Anyone got a cheap 125 for sale / hire

[New Leaf]

I've been trying to get my missus into biking for ages.

Just recently she's been more keen to get on the back of mine, and now often asks if i will take the bike into work so she can ride pillion and skip the traffic with me. So far she has always just dismissed the idea of learing to ride herself.

However at the weekend we went to Sunny Hunny with the little one and walked along the sea front where all the bikes park. Out of the blue my missus pointed at a brand new 2008 silver and white gsxr600 and said wow that looks so pretty, could i learn to ride on that?

Now she's looking at doing a CBT etc, but is worried about not being able to do it and failing.

I've told her that you don't really fail a cbt, especially as she has been driving for 20 years, but she is still worried about the pressure of doing DAS in say 4 or 5 days.

So i thought the best way to do it would be to do the CBT, then buy a cheap 125 for her to practise on. I'm not qualified to teach her, but having just passed my iam test i feel i can give her a few pointers to help get her get ready for a test. Then after a month riding around on a 125, she can either take a restricted licence test with no further instruction, or do a intense DAS course if she feels more confident.

Does this sound like a good plan?

Does anyone have a 125 they would sell, hire out for a month? I saw a 57 reg skyjet 125 on bike trader for £700 - its a chinese copy of a CBR125. Do you reckon this would do her? Even if she rides it for 2 months and sells it for £500 it will have served its purpose.

Comments please?

[metalmonkey]

I know that there are places in London that do hire out bikes, not sure about where you are.

I did my CBT then rode around on a 125, then did DAS then got my SV. I bought my 125 which was an Yamaha SR 125 bought for ?720, sold for ?800 but I spent ?3-400 on it. Was a cheap bike for 2500 miles.

I don't think the chinse bikes are that great (I could very well be wrong here) but they don't seem to hold their value and break quite quicly, not that hardy.

I think an older CBR 125 or something similar would do the job better I wouldn't spend loads either longs as its reliable, does it matter if it has been dropped before? I think thats all that matters. You don't want to spend hours trying to fix your first bike rather than riding it.(thats what i think)

[mrs mousetrapper]

I've been trying to get my missus into biking for ages.

Just recently she's been more keen to get on the back of mine, and now often asks if i will take the bike into work so she can ride pillion and skip the traffic with me. So far she has always just dismissed the idea of learing to ride her self.

However at the weekend we went to Sunny Hunny with the little one and walked along the sea front where all the bikes park. Out of the blue my missus pointed at an brand new 2008 silver and white gsxr600 and said wow that looks so pretty, could i learn to ride on that?

Now she's looking at doing a CBT etc, but is worried about not being able to do it and failing.

I've told her that you don't really fail a cbt, especially as she has been driving for 20 years, but she is still worried about the pressure of doing DAS in say 4 or 5 days.

So i thought the best way to do it would be to do the CBT, then buy a cheap 125 for her to practise on. I'm not qualified to teach her, but having just passed my iam test i feel i can give her a few pointers to help get her get ready for a test. Then after a month riding around on a 125, she can either take a restricted licence test with no further instruction, or do a intense DAS course if she feels more confident.

Does this sound like a good plan?

Does anyone have a 125 they would sell, hire out for a month? I saw a 57 reg skyjet 125 on bike trader for £700 - its a chinese copy of a CBR125. Do you reckon this would do her? Even if she rides it for 2 months and sells it for £500 it will have served its purpose.

Comments please?

What you're suggesting is pretty much what I've done!
I went in to enquire about what I needed to do and was lucky enough to book a CBT for the following week so I didn't have time to think about getting nervous until the actual day!
I had exactly the same fears so Mousetrapper let me sit on his SV and showed me where everything was and how the clutch control worked.
Thankfully I passed 1st time and now have a Yamaha YBR which I have been riding around on a weekend with Mousetrapper following and giving me pointers!
I am hoping that I will be able to do a restricted test as soon as I can practice a little more (long story but don't currently have the facitlity to store the bike at my house, although this will all change by the weekend!) and get a few proper lessons in before the new tests come in in October.
So far it's working for me and I've had great fun so far!! :)