How practical is this for a bike test
Discussion
Hi folks
I know with the bike test you can't ride a 600cc bike to do the das test
Would a motorcycle fit into one of them small vans like a ford connect or you need a transit?
Besides I can just buy the van and sell it on for the same price if I get an old one
£15 vs £90 for mod one
£75 vs £160 for mod two if you get an instructor
Anyone else done this?
I think generally the difficulting of using your own bike to do the MOD1 & MOD2 tests comes down to proving valid insurance, no matter what size bike you're doing it on (e.g. going for A or A2 class license).
I'm sure plenty have though so there will be more than 1 way to do it.
As for the van size you'd have to measure, there's variations but I think a smaller Ford Connect might have too low roof height to get a motorcycle in.
I'm sure plenty have though so there will be more than 1 way to do it.
As for the van size you'd have to measure, there's variations but I think a smaller Ford Connect might have too low roof height to get a motorcycle in.
Edited by CallorFold on Monday 19th July 16:37
Imakequadbike said:
Yeah thats true about a van, maybe a trailer then, I'm just not a fan of the new tests, when you could do DAS on a 125 that was good, since the new laws came in, just seems like they don't want bikers on the road
They just want you to take your test on machinery that's representative. Not their fault there's such a massive gulf between 125s and 600s+What issue are you trying to cure here?
Just the expense, if you were pretty much guaranteed to pass when you paid £90, yeah sure thats fine. Go to the test centre on the day, have an attempt, if you didn't pass then just do the attempt again on the same day, its only a 15 minute test, but nope, you get one inch out of line, its test over, come back another day, another £90. When my dad done his full bike test, he literally had to ride up and down a road.
When I did my DAS I had 3 days of lessons and the two tests MOD1 and 2. I already had my CBT so I rode my 125cc bike to the instructors house, then they lent me 600cc for the day; which I rode to the test centre as part of the instruction. MOD 1 was part way through day 2, so afterwards we carried on learning. So what I'm getting at is that riding their bike made this easy.
Of my 5 mates and I that learnt to around the same time, I think 5 or 6 passed the MOD 1 first time and 5 passed the MOD 2 first time, so you should be fine, maybe with one retest.
I think it's good that the test is harder than back in the old days, a 600cc bike is so fast it would be crazy to just let you out on one with minimal instruction. Also all of my mates and I enjoyed the instruction and got a lot out of it.
Of my 5 mates and I that learnt to around the same time, I think 5 or 6 passed the MOD 1 first time and 5 passed the MOD 2 first time, so you should be fine, maybe with one retest.
I think it's good that the test is harder than back in the old days, a 600cc bike is so fast it would be crazy to just let you out on one with minimal instruction. Also all of my mates and I enjoyed the instruction and got a lot out of it.
Yeah I get what you mean, but I still think the whole thing could be structured better, you can ride a 125 with a cbt, it'd be good if you could take an A2 test with a 125, then take a das test with an A2 bike, or have infrastructure that meant you could rent out a bike from the test centre, saving money on hiring a bike from a seperate school and a seperate instructor to ride with you there.
Unless you can borrows a friends 600+ and you can be added to their insurance, just go with a school.
I passed my Mod 2 last week, original plan was to buy a bike, insurer it, friend ride it to Mod 2 Test. That very quickly went out the window when I discovered only 1 insurer who would provide cover for a test and they wanted 3x what an actual 12 month policy would cost. My friends policy wasn't with the 1 insurer so... Couldn't go on his policy.
Ended up going with a school, got 4 hours intense tuition before my Mod 2 and used one of their MT07s, was £190 for all that. Passed first time with 0 minors.
I passed my Mod 2 last week, original plan was to buy a bike, insurer it, friend ride it to Mod 2 Test. That very quickly went out the window when I discovered only 1 insurer who would provide cover for a test and they wanted 3x what an actual 12 month policy would cost. My friends policy wasn't with the 1 insurer so... Couldn't go on his policy.
Ended up going with a school, got 4 hours intense tuition before my Mod 2 and used one of their MT07s, was £190 for all that. Passed first time with 0 minors.
Imakequadbike said:
Just the expense, if you were pretty much guaranteed to pass when you paid £90, yeah sure thats fine. Go to the test centre on the day, have an attempt, if you didn't pass then just do the attempt again on the same day, its only a 15 minute test, but nope, you get one inch out of line, its test over, come back another day, another £90. When my dad done his full bike test, he literally had to ride up and down a road.
It's not really like that though (1 inch out of line and you fail). They just want you to do as you're instructed and show that you can ride a representative bike in a controlled manner before going out on the road part of the test. It's in your interests that you have a reasonable standard of riding before riding a powerful bike on your own. If you think you're that far off the standard that you'll need multiple tests, then why not just get an instructor who'll hone your skills much faster than a trial and error method of multiple bike tests? Obviously no guarantee that you'll pass or fail either way, but having some instruction would certainly tend to help.
Edited by simonh9 on Monday 19th July 18:46
This is why I voted for brexit!!!! So they would scrap the EU bike laws (joking I didn't actually vote)
CBT and other tests seem really booked up though for the next few months, I'm guessing in winter you can get a cbt or bike test a few days or a week in advance, but recently its about 2 months
CBT and other tests seem really booked up though for the next few months, I'm guessing in winter you can get a cbt or bike test a few days or a week in advance, but recently its about 2 months
Imakequadbike said:
Yeah I get what you mean, but I still think the whole thing could be structured better, you can ride a 125 with a cbt, it'd be good if you could take an A2 test with a 125, then take a das test with an A2 bike, or have infrastructure that meant you could rent out a bike from the test centre, saving money on hiring a bike from a seperate school and a seperate instructor to ride with you there.
I think it’s structured like it is so you can’t do this; you need instruction in how to ride a bike like you need instruction to learn to drive a car. Imakequadbike said:
If I pay £500 for bike tuition you can be pretty damn sure that I want a bike licence at the end of that, not, "nah mate you clipped a cone give us another 90 quid guvnor"
My first test was even worse than that. It got cancelled while I was waiting in the test centre to go out. The tester was in a car and lost the previous guy so was late back to the centre. As he needed his union tea break (no joke) my test got cancelled.As I’d taken holiday from work to do it I got no compensation apart from a ‘free’ retest fee. It still makes me fume 10+ years later.
Imakequadbike said:
If I pay £500 for bike tuition you can be damn sure that I want a bike licence at the end of that, not, "nah mate you clipped a cone give us another 90 quid guvnor"
No offence but that’s not how it works; you pay to be taught how to ride then you take the test. You will pass or fail the test based on your performance. Edited by Imakequadbike on Tuesday 20th July 12:36
Its most likely you will pass first time; 5 out of 6 of my friends did. But if you are rubbish, not saying you are, then how much you paid is irrelevant.
Honestly though, you are mostly likely to pass first time and everyone I know really enjoyed the lessons.
trickywoo said:
My first test was even worse than that. It got cancelled while I was waiting in the test centre to go out. The tester was in a car and lost the previous guy so was late back to the centre. As he needed his union tea break (no joke) my test got cancelled.
As I’d taken holiday from work to do it I got no compensation apart from a ‘free’ retest fee. It still makes me fume 10+ years later.
I'd have been livid! As I’d taken holiday from work to do it I got no compensation apart from a ‘free’ retest fee. It still makes me fume 10+ years later.
Had the opposite on my test, guy out before me binned the bike at a junction 15 minutes into the test so examiner came back and took me out 30 minutes early. Luckily guy who came off was absolutely fine, just understandably gutted.
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