[grotbag]

Originally Posted by JesusJones

Good morning TGHUN71,

A fellow mid-life-crisis-er, welcome! I'm 37 and did my CBT 2 years back and haven't looked back since. You've been on here for a while so you know how great and supportive the biking community is to new riders - cheers all!

Being completely new to the bike scene I took the 125 route but it is such a different experience - you're forever being hounded by cars wanting to overtake and that L-plate acts like a target. Saying that, it worked for me as you can still scare yourself entering a bend too fast, and you get some of the basics under your belt.

After two unfortunate test fails (one a leg-down on the u-turn) I took the test on that 125 which allowed me restricted access to larger bikes for 2 years, then it's unrestricted. There is some difference upto 80mph but then the power does drop-off, but for me that's safer. I just needed experience on the larger sized bike and this was a quick, easy & cheaper option. My only access to a 500+ bike otherwise was with an instructer and that can get expensive.

You will want to get unrestricted within a year but that's up to you. If you can afford the time off work I'd go all-out on getting the direct-access test passed on the larger bike and bypass the 125 step altogether, and if you can get it done before October you'll be saving yourself some cash and hassle with the new rules.

I hope this helps. Good luck mate!

welcome to the biker forum