Good stuff! Glad to hear you're enjoying it! 

 

Bigger bikes are alot more stable yeah. Alot more planted than a 125. 

 

Best of luck with your test!

 

You'll be fine, im sure. Once they see you're not a yob thrashing around dangerously, i think you're half way there. 

 

I still think i did a few more little fluff ups on my test than the examiner let on tbh. I got one minor for pulling up at the side of the road a little far from the curb. I still think alot of it is first impressions, turning up with the right kit on, a well maintained bike etc etc, although im sure thats not strictly said. 

Brilliant, the more you practice the easier it will become.

I agree with fabiank2SE that if you turn up corectly dressed and prepared, I'm sure that the Instructor looks more favourably on you.

I had the same instructor for Mod1 and 2. We had a bit of a chat in the Test Centre on Mod1 which relaxed me and he remembered me at the Mod 2. They know that your nervous ( it was pouring with rain and I was his second test that day !)

I even went off at the wrong junction during the test but the Instructor just told me to pull over when safe and wait.

It's the best feeling when you've passed so keep it up and good luck with the tests.

Woo Hoo! Mod 1 passed today with 1 minor for doing 48 on the avoidance exercise.

I was going to post last night about wishing me luck but I didn't want to jinx myself.

I am proper chuffed as I get a bit nervous before tests so I will be treating myself to a few ciders tonight!

Mod 2 already booked for Monday 21 March with a half a day lesson on Sunday 20 to help with a last bit of fine tuning.

Woo Hoo! Mod 1 passed today with 1 minor for doing 48 on the avoidance exercise.

I was going to post last night about wishing me luck but I didn't want to jinx myself.

I am proper chuffed as I get a bit nervous before tests so I will be treating myself to a few ciders tonight!

Mod 2 already booked for Monday 21 March with a half a day lesson on Sunday 20 to help with a last bit of fine tuning.

Congratulations :-)

Woo Hoo! Mod 1 passed today with 1 minor for doing 48 on the avoidance exercise.

I was going to post last night about wishing me luck but I didn't want to jinx myself.

I am proper chuffed as I get a bit nervous before tests so I will be treating myself to a few ciders tonight!

Mod 2 already booked for Monday 21 March with a half a day lesson on Sunday 20 to help with a last bit of fine tuning.

Woo. Well done mate!

Congratulations, I found Mod 1 the harder one of the two. Always more likely to make a mistake, put a foot down and cost you the whole thing on Mod 1.

Woo Hoo! Mod 1 passed today with 1 minor for doing 48 on the avoidance exercise.

I was going to post last night about wishing me luck but I didn't want to jinx myself.

I am proper chuffed as I get a bit nervous before tests so I will be treating myself to a few ciders tonight!

Mod 2 already booked for Monday 21 March with a half a day lesson on Sunday 20 to help with a last bit of fine tuning.

Brilliant, good luck with Mod 2.

Cheers guy really enjoying it at the moment and pleased to have got mod1 under my belt.

Hopefully not jumping the gun but I have been looking at possible bikes and I really like the Kawasaki ER-6F. I like the faired version better than the naked version. What do you think for a first bike?

I have just gone back through this topic and had a skim rear.

Jerbear what have you been riding since you passed your test?

Cheers guy really enjoying it at the moment and pleased to have got mod1 under my belt.

Hopefully not jumping the gun but I have been looking at possible bikes and I really like the Kawasaki ER-6F. I like the faired version better than the naked version. What do you think for a first bike?

I have just gone back through this topic and had a skim rear.

Jerbear what have you been riding since you passed your test?

 

Nice bikes. Many seem to rate them well for a first bike. Plenty of power to be getting on with whilst you gain experience, should be pretty comfy and reliable too. They dont seem to break the bank either, which is always good! 

 

I'm just speaking to someone on Facebook actually, who's telling me anything bigger than a 125 is  unnecessarily fast, which makes pretty much anything over 10bhp dangerous in his view. Theres apparently no need to ever go over 50mph or overtake anything.  So theres always that mind set :/ ahahaa. 

Jerbear what have you been riding since you passed your test?

I'm probably not the best person to ask. I'm 6'2" so didn't want to look to silly on a small bike. Like you I stared looking before I passed my test and ended up with a Yamaha FZ1-S Fazer. It was low mileage, one owner and within budget. I'm very pleased with the bike and clocked up 500miles already. It is a big heavy bike however and if I had been completely sensible a 600 would have been more suitable and a little easier to ride.

Whatever you buy just remember you are in control and only ride as fast or as slow as you want, but more importantly treat every other road users as a a hazard. Then you can just enjoy riding, which is something I wish I had done years ago.

Looking forward to summer

Okay guys I have been looking at more bikes on autotrader between 3.5 - 4.5k. When I do hopefully pass my test I will be getting a bike on finance or with a bank loan.

I do really like the look of the Kawasaki ER6F but was wondering what else might be out there that you could recommend?

I have looked at the Yamaha XJ6 but it seems like a very similar bike to the ER6 but just more expensive.

Okay guys I have been looking at more bikes on autotrader between 3.5 - 4.5k. When I do hopefully pass my test I will be getting a bike on finance or with a bank loan.

I do really like the look of the Kawasaki ER6F but was wondering what else might be out there that you could recommend?

I have looked at the Yamaha XJ6 but it seems like a very similar bike to the ER6 but just more expensive.

I had an SV650s when i first started (sv650 is naked, sv650s is faired) and it was great tbh. Sound brill n the power delivery is nice. 70bhp.

I'm going to have a look at a honda cb600 hornet at weekend as first big bike and maybe a bandit aswell,

 

There is a couple near me around 1500 quid as i don't want to spend a fortune on it incase i end up throwing it down road,

 

I did my test on an ER6N and as am quiet tall i found it abit small for me,

 

I also sat on a SV at J&S and found that similar to ER6

You can get a lot of bike for 4.5k. I personally wouldn't rush out and get an ER6. Have you looked a little older? For my first bike id be tempted to buy older and then you'll loose less money on it when you do sell it and save yourself a fortune in the mean time!

I'm going to have a look at a honda cb600 hornet at weekend as first big bike and maybe a bandit aswell,

There is a couple near me around 1500 quid as i don't want to spend a fortune on it incase i end up throwing it down road,

I did my test on an ER6N and as am quiet tall i found it abit small for me,

I also sat on a SV at J&S and found that similar to ER6

The best bit about the SV for me, was the engine.

It is s peach tbh.

No vibey or revvy inlines, just a growling relatively torquey low down V.

The best bit about the SV for me, was the engine.

It is s peach tbh.

No vibey or revvy inlines, just a growling relatively torquey low down V.

 

I quiet liked the idea of a V but felt like my knee's were bent double and it didn't feel comfortable on the SV

I quiet liked the idea of a V but felt like my knee's were bent double and it didn't feel comfortable on the SV

 

Fair shout. it isnt for everyone haha. 

 

Was it a faired one or a naked one? The naked one has higher bars n that so is supposed to be abit comfier, but that wouldnt help your knees much haha.

 

I dont find it much more bent than the VFR i've got, but im not the tallest of people either, at 5 foot 9 or so 

Edited 10 March, 201610 yr by fabiamk2SE

I think it was faired one as it was the only one they had, but prefer naked bikes

 

Hoping the hornet will be abit more confortable even if it is a 4 banger

I think it was faired one as it was the only one they had, but prefer naked bikes

Hoping the hornet will be abit more confortable even if it is a 4 banger

Cant imagine theres much between a hornet and naked SV position wise. But time will tell.

Hornets are nice bikes!

Drum Roll please....

 

Chunk has passed his Mod 2 today with 2 minors! Finally a full bike license!

 

And a little breakdown of my journey so far (also added to my first post):

 

13/7/15 – A taster hour with the bike school as I didn’t even know how most of the controls worked and I had never even sat on a bike before.

26/7/15 – Completed my CBT in a day. Enjoyed it I found it a little bit daunting being out on the road to start with but soon got used to it.

5/8/15 – Decided to go down the route of buying myself a 125cc bike and riding around on it to gain experience rather than going straight into a DAS course.

7/10/15 – Theory Test passed

21/2/16 – Having saved up a bit of money decided to do a half day lesson and look towards doing my test. This involved starting on a 500cc bike and then moving up to a 600cc bike with a small amount of Mod 1 practice and getting out on the roads on a 600cc bike which I would be doing my test on.

6/3/16 – Another half day lesson and some practice ready for my Mod 1 the following day.

7/3/16 – Mod 1 completed and passed with 1 minor for doing 48 mph on the avoidance manoeuvre

20/3/16 – Another half a day lesson to keep up the practice ready for my Mod 2 test the following day

21/3/16 – Mod 2 Test day! Felt quite happy with everything so far and passed with 2 minors! I was really happy now onto looking at bikes…

 

A breakdown of costs:

Taster Session £35

CBT £130

Buying a 125cc Yamaha YBR £1250 and insurance £150

Buying my own kit: £400

Theory Test £23

Lessons £505

Mod 1 and Mod 2: £90.50

 

Total so far: £2583.50

 

Now time to sell my Yamaha YBR 125 and buy something bigger and better…

 

And just to finish off for people reading this who may be in the same situation as I was what would I do differently if I could do it again in hindsight.

Realistically I don’t think I would change anything. I am glad I did the taster session before my actual CBT as it got me used to sitting on a bike and learning the controls.

This came in handy on my CBT because I was with others who had previously done CBT and kept re-doing it every two years so they could ride a 125. This meant that really I was the only one who was a complete novice.

I am pleased I got a 125 as it helped me gain on the road experience without having to keep paying for lessons and I felt this worked for me.

After 6 months having saved up a bit of money I was happy to have a couple of lessons and felt that my experience on my own 125 helped rather than hindered.

Now passed both my tests and have a full motorbike license. I bought the 125 at a good price and I have looked after it so will hopefully get back most of what I paid for it.

 

Oh and last but not least I have just unscrewed the L plates off my 125…

 

Onwards and upwards!

Edited 21 March, 201610 yr by Chunk11

Woo. Well done mate! Brilliant stuff! 

 

Not cheap is it! But you will recuperate some costs when you sell the YBR, so thats good. 

 

Any more thoughts on what bike to go for? 

 

Looks like we're all getting new bikes at the mo haha 

I did mine very similar to you. I did a while on a 125 but I was only 18 at the time. Did my direct access and bought an Aprilla RS250 for around 8 months to get used to the added power, then jumped to a ZX4R which I had for about 6 months before I hated it and px'd it for a cbr600f. Was a great bike to the point I had 3 of them

Incidently... anyone who might be interested in my Hornet is welcome to buy it from me. It's a 2001 (Y) CB600F-S (the faired one) on autotrader.

I've enjoyed having it since I passed my test last year but circumstances have changed and I find myself riding less and less. 


I may yet return to biking, but I want someone else to enjoy the bike.

It's a great first bike - nigh on 100bhp, 13k rpm from a four and pretty comfy. Ready to go with a top box rack too.

Edited 21 March, 201610 yr by hardcorehobbit

Might aswel add that my VFR 800 is up for sale too then . 

Drum Roll please....

 

Chunk has passed his Mod 2 today with 2 minors! Finally a full bike license!

 

And a little breakdown of my journey so far (also added to my first post):

 

13/7/15 – A taster hour with the bike school as I didn’t even know how most of the controls worked and I had never even sat on a bike before.

26/7/15 – Completed my CBT in a day. Enjoyed it I found it a little bit daunting being out on the road to start with but soon got used to it.

5/8/15 – Decided to go down the route of buying myself a 125cc bike and riding around on it to gain experience rather than going straight into a DAS course.

7/10/15 – Theory Test passed

21/2/16 – Having saved up a bit of money decided to do a half day lesson and look towards doing my test. This involved starting on a 500cc bike and then moving up to a 600cc bike with a small amount of Mod 1 practice and getting out on the roads on a 600cc bike which I would be doing my test on.

6/3/16 – Another half day lesson and some practice ready for my Mod 1 the following day.

7/3/16 – Mod 1 completed and passed with 1 minor for doing 48 mph on the avoidance manoeuvre

20/3/16 – Another half a day lesson to keep up the practice ready for my Mod 2 test the following day

21/3/16 – Mod 2 Test day! Felt quite happy with everything so far and passed with 2 minors! I was really happy now onto looking at bikes…

 

A breakdown of costs:

Taster Session £35

CBT £130

Buying a 125cc Yamaha YBR £1250 and insurance £150

Buying my own kit: £400

Theory Test £23

Lessons £505

Mod 1 and Mod 2: £90.50

 

Total so far: £2583.50

 

Now time to sell my Yamaha YBR 125 and buy something bigger and better…

 

And just to finish off for people reading this who may be in the same situation as I was what would I do differently if I could do it again in hindsight.

Realistically I don’t think I would change anything. I am glad I did the taster session before my actual CBT as it got me used to sitting on a bike and learning the controls.

This came in handy on my CBT because I was with others who had previously done CBT and kept re-doing it every two years so they could ride a 125. This meant that really I was the only one who was a complete novice.

I am pleased I got a 125 as it helped me gain on the road experience without having to keep paying for lessons and I felt this worked for me.

After 6 months having saved up a bit of money I was happy to have a couple of lessons and felt that my experience on my own 125 helped rather than hindered.

Now passed both my tests and have a full motorbike license. I bought the 125 at a good price and I have looked after it so will hopefully get back most of what I paid for it.

 

Oh and last but not least I have just unscrewed the L plates off my 125…

 

Onwards and upwards!

Congratulations, great feeling isn't it