I've only recently taken on board the implications of the January 2013 changes, and it isn't only young people who are affected. It's looming fast and it's really alarming
Anyone taking a test on a 125 can only legally ride a 125 and nothing larger once they pass the test. In BM we all know there are lots of us new riders who waved goodbye to their teens a few aeons ago, and who are now taking to the road....they will be affected by these changes.
Then a wait of 2 years before being allowed to take the next test on a 400, but you cannot ever ride a motorcycle more powerful than 46.6 Bhp
....unless you wait 2 years and do another test, this time on a 600
D.A.S will be available but on a 600....I'm 5 foot tall and haven't found a bike school yet than has a 500 small enough for me to learn on. This will make it harder still for us short folks
I dunno about you lot but I struggle with the logic of restricting someone who has passed the A1 (standard) test to riding a 125 (14.6 Bhp), but which allows riding on the motorway....in the name of safety??? Que??
A pal who is a riding instructor hinted that the motivation for driving forward the changes could be to justify the huge investment there's been in setting up, and building the all singing all dancing test centres with motorcycle manoeuvring areas....suppose they've got to pay for em somehow
But the message is if you are thinking about learning to ride, get those lessons booked NOW!
Test centres? I thought they cocked them up, still they have to pay for them somehow I guess.
Everything the government does re: learner bike riding, is a money making scam. Repeating the CBT and other necessary tests etc isn't a bad thing, practice makes perfect, but I'm well fed up with them keep charging learners for the repeats.
Give them a break FFS.
*passes soap box to next poster*
The reason for making people repeat the CBT is to encourage folks to take the motorcycle test, The DSA do make some money out of CBT's, schools pay £200 for a book of 25 certificates and when you think of how many cbt's that are done daily that's a lot of £8.
I haven't heard the bit before of having to wait 2 years before you can take the next step up, i'll look into that tomorrow.
Minnie you can buy a bike with 48BHP+ and if you can it legally to the test centre, L plates, someone else riding it, back of a van or with an instructor and you're insured to ride it, you can use it on the test.
I've seen GSX's, R1's and even someone do it on a harley.
I hope this helps you.
I had a chat with one of the top blokes from the dsa today when he pop into my work and if someone takes their test on a 125cc their do not have to wait two years before their can take the next test, they could take a 600cc test the next day if their are old enough.
Someone would only need to take it in stages if they are not old enough for the next stage.
I hope this helps some people out there.