What am i entitled to ride? 125? 14bhp??!?!

I'm a little confused about the rules and regulations regarding
motorcycle riders with a full car licence.

I got my full car licence in September of 2000, and in 2001 I did my
CBT. I'm now 22 and would like to buy a motorcycle. But I can't figure
out what it is I'm allowed to ride?

33bhp? 14bhp? 125?!

i've checked the dvla homepage but it doesn't really say what you're
allowed when you've already got a full car license and aren't just
hoping straight onto the roads from scratch.

I admit I'm completely ignorant about motorcycle specs and details, so
advice for a newbie will be VERY much appreciate.

Many thanks in advance!!

 

In a nutshell:
Having a car licence you can ride a 50cc bike (restricted to 30mph) without
L-plates, you can carry a passenger if you wish, but you can't ride on the
motorways.
To ride anything bigger up to 125cc you need to do your CBT again to be
legal 'pon the road cos your's has expired, and your learner machine must
output 14.6bhp or less.
If you want to ride anything bigger still you will need to take a motorcycle
theory test, and then a practical test.
The theory test now includes a hazard awareness test thingy as well as the
usual multiple guess stuff.
There's different licencing now for manual or automatic-only bikes IIRC.
There are two types of practical test, the lightweight one and the direct
access one.
The lightweight one can be taken on a 125cc machine and once passed the
rider is restricted to machines of 33bhp or less output for the first two
years of riding.
The direct access test must be taken on a machine with 47bhp or more output;
training schools will hire one to you.
You do have to be 21 or older to take the direct access test.
After passing the direct access there are no restrictions as to which (road
legal) bike the rider may drive.
It's all pretty straight forward to figure out. I got most of that
information from here:
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/rdmcycle.htm

 

Bad form I know...

s/lightweight/A1
And we'll assume that you are over 21... the lightweight test appears to be
for the under 21s.

Sorry 'bout that.

 

Zobo Kolonie wrote:
[snip]

You are a master of deduction, I would take my hat off to you if I was
wearing one.

 

Certainly a master of writing a LOT of stuff to say a few actual points...

 

Is that forbidden now?

Oh dear.

 

You need to do a CBT for this as well now I think.

 

It would make sense but according to the DVLA "The requirement to complete
CBT does not apply to those riders who are: riding a moped with full
entitlement given automatically with a full car licence", and full moped
licences were granted to full car licence holders who passed their test
before 1/2/2001; which the OP apparently did. I suppose it's a case of if
you already had the licence they weren't about to revoke it.

 

Heh
My bad.

 

Answering a m'bike related question would appear to be verboten perhaps? ;-)

 

I didn't say anything about "forbidden" - I just said he writes a lot!

 

I'm a little confused about the rules and regulations regarding

You can ride a 14.6bhp 125 with L-plates at the moment, nothing bigger. You
cannot carry a pillion or go on motorways.

Do a DAS course, however, and you will be able to ride whatever you want
minus L-plates.

 

No he can't; his CBT has expired (they only last 2 years).

 

<snip>

Verr good, Andy, especially this bit:

Seems perfectly accurate to me

 

I've watched a bit of old film footage recently, around the time of WW1
and later and almost all the blerks were wearing caps. Weird.

 

Rope wrote

Well some maybe but others like myself, with hair worth showing off,
would not wear a hat but may well have been seem sporting a jaunty
little ethnic silk scarf around the neck instead.

 

The only times I've had the joy of a FOAD gurt RAF greatcoat, it was
topped off either with a FOAD gurt RAF beret, or a FOAD gurt RAF No1
Dress Cap.

I didn't much care for either, but the cap beat the beret for style.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..62661../..14540.../..3157./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^'

 

Des might, in his capacity as president of my fan club.


--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, Keeper of the TFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Mmm... a symphony of art and movement, I'll be bound.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

I haven't checked (and won't), but it's entirely possible that he
might have been.