Licence question

[G321]

I'm thinking of doing my cbt sometime this summer, the main reason being that I'm in my mid 40's and have never ridden a motor bike.
I've been looking at options after that if I enjoy the cbt.
Looking at my drivers licence there is a category A on there already with dates next to it. I assume I would still have to do a full test to ride for example a 600?

[jjones]

There was some change where three wheelers were classified as trikes, this A probably has a three wheels only exception. You can check here though to know for sure: https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence

[hiccy18]

That's provisional licence entitlement, you still need to do CBT before riding a 125 on L plates.

[ghibbett]

I did exactly this at the start of the year. It goes:

CBT
<can now ride 125s on a L plate>
Theory & Hazard Perception Test
Module 1
<can now ride an A2 restricted bike>
Module 2
<full licence>

Worth reading the "Failed Mod 1" thread as lots of good info in there.

[G321]

Thanks all for the replies.
I did as suggested look up the licence catagories and the 'A' on my licence is restricted to 3 wheelers.
I'll do a bit more reading on here before taking the plunge into my CBT to start with

[airsafari87]

G321 said:

Thanks all for the replies.
I did as suggested look up the licence catagories and the 'A' on my licence is restricted to 3 wheelers.
I'll do a bit more reading on here before taking the plunge into my CBT to start with

A CBT is about as straightforward as it gets.

It’s not a test as such, it’s more an observation that you’re safe on the bike.

It’s all done in 1 day and once you complete the course you can ride a 125cc motorbike or scooter on L plates for 2 years, after which you will have to retake your CBT again.

From memory the average cost of a CBT is around the £90 mark.

For what it’s worth, if you do have an interest in riding a motorbike why not just do the CBT anyway and look at it as an Motorbike Experience type day that you’ve paid £90 for.
At the end of it you will either come away and think ‘Nah bikes aren’t for me, but I’ve had a canny day’ or you will come away thinking ‘F*ck yeah! Bikes are awesome and I want more of this’ and at that point you can then decide wether you go out and buy a bike to ride around on for the next 2 years or not.

[jhoneyball]

if you decide to do it, then look seriously at one of the 6 day training sessions which gets you from nothing to full license.

Can highly recommend the BMW motorrad training people -- the team near Royston are excellent.

(other training companies offer similar things)

[MesoForm]

airsafari87 said:

G321 said:

Thanks all for the replies.
I did as suggested look up the licence catagories and the 'A' on my licence is restricted to 3 wheelers.
I'll do a bit more reading on here before taking the plunge into my CBT to start with

A CBT is about as straightforward as it gets.

It’s not a test as such, it’s more an observation that you’re safe on the bike.

It’s all done in 1 day and once you complete the course you can ride a 125cc motorbike or scooter on L plates for 2 years, after which you will have to retake your CBT again.

From memory the average cost of a CBT is around the £90 mark.

For what it’s worth, if you do have an interest in riding a motorbike why not just do the CBT anyway and look at it as an Motorbike Experience type day that you’ve paid £90 for.
At the end of it you will either come away and think ‘Nah bikes aren’t for me, but I’ve had a canny day’ or you will come away thinking ‘F*ck yeah! Bikes are awesome and I want more of this’ and at that point you can then decide wether you go out and buy a bike to ride around on for the next 2 years or not.

Very much this. There's no point spending hours on research only to do the CBT and come to the conclusion that bikes aren't for you. Having said that I didn't really enjoy the 125s on the CBT as they didn't seem massively stable but I had an hour lesson on a 'big bike' at the end of the day which was much more confidence inspiring to ride and started my love of bikes, thinking "My God this CB500 is rocket ship fast, why would anyone want anything quicker than this!".

[Pica-Pica]

G321 said:

Thanks all for the replies.
I did as suggested look up the licence catagories and the 'A' on my licence is restricted to 3 wheelers.
I'll do a bit more reading on here before taking the plunge into my CBT to start with

I presume that restriction is via a numbered code in column 12. Yes?

[G321]

That was my plan to use the CBT as a motorbike experience day. Some of the companies by me do the CBT then you can book a block to do the rest of the licence.

[G321]

Pica-Pica said:

G321 said:

Thanks all for the replies.
I did as suggested look up the licence catagories and the 'A' on my licence is restricted to 3 wheelers.
I'll do a bit more reading on here before taking the plunge into my CBT to start with

I presume that restriction is via a numbered code in column 12. Yes?

Yes it's in column 12 with the code 79(3) which is 3 wheelers only

[HybridTheory]

Do it well worth it

[daniel-5zjw7]

OP when did you obtain your car license? Worth noting that if you passed before a certain year (feb 2001 i think) you can ride a 50cc scooter (or ev equivalent) without cbt or L plates. May not be something you'd consider at all but its what i did to start with, circa 2000 miles on a super soco scooter using it to commute etc and then did my DAS, obviously completing my CBT in the process but skipping 125s on the road.

[trickywoo]

daniel-5zjw7 said:

OP when did you obtain your car license? Worth noting that if you passed before a certain year (feb 2001 i think) you can ride a 50cc scooter (or ev equivalent) without cbt or L plates. May not be something you'd consider at all but its what i did to start with, circa 2000 miles on a super soco scooter using it to commute etc and then did my DAS, obviously completing my CBT in the process but skipping 125s on the road.

This is correct but think long and hard about riding a 50cc. They are seriously underpowered for anyone weighing more than 50Kg.

Plenty of people do a CBT and go straight to DAS without riding a 125 otherwise.

[G321]

daniel-5zjw7 said:

OP when did you obtain your car license? Worth noting that if you passed before a certain year (feb 2001 i think) you can ride a 50cc scooter (or ev equivalent) without cbt or L plates. May not be something you'd consider at all but its what i did to start with, circa 2000 miles on a super soco scooter using it to commute etc and then did my DAS, obviously completing my CBT in the process but skipping 125s on the road.

I passed my test in 1995 and you are correct, my licence does show 50cc on there. Probably not something I'm considering though, looking more into the future at 600cc bikes!

[G321]

Update to the original post, CBT booked for early next month. Looking forward to it!

[nute]

Best of luck, hope you enjoy it and want to take it further. I did mine in August and wearing all the clobber with very little moving about was very sweaty…take some water with you…

[ghibbett]

Enjoy!

Let us know how you get on

[G321]

Took mt CBT yesterday and passed (can you actually fail these?!)

Found it totally alien for the first 20 minutes riding round cones on the car park having never ridden a motorbike before, but it clicked eventually. I struggled a bit to start with, with the low speed manoeuvers but obviously did enough to pass.

Next decision is whether to go straight for the 'big bike' test or not but I think I know the answer to that one already!

[Lotobear]

I did this during lockdown - I'm a mature chap and just fancied the challenge of getting my licence as I've never been a biker, always liked cars though. I also wanted a classic bike to tinker with.

Anyway I went straight to the direct access after CBT but found it all too much to take in and dropped out just before my MOD 1 as I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

My advice would be to get a 125 and ride it for a year to gain confidence - if I had done that I'm sure I would have taken to it and would have a full licence now.

Edited by Lotobear on Monday 3rd July 19:00