My dad has recently finished restoring a classic motorbike, a Greeves Scottish. He doesn't want to ride it though, he sees himself as too old (which is daft in my view...he is fit and able and I think a few short pootles over the nice days of summer would be very rewarding for him). I don't want to see the bike just sat in the garage, and neither does he, so I'm thinking of getting my bike licence so that I could take it out for a few short runs from time to time. So...what licence to get and how?
the greeves has a villiers 34a engine, a 250cc 2-stroke. Dad hasn't tuned it but it does have the Ally barrel and possibly (not sure) has an improved/higher power cylinder head.....bascially though we don't know exaclty what BHP it produces and no-one would without measuring it. the orignal 9e engine (the for-runner of the 32a and 34a) produced about 9 BHP....tunned 34a engines can deliver 30 or 40 bhp (although dad's wont!), but we are fairly sure his engine won't be producing more than 9 or 10 BHP. Would I be legal to assume that dad's bike produces less than 11kw (14.6 BHP) and thus legal to ride it on a provisional licence and CBT?
looking further ahead for a more permanent licence, I'm trying to decide what to go for. I probably wouldn't want to take a test on the greeves....emergency stops on a bike known for poor brakes, and riding a bike with no lights (thus having to do hand signals) would seem a challenge, even if a bike with a day-light only MOT was allowed! So I either buy, borrow or hire a bike. The options as I see them are
1. Do a direct access training course and big bike test - costly, I'm guessing this would be near a thousand pounds?
2. by a 125 second hand and do the test, which then allows me to ride a bike up to err 35kW (so I guess most 350cc bikes, maybe some bigger...and definitely okay for the greeves) and then all bikes after 2 years. If I sell the bike once I have my licence, I imagine this could be fairly cheap....pick up something for £1500, sell 6 months later for not much less.
Anybody got any other ideas or suggestions? If I buy a 125 can anybody suggest what to look for? My gut feel would be a relaible Honda or similar that would not cause trouble and would be easy to sell on.
cheers.
- unfortunately I only got as far as the nearest tree & my brother wouldn't let me have another go after that. Back on topic, for the expense of getting a licence, insurance, tax etc - wouldn't you be better off finding somewhere local you could ride it off road, even just round a field a few times would be good fun for you & your dad by the sounds of things, if you can a bike trailer would be a good investment.
my thought is, if I get the licence I would, when I visit, ride the bike to the field and this would encourage dad to drive over too. A couple of laps around the field each then I'd ride it back and wash it off....a pleasant afternoon 
