Teenagers and mopeds.

MrSix said:
Yes it is....much...much more difficult.
On your CBT you ride around some cones, do a long theory lesson, do some more riding round cones, then go out on the road for an hour, come back get your book stamped and you're off.

If they made it a 2 day course where you're shown videos of crashes, safety advice and all the rest of it, along with lots of practice, more road riding AND a test at the end, it would create much safer riders.
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I was thinking more in comparison to the car test which you could do without the lessons if you so felt and jump into a V8 monster. The "capped" nature of the vehicles that the CBT entails is a good plan I would say. The CBT is basically a test plus a bit of a lesson, you could quite easily do a similar amount of time in a car before a test.

The direct access I thought was very good for full license, but it was two or three full days of manouvers and riding plus the test itself on the Friday.
I spent a longer amount of time on the road on the bike than I ever did in a car doing lessons. Two days of equating to 14 hours riding compared to 6x1 hour car lessons.
 
Bobbler said:
I was thinking more in comparison to the car test which you could do without the lessons if you so felt and jump into a V8 monster. The "capped" nature of the vehicles that the CBT entails is a good plan I would say. The CBT is basically a test plus a bit of a lesson, you could quite easily do a similar amount of time in a car before a test.
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I can't dissagree more.
If I had spent only 2 hours in a car before I took my test there is no way in hell's chance that I would pass.
I'm sure others agree?
 
I do agree - I just think it will make no difference, as its attitiude as much as skill/knowledge in many instances. I see just as many idiots driving cars at 17 (presumably after having passed their test) as I do moped riders at 16. Similalry, there are good 17 year old drivers and 16 year old ped riders - its 95% down to attitude.

Mopeds are easy to ride - you dont need to spend hours learning clutch control and hillstarts etc. You only really have stop, go and indicators. The rest is highway code and road skill. Perhaps a good compromise would be to make people take the theory test before completing a CBT?
 
MrSix said:
I can't dissagree more.
If I had spent only 2 hours in a car before I took my test there is no way in hell's chance that I would pass.
I'm sure others agree?
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Don't follow on the two hours bit ? I have done two CBTs (once when I was 17 and got my first bike, 2nd for my DAS) and both have been way over 2 hours. 1st was about 6ish, though the second was more like 4 before we got the ER5s for the start of the DAS. Maybe it just depends on where you go with or something?
 
Kids on mopeds annoy me so I'm only too glad where I live now there are fewer than where I was before. It annoys me that they go arround in big groups harrassing drivers and other riders, it annoys me that they are mainly the little gangster wannabe types who won't think twice about punching an old granny in the face through her window (seen it happen) or further down the line pull a knife. It annoys me that they give other bike riders a bad name and as a result I end up getting grief off drivers.

I've noticed that many of the original moped posse are now old enough to ride big bikes and they ride them exactly the same way.

The way I see it the more of them that end up sliding under cars the better.
 
Absolutely hated my moped, only ever used it to go to work 5 miles away (which seemed to take forever) and occasionally to my friends if it was too cold to walk.

Tried to annoy as few people as possible by staying over to the left to make overtaking easy. The only benefit I got from it was having already done the CBT and rode a little I was semi-prepared when I started to drive.
 
Jonny69 said:
The way I see it the more of them that end up sliding under cars the better.
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Better for the gene pool and for the general public, but not so good for the poor sods in the cars they slide under.
 
spaz said:
Tried to annoy as few people as possible by staying over to the left to make overtaking easy. The only benefit I got from it was having already done the CBT and rode a little I was semi-prepared when I started to drive.
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See thats just bad positioning. Just because the car behind you go 3 times as fast, if you're in a 30 limit you are keeping up with traffic. You should be to the right of center in your lane, giving you a better view of traffic and making it more likely that cars pulling out of junction see you. The car behind can wait until its safe to overtake. On an A Road at 30mph you can push in to the center, but no further. A car can eaily overtake with its extra power. By keeping to the left all you're doing is allowing cars to bully you, whilst riding through the gutter picking up all the crap on your tyres and blending into the pavement so cars pulling out dont spot you.
 
Sagalout said:
Good advice
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Agreed, you need to dominate your road position and make it your bit of space. Sitting in the gutter will only lead to cars squeezing you further into the pavement. If they dont want to do 30 in a 30 then tough, they can overtake when they have the space to do so.
 
Fair enough, was a 60mph road that connected my house to my work though, but point taken and anyway that dark part of my life has now ended and I can now bully the mopeders in my car :p

I guess it also reinforces the point that you shouldn't really be allowed on the road with around 2 hours experience!
 
Its difficult to fail a CBT really. You can be asked to come back until they are happy you are at a level to be capable enough on the road (supposedly). It's COMPULSORY BASIC TRAINING. < And its literally that. This is how you ride a bike and be safe when doing it - in a very basic form.

A girl on my CBT stacked her moped on an emergency stop! Still got her CBT certificate at the end though.

Theres a site on the net somewhere about what happened to a girl who came off the back of a bike with no protective clothing on. Cant remember the address. It's a real eye opener. I mean this girl wished she died due to the pain she went through. Ill try to find the site.

EDIT HERE IT IS:

CLICK HERE FOR GOOD READ - BIT SHOCKING SOME OF THE IMAGES
 
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The idiot next door to me crashed his grandads micra twice before it was written off. he got an M reg escort and the other week he overtook me 10m from a roundabout on the inside of a corner over a bridge with double white lines in the middle of the road. I just couldnt believe what a complete **** he is.

Like the OP said about the chav, this guys just waiting to kill himself. The thing is he will probably kill himself whilst ploughing into another car and killing others. Anyway the escort has disapeared so I think he has crashed that. What a ****** ****

It annoys me that people like him are the reason I can't afford a larger engine cars insurance.

EDIT: forgot to mention hes been driving 1 year almost and hes 18
 
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