New to motorcycling

billy2shots

dipsomaniac said:

billy2shots said:

dipsomaniac said:

£900???? Not very MSE.  CBT £100ish, Theory £23, Mod1 £15.50, Mod2 £75, 6 x lessons £150 = £363.50ish
Just go for it and pass on the largest bike you can so you don't have any restrictions when you pass. Good luck 

Going that route would require initial outlay on a bike plus insurance. If things went bad and I couldn't pass or hated it then I would lose more than the £437 difference in your above example. 

You don't need to buy a bike until after you've passed your test as the bike and insurance is included in the lessons and also provided for the tests

So your earlier example of '6 X lessons for £150' includes the bike hire. 
Hmm I should definitely look into that then. 

GunJack

at around £100 a year for tax and insurance and 100mpg, a 125 on L-plates could make a lot of sense to bop about and satisfy the bike-bug (especially if mainly summer use), just have to do CBT every 2 years and pick up a cheap bike...

dipsomaniac

billy2shots said:

dipsomaniac said:

billy2shots said:

dipsomaniac said:

£900???? Not very MSE.  CBT £100ish, Theory £23, Mod1 £15.50, Mod2 £75, 6 x lessons £150 = £363.50ish
Just go for it and pass on the largest bike you can so you don't have any restrictions when you pass. Good luck 

Going that route would require initial outlay on a bike plus insurance. If things went bad and I couldn't pass or hated it then I would lose more than the £437 difference in your above example. 

You don't need to buy a bike until after you've passed your test as the bike and insurance is included in the lessons and also provided for the tests

So your earlier example of '6 X lessons for £150' includes the bike hire. 
Hmm I should definitely look into that then. 

that's what it costs me but that was 10 years ago

Nearlyold

Talk of the old style Motorcycle Test really takes me back to Feb 1975 - rocked up on my mighty Honda C70 Super Cub with a semi automatic clutch to transmit all of that arm straining 6 horse power to the back wheel. Pootled round the block in the centre of Chichester about 3 times one way then 3 times round the other way, the speedo occasionally nudging a spine tingling 30mph with just the emergency stop to tackle and a few Highway code questions to answer then bingo any bike I fancied and could afford could be mine. The Kawasaki Z1 900 would have made a nice step up at the time but opted for a Ducati 350 single.
Still riding today,  so go for it but be wary of other road users and always ride within your limits.

Were_Doomed

Nearlyold said:

Talk of the old style Motorcycle Test really takes me back to Feb 1975 - rocked up on my mighty Honda C70 Super Cub with a semi automatic clutch to transmit all of that arm straining 6 horse power to the back wheel. Pootled round the block in the centre of Chichester about 3 times one way then 3 times round the other way, the speedo occasionally nudging a spine tingling 30mph with just the emergency stop to tackle and a few Highway code questions to answer then bingo any bike I fancied and could afford could be mine. The Kawasaki Z1 900 would have made a nice step up at the time but opted for a Ducati 350 single.
Still riding today,  so go for it but be wary of other road users and always ride within your limits.

Which was probably a lottery on the C70 as to whether you'd be able to stop in time - even from 30mph.  
(Examiners back then really did put their lives on the line - jumping out in front of moving vehicles. Yes, most candidates will have seen the examiner from well away and be expecting it .. but not all will have). 👀

Nearlyold

Were_Doomed said:

Nearlyold said:

Talk of the old style Motorcycle Test really takes me back to Feb 1975 - rocked up on my mighty Honda C70 Super Cub with a semi automatic clutch to transmit all of that arm straining 6 horse power to the back wheel. Pootled round the block in the centre of Chichester about 3 times one way then 3 times round the other way, the speedo occasionally nudging a spine tingling 30mph with just the emergency stop to tackle and a few Highway code questions to answer then bingo any bike I fancied and could afford could be mine. The Kawasaki Z1 900 would have made a nice step up at the time but opted for a Ducati 350 single.
Still riding today,  so go for it but be wary of other road users and always ride within your limits.

Which was probably a lottery on the C70 as to whether you'd be able to stop in time - even from 30mph.  
(Examiners back then really did put their lives on the line - jumping out in front of moving vehicles. Yes, most candidates will have seen the examiner from well away and be expecting it .. but not all will have). 👀

You're right about the risk examiners took, even more so if they stepped out in front of a rider who wasn't actually the Test Candidate as would happen on occasion.
Re the braking, yes that was one of the C70's little foibles,

The Ducati was a bit interesting as well, the speedo used to go backwards once you got past 50mph it was a weird sensation when you braked to slow back down to see the speedo going back up again.

Travelling down the A3 in the dark one time, the plastic cover on the light switch fell off causing the switch to short out melting some wiring and blowing the lighting fuse for the headlight, still had the parking and rear light fortunately. I was about 50 miles from home so went slowly along at the edge of the road waiting for a car to pass then accelerated to tuck in behind with the car lighting the way for as long as I dared keep up then back to the side of the road again waiting for the next car.

It also (just as I was about to kickstart it) nearly caught fire under the petrol tank, smoke from the melting harness appeared when the headlight/ignition switch malfunctioned and connected the main feed wire from the battery straight to earth had to make a quick dash indoors to grab some spanners to disconnect the battery just in time.
Ah happy days!

Were_Doomed

The joys of old Italian bike electrics.  

MEM62

billy2shots said:  So I'm asking here for some inspiration really.  

Here's some more inspiration.  Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

Were_Doomed

MEM62 said:

billy2shots said:  So I'm asking here for some inspiration really.  

Here's some more inspiration.  Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

When I was young I always hankered after one of these.

onlyfoolsandparking

This was my dream bike, nearly got on for around 5K about 20 years ago, can't get one now for under 25K (original 73 that is and forget about getting hold of a 72!!!)