Driving Test for motorcycles - advice please

Hi Guys,

I want to add motorcycle entitlement to my UK licence so that I can
take some touring trips on a bike thru S. America and maybe
Europe-Asia in the next years.
(Sort of a dream)

Problem is I don't stay in the UK most of the time so loking for
advice what you think is possible in limited time.

I have a std -clean UK car licence since 23 years (B, B1, f, k, p)

It seems I must take a theory test for motorcycles and then a
practical test. I tried the theory test online and scored 16/18 on the
first half (then got bored) without having read anything about bikes
or really much more than common sense and road sense.
Conclude that I can likely pass that (I will read some of the stuff
beforehand) and a date in London is a possiblity end of next week.

Problem then is the practical test and how much trining and-or
experience I need before trying it. Having driven a car for years, a
pushbike in Amsterdam daily when I lived there , I have sort of
automatic basic road sense (the rules are differrent for pushbikes in
ams tho ;-)) ). My experience of riding even a moped however is
limited to holidays etc. I last managed about 3 weeks in Bali without
getting killed which is statistically probably good.

My plan of action would maybe be
to take a lesson or two on a bike with a driving school
maybe ride a moped for a few weeks - sort of cold to be doing that
here though, I may get away to somewhere else warm and do nit there in
Jan tho'
have a shot at the practical test

Problem is that I'm not often in the UK - I'm about to move to Brazil
for a while - but not permanent enough anywhere else with papers etc
to get a license there.

Could anyone offer an opinion if the above plan of action is viable.
How difficult is the test. How much lessons / experience / elapsed
time should I really be thinking about to pass?

Thanks for your help.

David.

Software author. (please edit my email addr. to prove you're not a dumb 'bot)
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david wrote

Low girls.

No, not in the way you seem to want to do it.

How difficult is demonstrating your ability to ride a bike safely and
moderately competently on British roads?

There have been rumours that there used to be some links in the ukrm
ffaq to all sorts of sites that deal with this. Have a read of them and
formulate some more precise questions.

See you later.

 

There have been rumours that there used to be some links in the ukrm

Thanks for your advice.

For anyone else reading this, ukrm faq is at
http://ukrm.net/faq/ukrmfaq7.html

For whoever maintains it the third link to one cyclepub dot com goes
to a rather nasty link farm that tries to put lots of cookies on my
machine and seems to not have a lot to do with bikes.
Also thecafe.ndirect.co.uk/ gives an error 404 (doesn't exist).

Didn't find any info relevant to my specific Qs anyway.
Understandably most relate to people who have passed their test
(probably long ago)

I guess you're saying I need more road practice and or lessons before
taking a test. Question remains to anyone who has done it recently.

If you're already able and moderately competent (and have a license)
to drive a car, how much lessons and-or experience is needed to have a
good chance of doing what's required for the test?

Specifically:
# of lessons?
months of experience?
David.

Software author. (please edit my email addr. to prove you're not a dumb 'bot)
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You can do a 3 or 5 day DAS on a 125cc and be restricted for 2 years to a bike producing in less than 33 hp (or is it Kw can’t remember) or do the test on a bike that produces more than that and have no restriction. I’d suggest doing a 5 day as the road sense you get on a push bike or in a car is very different to motorbike positioning and defensive riding and you’d be quite unlikely to pass after a 3 day. In London expect to pay 500 squid for the instruction / bike hire / insurance / test combo. Sine up for the big bike (500 ~ 600cc) and after a couple of days ask you’re instructor if you should down grade to a littleun as they are easer to ride for some, particularity if you struggle with the U turn where the extra weight and power are hard for some to get used to.

Doing the test in winter means the tester will probably be in a car so he won’t see you filtering like a **** (unless you’re going past him) or any little mistakes and if you fail their should be plenty of test slots and you can have another stab at it. I seem to remember there is a minimum gap of 2 weeks between attempts but that could be just the theory test. Go to metropolis in Vaxuall and use their simulation of the hazard perception **** up and learn how to pass that (if you click too early you score nothing and their definition of a hazard is quite interesting) and good luck.

Now **** off and don’t come back until you’re a "biker" ;-)


--
Bob
Currently borrowing a black and red Yamaha XJ750 with fuel injection
Present: Honda XL125RF (FS)
Past: Honda CG125
bob at homeurl tomato dot co dot uk
remove the red fruit if you’d like to email me.

 

I found that all my years of car driving experience were a mixed
blessing. On the positive side, they assisted in helping me anticipate
the behavior of other road users, on the negative side, I realized
just how many bad habits I had nurtured.

I still find that when I switch from the car to the bike and
visa-versa, I have to change my 'style' much more than I would have
anticipated. From that perspective, regardless of the amount of
previous car experience, when you add your bike to your licence, you
will be learning from the beginning all over again (in both the car
and on the bike).

As for the *specifics* - A quick google would provide you with the
information, but in my case, five full days of lessons spread over two
weekends and zero additional experience.

 

david wrote:

I did the test in June, having never ridden a motorcycle on the road
previously. (car driver for 20 plus years though).

It took me 5 days: one and a half days CBT'ing on a 125, half a day road
instruction on a 125, two and a half days road instruction on a 500 followed
by the test.

Being a long term car driver had it's benefits and drawbacks. Whilst I was
able to "read the road" etc, I tended to apply car driving logic to riding
the bike (and still do), which is not good for overtaking manoevres.

The test was not particularly "hard", as the examiner was only really
looking for evidence that I was in control, was safe and knew the highway
code etc. The U Turn was a bastard though. Provided your instructor has
done a good job, and nerves don't **** you up the test should not be a
problem. My advice would be if you are not at least fairly confident of
passing then don't take it without doing some more instruction.

Oh, the whole DAS "experience" cost me £610 including bike hire (dunno if
you needed to know that but thought I would mention it anyway).

--
Oldbloke

2000 Honda CB500
BOTAFOT #140
"He's like Robbo's chubby kid brother"

 

HOW MUCH!!!

Fucking hell. Think it cost me 17 quid or something like that.

 

It was a lot of money, good job I passed the test.

--
Oldbloke

2000 Honda CB500
BOTAFOT #140
"He's like Robbo's chubby kid brother"

 

wrote in 4ax.com:

Cost me £199, for a 3 day CBT + test course, ten years ago with CSM
(everything done on a CG125[1])

Seems like DAS has become an excuse for profiteering.


[1] makes sign of holy pushrods

 

I did a similar thing to oldbloke. Having never been on a bike I did 1
day CBT plus 6 half-days training (2 on smaller bike, 4 on bigger
bike), spread over 4 weeks, the last half-day concluding with the test
- which I passed. This was about 6 years ago and cost me, IIRC, around
ukp500.

 

Look, I'm highly trained, I can go round the block TWICE!

 

I would suggest that you take your own advice and don't come back
until you can format a post, Bob. Wrapping at ~72 characters is the
norm.

 

As I said I think. Not sure but it was 1981.

Hmm... I suppose some training that saved a half decent bin would have
been worth it in bike parts.

 

david wrote

No no no. Look, see, it is not done like this. You don't go telling
people where it is.

The newbies get reminded that a ffaq exists (they should already know)
then they are left to their own devices to **** off and find it. This,
in itself, is a part of the ukrm cbt.

A low blow but fair.

Really? We can't be having this.

Same again.

In all fairness should you expect to? This is ukrm the r being about
recreation not law.

It must have changed then. Someone who knows more will be along in a
moment to say why.

Yes.

 

said....

Mine was 7 quid in April 1979

--
Lozzo : Old enough to know Champ
ZZR1100D, GPZ500S, CB250RS x3
BOTAFOT#57/70a, BOTAFOF#57, two#49, MIB#22, TCP#7, BONY#9,
ANORAK#9, DIAABTCOD#14, UKRMT5BB, IBW#013, MIRTTH#15a/16,
BotToS#8, GP#2, SBS#10, SH#3, DFV#14.
Url for ukrm newbies : http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
http://www.glfuk.com/ for MJK Leathers in the UK.

 

Prolly a false memory in my case, I very much doubt it would have
doubled in (a little over) two years

 

said....

I think it did. A friend passed his car test in late 1982 and I remember
him moaning like **** cos he failed it 2 years earlier and decided to
leave it til later. By the time he passed it was damn near 20 quid, so
it's likely they did increase it quite significantly in between mine and
his.

 

Reality check: You can't buy a house for tuppence ha'penny anymore lads.
Sorry to break it to you this way ;-)

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Thats exactly what I wanted to know.

The test itself is now 39 I think (or 49?) plus 20 odd for the theory
so that's before you've started looking at lessons - bike hire.

I don't have to do CBT cos I had a car license since before '99.

David.

Software author. (please edit my email addr. to prove you're not a dumb 'bot)
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Beelzebub wrote:

Wot she said
--
Oldbloke

2000 Honda CB500
BOTAFOT #140
"He's like Robbo's chubby kid brother"