Biking is a real pain to get into nowadays.

[MisterTommyH]

Originally Posted by SvNewbie

The DAS course is obviously quite expensive.

Really?

I reckon it cost me about £500. I had a test that was cancelled because the instructor got a puncture, which meant I could claim my fee and hire/instruction expenses to and from the centre back from the DVLA (nice little bit of free tuition for me).

Taking into account all of this buying of different bikes over the years, and the different tests I reckon this has to be the cheapest way to do it.

[Mauler]

Originally Posted by wideguy

We're moving away from it rapidly, but our idea used to be that individuals were responsible for themselves (and any damage they caused), and that common sense has to come from the bottom up.
Nanny state laws don't really instill common sense in anyone. Fools will find a way to get hurt and hurt others, no matter what the laws say, and our lawmakers often have less common sense than anybody.

The problem is that personal responsibility is something that more and more people overlook. I don't know if it's America's insidious litigation finger-pointing culture creeping over to our shores or a lack of morals instilled in people or both or whatever but 'nanny' laws are there to protect idiots who don't use common sense to protect themselves and those around them from mishaps. Most of our laws are born from a reaction to undesirable statistics and I like to think that they do help and by their very nature instil common sense into people. Wearing a lid to ride on the street or track, for example, is a no-brainer. Someone going from a 125cc bike to a 1,000cc bike in one step at a young age is asking for trouble and I'm fairly glad that the law now prohibits it; not for my sake but for That Guy who throws the L-plates, gets a 'Blade or whatever before they're ready for it, inevitably wreck it and damage or kill themselves in the process. It's not just themselves they're harming; every bike crash that people witness is another load of non-riding people dismissing us and our bikes as a menace, fewer potential new riders and more tax-money spent on the resulting mess.


Before I bought my CBR125 I spent a lot of time reading over on the SBN forums (http://www.sportbikes.net/forums/new-riders/) and despite my tarring all Americans with the same brush they seem to be a generally clued-up bunch who spend a lot of their time trying to talk new riders out of buying a powerful bike as their first bike because of the amount of riders they've seen get damaged due to lack of experience. That is common sense and the law here saves wannabe/new riders from making that mistake.


As you rightly say, the div and good health are soon parted though, one way or another...

[yorkie_chris]

Compared to now where you have to take another test, to show you can ride round town... which is EXACTLY the same to do on a 125 or a thou! If not easier on the thou!

Sod all to do with riding a powerful bike, sod all to do with how anyone gets hurt.


So what was wrong with the usual A2 licence > 2yrs > full?

Oh and if you're older with enough disposable to do DAS and insure a thou as a first bike... You still can!! Born agains and new older "pleasure" riders well represented in the KSI stats BTW!


Only people these bollox laws hurt are young people who want a bike that's actually half useful to use as transport without spending half the national sodding debt on all these bullsh*t hoop-jumps.

[PyroUK]

Well said YC. Friend of mine at work wants to get on 2 wheels, he has the mis fortune of being 20 next month.

He is buggered if he wants to get a bigger bike without forking out loads over the years. Yes get extra training or whatever but having to retake the same theory and practical twice??

[TamSV]

If all you're doing is taking the same tests on slightly different bikes, do you actually need to do more training?

If the purpose was actually to improve skills through a progression of different sized bikes, would you not test for those improving skills rather than repeat the same test?

[aesmith]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

So what was wrong with the usual A2 licence > 2yrs > full?

The changes were claimed to be required for compliance with EU directive, presumably the 33HP wasn't a European category. That excuse doesn't totally hold water though, firstly because the government has always felt able to go against EU directives when it suits them. Also the UK has set higher minimum ages than required by the directive. Finally I don't see in the EU directive the requirement for a full re-test to advance through the categories.

I suspect either the EU directive was an excuse for something they wanted to do anyway, or alternatively the took the directive and just decided to gold plate it.

Tony S
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity

Training, experience, safety equipment, good maintenance- all good things, but none of them will give people good judgement or prevent them from doing stupid things and getting hurt, and they will do it on underpowered bikes.
How about a law that requires everyone to ride safely within the limits of their skills and the capabilities of their machine?
That should work. Probably stop people on 250's from bombing down the mountain WOT and panicking when they come up onto a decreasing radius hairpin, or crashing in a roundabout trying to get their knee down.

The electrician chap came back last night and fixed the alarm. I also noticed that my rear sprocket has lost a few teeth in one section (like it has failed and a section broke away) and my tyre has very little tread. Sigh.

Thanks for all the responses, it is interesting to see the different view points (nanny-state vs Darwinism)

[JM2]

Originally Posted by GlosGambit

The electrician chap came back last night and fixed the alarm. I also noticed that my rear sprocket has lost a few teeth in one section (like it has failed and a section broke away) and my tyre has very little tread. Sigh.

Thanks for all the responses, it is interesting to see the different view points (nanny-state vs Darwinism)

Eek. Obviously you mustn't ride it like this. Is this new damage/wear to either/both?
- Well the tyre might be okay if just "low".

The above training is all very well, but even for your £xx course/s, do you actually get any maintenance training thrown in?

Originally Posted by JM2

Eek. Obviously you mustn't ride it like this. Is this new damage/wear to either/both?
- Well the tyre might be okay if just "low".

The above training is all very well, but even for your £xx course/s, do you actually get any maintenance training thrown in?

This is most definitely new damage. It was fine before I set off on the last journey I made (from work to home).

With regard to maintenance, no. There was very very little maintenance training given. But YouTube has all the answers and lots of videos with people who think their way is the best - this leads to lots of opportunities to maintain bike differently and is very helpful. Plus, you can have YouTube running when you're tinkering at the bike!