After successfully completing the required qualification stages, I have recently become a category A motorcycle licence holder. Friends and family have asked me all sorts of questions about my experiences, and the scope for some blogging prompted me to take to my keyboard. This is the first in what I am envisaging will be a new mini-series, primarily aimed at other folk thinking of taking the plunge into two wheeled motoring. I have written about the topic before, see links below to the relevant posts.
When I decided that I wanted to learn to ride a motorbike, I’ll be honest, I only had the vaguest idea about what I would have to do, how long it would take, or what it would cost to get to the stage of having a full licence. I was rather naïve about the process because I believed I could just take a direct access course and be on the road in three days (I feel like such a muppet even writing this now).
As soon as I started making enquiries, my naivety became obvious. Getting a full motorcycle licence is not a particularly straightforward, fast or cheap process at all. This post will manage your expectations if you are thinking about qualifying.
My dad talks to me about his test simply involving an assessor watching him ride up and down the street, these days the hurdles are much greater.
Before you can even take the motorcycle test, you have to have passed your:
1) Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) and
2) Your motorcycle Theory Test
The CBT involves a day’s worth of training with an instructor and will cost you approximately £145. The Theory Test needs to be booked through the Gov.uk portal and will cost you £23. Both things need to be booked in advance and so the elapsed time from booking to actually “doing” might be weeks. Hurdles one and two, when achieved, only have two-year shelf lives before you have to do them again.
Because of my age (over 26 … obviously a lot over in my case), I was entitled to take a direct access course instead of a staged access route that takes you much more time to qualify up the licence categories. A direct access (DA) course will cost you about £700 (that includes DVSA test fees of £90). You can’t take a DA course if you don’t have a valid CBT and Theory Test. When you decide you are ready to take and pay for the DA, it is inevitable that you will have to wait for a slot with your instructor. For me, post enquiry, the wait was a month.
The DA is expensive, because you have to hire your instructor, their bike and the bike they let you ride. £200 per day is what you should expect. The £700 is based upon three days of training, you might get away with less if you are an experienced and decent rider already.
The DA culminates in more government mandated tests – there are two modules you have to pass:
3) Mod.1, the slow speed manoeuvring course, and then
4) Mod.2, the on the road test
You can opt to take both test modules on one day but if you fail Mod.1, you can’t take Mod.2 at all and you will have forfeited your Mod.2 test fee (£75). For many, the risk of making a mistake means they err on the side of caution and book the Mod.2 test after Mod.1 has been passed. The downside of this approach is that there is inevitably a time gap between the two tests. For me, it meant another five lost weeks. Though my direct access course was three days, the elapsed time for it was more than six weeks in total.
The costs of course assume that you pass first time. I did thank goodness, but if you don’t, it just gets more expensive.
If you haven’t ridden a motorbike before, don’t assume that doing the CBT makes you ready for progressing to a DA course straightaway.
When I passed my CBT, the only way I was going to be able to move on from feeling like a total numpty was to buy a 125 (which you can legally ride with a valid CBT) and get some proper experience. Taking the DA straight after completing the CBT would have been ludicrous for me because I simply wasn’t good enough. In my case, I spent eight months and rode three thousand miles to prepare myself for the DA course. To be fair, I probably could have opted to take it earlier, but by the time I had funded the CBT, theory test, the 125, my riding gear, my insurance etc. I was struggling to justify the extra costs to get to a full ‘A’.
The point of the paragraph above it this - I was so unbelievably naive to think that I could be qualified in three days. To get over the four hurdles imposed on me by the DVSA actually took me nine months and the best part of £900 in fees alone.
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When I decided that I wanted to learn to ride a motorbike, I’ll be honest, I only had the vaguest idea about what I would have to do, how long it would take, or what it would cost to get to the stage of having a full licence. I was rather naïve about the process because I believed I could just take a direct access course and be on the road in three days (I feel like such a muppet even writing this now).
As soon as I started making enquiries, my naivety became obvious. Getting a full motorcycle licence is not a particularly straightforward, fast or cheap process at all. This post will manage your expectations if you are thinking about qualifying.
My dad talks to me about his test simply involving an assessor watching him ride up and down the street, these days the hurdles are much greater.
Before you can even take the motorcycle test, you have to have passed your:
1) Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) and
2) Your motorcycle Theory Test
The CBT involves a day’s worth of training with an instructor and will cost you approximately £145. The Theory Test needs to be booked through the Gov.uk portal and will cost you £23. Both things need to be booked in advance and so the elapsed time from booking to actually “doing” might be weeks. Hurdles one and two, when achieved, only have two-year shelf lives before you have to do them again.
Because of my age (over 26 … obviously a lot over in my case), I was entitled to take a direct access course instead of a staged access route that takes you much more time to qualify up the licence categories. A direct access (DA) course will cost you about £700 (that includes DVSA test fees of £90). You can’t take a DA course if you don’t have a valid CBT and Theory Test. When you decide you are ready to take and pay for the DA, it is inevitable that you will have to wait for a slot with your instructor. For me, post enquiry, the wait was a month.
The DA is expensive, because you have to hire your instructor, their bike and the bike they let you ride. £200 per day is what you should expect. The £700 is based upon three days of training, you might get away with less if you are an experienced and decent rider already.
The DA culminates in more government mandated tests – there are two modules you have to pass:
3) Mod.1, the slow speed manoeuvring course, and then
4) Mod.2, the on the road test
You can opt to take both test modules on one day but if you fail Mod.1, you can’t take Mod.2 at all and you will have forfeited your Mod.2 test fee (£75). For many, the risk of making a mistake means they err on the side of caution and book the Mod.2 test after Mod.1 has been passed. The downside of this approach is that there is inevitably a time gap between the two tests. For me, it meant another five lost weeks. Though my direct access course was three days, the elapsed time for it was more than six weeks in total.
The costs of course assume that you pass first time. I did thank goodness, but if you don’t, it just gets more expensive.
If you haven’t ridden a motorbike before, don’t assume that doing the CBT makes you ready for progressing to a DA course straightaway.
When I passed my CBT, the only way I was going to be able to move on from feeling like a total numpty was to buy a 125 (which you can legally ride with a valid CBT) and get some proper experience. Taking the DA straight after completing the CBT would have been ludicrous for me because I simply wasn’t good enough. In my case, I spent eight months and rode three thousand miles to prepare myself for the DA course. To be fair, I probably could have opted to take it earlier, but by the time I had funded the CBT, theory test, the 125, my riding gear, my insurance etc. I was struggling to justify the extra costs to get to a full ‘A’.
The point of the paragraph above it this - I was so unbelievably naive to think that I could be qualified in three days. To get over the four hurdles imposed on me by the DVSA actually took me nine months and the best part of £900 in fees alone.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
Related Posts
05/09/18 Midlife Crisis? Sort of …
19/11/18 Road Safety Week blogging contribution and some
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