Thinking of doing my bike licence.

[BennyC]

As you have no license you'd need to either be insured on said bike and adhere to the insurers regulations (having radio contact with a qualified instructor). Or hop on the back like I did. That way somebody can show you the bikes capabilities etc and you can focus on things like ride, smoothness of gears etc, listen for any odd noises. Rather than worrying about falling off the back of the damn thing.

Or wait until you have your license. If it's going to be a commute bike or get lots of use and the comfort & positioning is important to you then you'll want to actually ride it and see how you get on.

Luckily I'm a good match for mine and don't find it uncomfortable, perhaps the shocks are a little stiff though this can be adjusted and I don't really mind as all my cars have had sports suspension anyway so am used to it. I get a little stiff in the knees due to being crouched though I expect this is the same on all sports bikes and that is after about 2 hours of riding without getting off.

 

[Morbius]

The chief instructor quizzed me on which bike I was going to get so I just said I hadn't thought about it (not telling him about the ZX I'd just bought) and he recommended something around 60-70BHP as a good starting point. Bearing in mind the Cg125 is about 8 or 12 bhp and the ER-5 around 45/50BHP. He made a point of saying a recent student had bought something around 120BHP and made a point of calling constantly to let him know he was still upright. I didn't fancy an earful for starting on something around 100/105BHP!

My YBR125 had 10 bhp, then I did my DAS on an ER-5. Afterwards I bought my GSX650F, which has 86bhp. I didn't think the jump was as huge as I was expecting. The first time I opened it up it was a bit scary because it moved like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Now it seems quite normal! It's a slippery slope. Thankfully I have a healthy sense of self preservation! I'd still like an MV F4 though, that bike looks the badger's nadgers.

 

[gillywibble]

Well... Good news, I passed my theory!

Congrats

Really? Most sites have I have looked at suggest the opposite of this and say start out small.

There's obviously some logic to it from a safety issue, and not everyone would be comfortable jumping on a big bike, but I guarantee that you will be bored after a couple of months and regretting the decision to move up slowly.

Don't forget, it's not an on/off switch, ride it slowly until you get used to it.

I went from an XR125 to a Sprint ST 1050cc with 128 BHP. It puts a big grin on my face