Hi All,

Planning to do the CBT soon, but was wanting to do an induction course (couple of hours on a 125cc to get the hand of it) first. Trouble is, all the induction courses are during the week and I can’t get time off work. This makes it a bit unlikely that I’ll pass the CBT having never ridden before.

Worse yet, I need to get the CBT done so that I can book the DAS during my holiday, which is in a few weeks.

Anyway, it’s a long shot, but was wondering if anyone had a couple of hours spare at the weekend, a 125 and some private land who could give me a bit of instruction? Happily pay the standard £40-£50. Just want to get the hang of the controls before the big day.

Anyway, I’m around Guildford.

Thanks all!

A CBT *is* an induction course, tha’s the whole point.

The CBT is training, not a test. You can’t ‘fail’ it. If you’re exceptionally bad, you might have to come back the following day to finish off.

Ah – the bike places must want to charge me more then. They all implied that I would not get through if I didn’t have the controls down before the day.

CBT is Compulsory Basic Training.

I suppose it’s possible that after a day’s training you won’t be able to make a bike stop, go, and turn corners, but you’d have to be pretty ham-fisted to be in that position.

When I did mine we asked “what if we fail” and got told “meh, come back tomorrow.” Out of a dozen of us, there was (I think) two that had to come back the following day to work on a couple of points. Didn’t cost them any more though, there’s no ‘fail’, you just haven’t completed your training yet.

Perhaps London bike schools are a bit more mercenary?

They all implied that I would not get through if I didn’t have the controls down before the day.

Wait, I misread this, or you’ve misunderstood. You need to have the controls down by the end of the training. You don’t need to know how to ride before you start the CBT, that’s crazytalk.

Incidentally,

What sort of prices are they charging you?

£110 for the CBT, including bike hire, helmet, petrol etc. £40 for a couple of hours induction the day before.

£690 for the DAS (5 days).

They didn’t exactly say I would fail if I’d never ridden before, but said it would be very difficult, which implied to me that this was a fail. Other schools have said similar things.

Still, probably gonna just go ahead and do it!

I think they’re exaggerating to bleed more money out of you, I’ve never heard of that and I’ve never heard of a school doing anything other than keeping going till you’ve reached the standard required for the CBT.

It’ll be harder, sure, that’s common sense. But I’d never ridden before and I came away with my certificate so…

The question you need to ask, I guess, is ‘what happens if I fail?’ bearing in mind that you’re paying for *training* and not a *test*. You can’t fail training, you can fail to complete it however, in which case you’re not getting something you’ve paid for.

Price sounds about right, I think mine was about £90 including bike hire outside of London a few years ago, and about 30 quid less if I had my own everything.

Hi mate log into this site and you get a free bit of instruction at a local center . Should help 😉

http://www.geton.co.uk/user/register/4101

Booked my CBT for the 17th – might as well get it done.

Thanks for the tip firestarter. Hmm, a rather good idea! (Trouble is I only have weekends and it’s quite rare for them to be free at that time).

I’d never ridden a motorbike before my CBT and it was fine.

No worries worth a shot tho. Im thinking of doin licence too been meaning to for ages

CBT is frighteningly basic. If you can avoid binning the bike on a mini-roundabout like someone on my course did, you’ll pass. A bit freaky to think that that then lets you wobble around in traffic, though.

why dont you see if anyone in your area is involved in the Get-On scheme? its basicly a CBT lite to introduce you to riding a bike before commiting to the expense of full CBT. Its free and is an hour. When my school runs them we normaly extend it a little bit, time allowing, to cover some of the more interesting stuff. At the end of it you know if its for you or not.

geton

I think the idea of the introductory sessions are to help anyone who is really nervous/incompetent about things like gears. I did mine in a day as PART of my 5 day DAS a few years back (so Day 1 was CBT, Days 2-4 were 500cc lessons, Day 5 was the test). No problems at all, and it was a load of fun getting on the what then seemed mental fast ER-5 😉

You should be fine as you aren’t 16 😉

2 hour induction course £40 hmm sounds like a blag.

You wont take more than a day to do your CBT unless you are a bit special. I am guessing you can ride a pedal bike being on here so imagine you will be fine.

If you are serious about bikes and given the money you are spending it sounds like you are you could put that £40 to your 1st helmet.

Watch a you tube video or read a book if you are worried, but 125’s are just like mountain bikes you don’t need to pedal.

As a total novice, when I made enquiries with the training centre for my DAS, I was invited to go down for a quick try out. Only 10 mins on a 125 squeezed in when an instructor was free, but by them seeing if you had basic clutch control and balance, they told you there and then how many days training you’d need to get a full licence. This was free, and off road of course.
They seemed pretty good at making judgements, and I felt far more at ease on the day of my CBT having done it. This was a few years ago, but I’m sure good schools will still do the same thing.

One other thing, 10 mins with my head inside a bike school full face helmet convinced me to invest in my own crash hat and gloves before I started the DAS for real.

I know someone who failed the CBT turned up and could not actually ride a bike that is she could not balance. I did warn her but that is the thing she never listened. She spent most of the day in casualty with a rather mangled leg. Now whilst I am happy to critices her dont any of you disrespect my Mum 😯