DAS course recommendation for beginner

Originally Posted by Nostrils

I am sure I am not the only one who thought the bigger bike was easier to manoevre at low speed than the 125,

+1 on this for sure. The 125's we had were crap! By crap I mean you could hold the throttle open a set amount and the revs would bounce up and down like you were pumping the grip! Also very twitchy as well.

The bigger 500's had more weight and felt more stable at all speeds. Much less forgiving clutch though

[Balky001]

Like the others have said, speak with the school and they'll assess what you need. 10 years on the road teaches you a lot. When I did my CBT one teenager had never come across a double roundabout before and froze (still passed though!).

Steve Jordan's bike shop is in Great Bookham. He's always been really helpful and they may know of decent riding schools near you, worth a try.

Just do your DAS, I had 7 years on the road in a car and had never rode a bike.
I took the CBT + 2.5 days tuition and passed first time

give this a go ... it's free

Hi

Depends where you are in Surrey. Woking Yamaha used to run some decent training but that seems to have changed hands now...

If you're on the Farnborough side of Surrey, 1st Gear Motorcycle Training are worth talking to. (http://www.1stgearmtc.co.uk/) they've got me, the wife and a few friends through over the past 10 years. They have an absolutely HUGE training area with the part 1 layout and a road layout marked up on it.

I haven't been over to see them for a while, but the school was run by Andy, his wife Michelle runs the office.

As for learning - you already know the rules of the road, you just need to learn how to control a bike, and how being on a bike affects those rules.

As you've no motorcycle experience, I'd suggest booking your CBT one weekend and your DAS training about a week later. It'll give the experience from the CBT a few days to sink in. If you've absolutely no motorbike experience the CBT is quite a steep learning curve.

Good Luck!

Ian

I bought a Yamaha YBR 125 and used that while I was learning (experience, plus saving money on petrol). I turned to biking after sitting in traffic watching the petrol gauge on my car (2.0l petrol enigne) go down too quickly.

A 125cc bike will usually be relatively easy to sell on as learners always want/need one. I sold mine for £200 less than I paid for it, but in the time between buying it and selling it (5months), I had saved over double that in petrol and it was due an M.O.T. (I could have put 12months on but I was too excite about getting my SV on the road).

I went down the DAS route as I wanted to be able to just buy 'any' suitable bike without having to get it restricted.

[yorkie_chris]

Well if you fancy doing 33bhp and DAS I've got 7 sets of 33bhp washers for GS500E's here!

[L3nny]

The hardest part of the bike test is the stuff you already know i.e. the rules of the road. I had a 50 when I was 16 then didn't get back on a bike for 12 years. Did my CBT then a couple of weeks later a 2 1/2 day intensive, passed by DAS on the 3rd day.

I actually found the 500cc GS much easier to ride than the CG 125 and you'll get bored of the 33bhp restriction pretty quickly.