hadn't really taken into account.

Getting the bike home seems to be a non-issue if I buy it from a dealer. Otherwise it's possible I'll buy one from a friend instead in which case it's similarly a non-issue. If I end up buying from a stranger who lives hundreds of miles away, well, I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.

I'm glad people think the DAS is a reasonable idea. Thanks guys, I'll set things in motion.
 
Believe me, I've done 800 miles on y CBR125 and it's ace BUT on motorway/Major A roads, they become tuiresome PLUS ANY sidewind really does take the wheels, IMHO, they aren't safe on 70mph roads/motorways. You need at least a 250 and 30+bhp and a bit of weight tbh with ya... and that only really comes in around 400cc...

Do the DAS, I did it, 1 day CBT passed, then battered 800 miles in the 4 weeks between getting on a 125 for the frist time and passing my Mod1/2 4 weeks later. Now I have Eric lol.
 
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