Be Excellent To Each Other

God this has gotten all confusing. I am 36 years old. I own a 125cc scooter/moped.

Does any one know what sort of license I need? There are bloody loads now ! Provisional moped, provisional motorcycle and provisional driving.

FFS !

Provisional Motorbike License & CBT.

Well, you just lost your man license.

75 MPH is fast enough to get me where I need to go. I have two U.S licenses but don't want to drive a car here as I find it all very insulting..

Cheers Wullie I didn't realise that one covers all so to speak and it was £50. That I can live with as I thought it was £130.

Only problem I foresee is that I had to declare I suffered with a mental illness so they may contact my doctor. Not that it's a problem of course, new meds are awesome and it's well under control now (barring what the last ones did to me) but it may hold things up a little.

Ah well, better to be honest than get caught out I guess.

BTW Grim... I'll think of you when I'm putting in my £5 worth of petrol a week

Seriously man, it was hard enough keeping the Tib on the road in the states, here it's just all bumrape man

Tax is £13 a year haha. Ins £55. Score.

Fuck, that's almost as cheap as my free tax and free insurance.

Oh no, wait.

I do miss my car. Infact, selling it was like losing my legs tbh. I sat and cried for about an hour God I loved that car..

But the petrol, tax, ins and so on are just bloody ridiculous. And then I would need to sit a full UK test. All I want it for is going to the shops. Nearest co op is about three miles away and the buses here charge £2.40 min fare, bastards. Plus the beaches are 4 miles away.. If I go one train station it's four miles. If I go two it's four miles. Fucking sucks All I want to do is go fishing once a week and help mum and my aunt out with local nic nacs. Car would be fucking lovely though

what a git of system making you pass a car test to drive a car. Why don't you write to your MP to get it changed?

I would describe 75mph as 'optimistic'.

What's wrong with your BMX now anyway? Get a basket.

Better still, buy my ERFive, then you've a project to work on and stuff. £400.

Has this changed recently, or is a location thing?

I don't remember any options when I got my provisional license five or six years ago, and happily learned to drive both a car and bike on it.

He only wants to go 4 miles. Even if he goes 30 mph it'll still take less time than it did to put all the gear on and take it off again.

Pushbike, or electric bike, or electric car (no petrol or tax).

MaliA's landsurfer which is a skateboard, a 6x5 fence panel and a trolley from Homebase. Fucking awesome.

EDIT: There's a shop selling electric bikes in Buxton (unsurprising as it is a NEW AGE HIPPY TOWN and therefore FIRST ON MY LIST WHEN THE APOCALYPSE COMES) bt they are like, £700 each!

Cheap compared to a new car though isn't it.

Besides, you can build a much better, vastly more powerful one (like John does with PCs) for trivial amounts of money. I will be doing a thread for mine once I start on it.

I had a go on a leccy bike when i dealt with these chaps. It was fun.

http://www.electricbikehire.co.uk/02-ab ... cycles.php

I should have explained it properly. It's not passing the test that bothers me. It's the tax, the petrol prices and the cost of insurance. All are complete ass rape in the UK which is why I have never driven a car here and don't plan to. I agree to the strict test proceedures here as in the states you drive up a road, do a 'K' turn and go back and they hand you your license.

I just don't agree to the costs of motoring here and the quality of service you get for it. The roads here are fucking terrible too. Even in bloody farmville in the states they resurface them every couple of years.

Road maintenance is not funded by the VED.

Out of the box the bike does 60mph. It's a 125 wrapped in plastic. I mean fuck, you can mod the 50s to go over 60. The guy who got it for me has thrown in a bigger carb and exhaust should I decide to fit them. I highly doubt it.

Yes it did change, you have to request bike as well as car now..

pass test, hire car when needed for long journy, will work out cheaper..

You can mod a 2 stroke 50 to do that. You're not buying a 125 2-stroke are you, FFS!

Fastest 50cc scooter was 130mph.

You want a ERFive, you do.

I've seen those. They're fantastic. Accel is ridiculous on electric bikes too haha.

This moped though was cheap.. Really really cheap.. It's a 2007 and sat SORN for a year (some old bloke had it) and has just passed an MOT. £175. It also got a full service too. New plug, lead and filter.





Nothing wrong with the bike at all tbh, it's me. Maybe I should have accepted that being 36 means you cannot do the things you did when you were 26?

Within two weeks of riding it my back flared up and I couldn't even get 6 hours sleep before waking up in agony.

I think it is this one

What I don't understand John, is that you're complaining about the cost of motoring, and then going ahead and paying all those same costs (and more) to get on a bike, when what you actually want is a car.

Bike tests costs more than a car test. Bike insurance is the same as car insurance. Bikes use the same or more fuel than a small car. Bike tax is the same as a small car? You'll be endlessly buying parts for a POS chinese bike if you actually use it.

Why not just get a car?
Or if you want to actually avoid all those costs, stick with a pushbike and put a motor on it (you must watch the video above!).

I think the plan is to ride around on the CBT forever and not do the test, K.

Provisional runs out after a year now don't they?

I did the DAS course or whatever it was called, so I could avoid the buzzy hell of 125s. It was 500 quid odd.

Nah. CBT lasts two years mate. £140 for the first one and then £90 if you retake it. That I can handle.

Why not just pass your test, it lasts till 75 then.. unless your meds means it is a 3 year renewal..

I quite enjoyed my time on a 125, looking back.

But a full car test costs less than that!

Not at my age*, they don't. Youngsters get destroyed by insurance companies. This doesn't apply to John, of course.

*based on a few years ago.



Absolutely. I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.



He'd be spending £100+ every couple of years on a CBT anyway, and then possible provisional costs on top.

I may do yeah. I'll see how I get on with it tbh. No point going mad on spending more to get the full license if after a few months I decide I don't want it

Do provisionals run out, then?

yes...

I don't understsnd... once you have it you have it, and it will be cheaper than a cbt renewal....

or am I missing something?

Aye, at 60.

Oh, ages away, then

Oh christ, bike MOTs, brr.


So put a motor on it you muppet!

Bike is £175. Provisional is £50. CBT £140. Insurance is £63 a year TPF&T. Tax is £13. I can't see how a car could cost less.



After the initial pay out I will have to spend £63 PY for insurance and if I take into account the cost of a CBT every two years (£90) that's another £45. That's £108 a year. Car insurance would cost me what? at least four to five times that much (no no claims, no prior UK experience ETC).

As for parts? Pads are £8.99 front or back, drum shoes (don't know what mine has on the back yet) are £12. New drive belt is £10, new calipers £20 etc. Parts for them cost absolutely fuck all. I've already looked at all the parts you would need for running costs. A new carb is £60.



Because I can't afford a car. Plus, I wouldn't use it enough to even make it worthwhile. I can literally think of a handful of things I want the bike for. Fishing once a week, getting my prescriptions, popping to the local shops and etc. All small things. The tax on a car will cost me more than the entire combined costs of putting the moped on the road and insuring it per year.

FTFY.

Don't forget the cost of crash helmet (£100 at the very least), gloves (£40) Jacket (£100)

It's just me. Things either catch with me or I just don't bother with them. Maybe I will ride it for a year (if I even ride it that long) and then see how I feel. Maybe I will have it a month, shit my pants and sell it. I don't really like motorbikes. Well, let me rephrase that.. I fucking love motorbikes but I don't have the bottle to ride the powerful ones having seen what they did to my (R.I.P) friends.

I felt safe in a car... I don't feel too safe on scooters or bikes. So I don't even know how it will all go tbh. I would rather spend as little as possible before going mad.. Plus I'm pretty sure you need to do the CBT before the bike test any way.

JC vs The World?

It must be monday.

I've got it all mate. I should maybe have explained it a little better....

My cousin (who owns a GSX-R1000) and a blade (he's bike mental) knows this bloke who he goes to the track with on weekends (he's got track wheels to swap out at the trackside). They've been friends for about 15 years.. Any way, I know this bloke too.. For a living he does bike salvage (picks up smashed bikes, ones that people just want out of their gardens etc). That's where the scooter came from. Some old boy had it a couple of years then decided it wasn't for him.. Cousin's (and my) mate went and picked it up, whacked on a spark plug lead and filter and it went straight through the MOT.. Any way, this guy also sells helmets, gloves and jackets.. I spoke to my cousin last night to tell him I had the cash to pay for the scooter and he said "yeah don't worry..I realised Frank (this bloke) owed me a couple of hundred quid so get the license and CBT and pay me once you've done all that... And don't worry about a helmet etc because Frank said just go down there and he'll sort you out".

TBH I think my cousin just wants to see me getting out of the house...

Good, I by no means want to encourage you to get a car! But a scooter will have roughly the same costs and hassle with very few of the advantages (given the short distance you want to travel).
Hence, stick with something that will do the same job but has no regulatory costs at all - an electric bike.

Err, I think this point may have been missed, but unless it has changed drastically since I passed my CBT, they last 2 years, but after that you are banned from riding for a year until you can retake another. This was aimed at specifically stopping the thing JC is talking about doing. Better check this still isn't valid.

Apparently that has changed mate.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 508AAC7c10

I suppose I'll find out when I go for it any way.. I mean, if you have to do the test I suppose I can wait a year on the CBT then do it.. I'd just rather see how I get on first before jumping in head first.