Newbie looking for advice on choosing a first bike

I was always told to go straigth for the bike you want. Ie if you want a sports bike, just buy one and learn things on that. I kinda agree, i'd imagine myself getting into a false sense of security just 'cus i can bob around on a 125 everyone's different.

[L3nny]

Originally Posted by RiCousins

Cheers for the advice guys Been having a look through the for sale threads on here and there are definitely some nice looking ones on there, and at pretty good prices too.

Just out of interest, to anyone who took a 5 day crash course starting with the CBT and ending with the test, how much did you pay? Have only been able to find one site which quoted prices online without having to phone for a quote, and that was £655 for the 5 day course. In Scotland though, which doesn't help me a huge deal. Is that the kind of price you'd expect to pay everywhere? Thanks guys. Any more input on bikes will be appreciated too.

I did a 3 day course which was about £500, the CBT I did a few weeks before which was about another £100. This included hire of their bike as well.

Do you drive a car? If not then I'll think you'll find an intensive course a bit difficult as you will need to learn all the highway code stuff as well. I'd been driving a car for 12 years before I did my DAS and there were still things I didn't know.

If I were you i'd do my CBT get a 125 and then after a few months take one lesson and see what if the instructor thinks you are ready for a test.

As you are 18 you will only be able to take the restricted test anyway and I think you'd be better doing it on your own bike.

Having said that if you do pass your test and go straight onto an SV 650 you'll have a lot of fun, I did .

Do the lessons, test, kit, tax, insurance etc have to come out of your 2 grand budget as well? If so there won't be much left for a bike.

Have been driving for a year and a half, so hopefully most of the theory element won't be too difficult as a fair amount of it will carry over from car driving. Obviously I expect there to be a lot of differences when riding a bike, but hopefully it'll mostly be relatively straightforward. I'm a pretty quick learner.

Basically my plan at the moment: My parents are going to buy my gear for a kind of joint birthday/early christmas present at the end of May, and loan me the money for training and insurance which I will pay back once I'm sorted and on the road. I have to buy the bike myself, now looking to spend between £1000-£1700 ideally. If anyone comes across any half decent looking bikes for sale in this range and isn't tempted to buy it themselves I'd be very appreciative if they could post up a link in here or PM me or something so I can take a look. Obviously I'll be searching hard as well

Does anyone know roughly how much insurance would be for someone in my situation on an SV? I was thinking between 400-900 quid depending on how many places I phone around etc, but this is going on only a couple of peoples' experiences. I would be looking for TPFT.

Thanks in advance!

[L3nny]

I found that most of the hard part of the test was general road sense, which I already had from a car so the lessons I took I could focus on controlling the bike.

Get some quotes online for insurance.

www.bennetts.co.uk
www.comparethemarket.com

[lazymanc]

Originally Posted by RiCousins

Have been driving for a year and a half, so hopefully most of the theory element won't be too difficult as a fair amount of it will carry over from car driving. Obviously I expect there to be a lot of differences when riding a bike, but hopefully it'll mostly be relatively straightforward. I'm a pretty quick learner.

Basically my plan at the moment: My parents are going to buy my gear for a kind of joint birthday/early christmas present at the end of May, and loan me the money for training and insurance which I will pay back once I'm sorted and on the road. I have to buy the bike myself, now looking to spend between £1000-£1700 ideally. If anyone comes across any half decent looking bikes for sale in this range and isn't tempted to buy it themselves I'd be very appreciative if they could post up a link in here or PM me or something so I can take a look. Obviously I'll be searching hard as well

Does anyone know roughly how much insurance would be for someone in my situation on an SV? I was thinking between 400-900 quid depending on how many places I phone around etc, but this is going on only a couple of peoples' experiences. I would be looking for TPFT.

Thanks in advance!

You can get an idea on insurance prices by using a comparison site to get some quotes. Try http://www.thebikeinsurer.co.uk/ - you might not get the best deal there but it'll give you a ballpark figure.

Just went through that putting in all my details honestly and the first 5 quotes were around the £450-480 mark. Not as bad as I was expecting. Thanks for the link