Death traps!,still someone might get the use of your heart/kidneys/lungs etc,IF their salvageable
Big Roy:
cupcake1973:
You don’t need to send your licence away for provisional motorbike licence. You DO have to pass a CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) which will give you entitlement to ride up to 125cc on the road whilst displaying L plates (that remains valid as long as your driving licence)After that is gets a little more complicated with the new(ish) Mod 1 and Mod 2 system. You can do a Direct Access course and gain your full unrestricted licence, or do it in stages. Best to ask a riding school at that stage.
Hope that helps
how things have changed, when I took my bike test in 1976 it was a 15 minute ride around the block, with the examiner hiding in shop doorways
15, that was intense. Mine was 8 minutes from before putting my gloves on to after taking them off. Was chucking it down with rain. Examiner was under a huge golf brolly. Only set eyes on him twice during the entire test. 1987, the good old days, lol
im a midlife crisis biker, who has upto now not been a donar 
I would say its the best thing iv done especally after spending most of the week as a steering weel attendant in charge of a curtain sided 7.5 t snail. Theres nowt like 0 to 100 and back to 0 in seconds to remind you that u are human. 
Bmw k110…
NOVE:
Big Roy:
cupcake1973:
You don’t need to send your licence away for provisional motorbike licence. You DO have to pass a CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) which will give you entitlement to ride up to 125cc on the road whilst displaying L plates (that remains valid as long as your driving licence)After that is gets a little more complicated with the new(ish) Mod 1 and Mod 2 system. You can do a Direct Access course and gain your full unrestricted licence, or do it in stages. Best to ask a riding school at that stage.
Hope that helps
how things have changed, when I took my bike test in 1976 it was a 15 minute ride around the block, with the examiner hiding in shop doorways
15, that was intense. Mine was 8 minutes from before putting my gloves on to after taking them off. Was chucking it down with rain. Examiner was under a huge golf brolly. Only set eyes on him twice during the entire test. 1987, the good old days, lol
Ha yep the good old days, not long after passing my test I was running round on a 750 Honda, there was gang of us all running Big Honda’s, Z1’s, 750 Suzuki’s (kettles) we were only 17/18, something you don’t see now
Big Roy:
cupcake1973:
You don’t need to send your licence away for provisional motorbike licence. You DO have to pass a CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) which will give you entitlement to ride up to 125cc on the road whilst displaying L plates (that remains valid as long as your driving licence)After that is gets a little more complicated with the new(ish) Mod 1 and Mod 2 system. You can do a Direct Access course and gain your full unrestricted licence, or do it in stages. Best to ask a riding school at that stage.
Hope that helps
how things have changed, when I took my bike test in 1976 it was a 15 minute ride around the block, with the examiner hiding in shop doorways
Me too 
(although it was 1979) 
No disrepect here…but my instructor was a woman and she could ride the balls of her bike even though it was a 250 honda. The hairy arsed examiner stated @ the begiining of my test that if this bird has been your teacher then im in far a easy half hour…needless to say i passed my test, and she beat me back to the shop (10 mile away) even though i got a head start on her. Thanks Carol ■■
I did over 10 years without a bike after going down the social, then domestic need for a car.
ZZR1100. Bloody bonkers. Ace!
another1:
No disrepect here…but my instructor was a woman and she could ride the balls of her bike even though it was a 250 honda. The hairy arsed examiner stated @ the begiining of my test that if this bird has been your teacher then im in far a easy half hour…needless to say i passed my test, and she beat me back to the shop (10 mile away) even though i got a head start on her.
I was taught by a woman (didn’t actually need any training) but my mates folks wouldn’t let him have a bike unless he had some. I just tagged along after he told me about some of the talent there. He was on about girlies on horrid mopeds.
Then I met Gill, rode a Guzzi, and an XJ550, tidy as you like. About 4ft and a ■■■ end, but God she could ride.
Only thing she couldn’t do was get the Guzzi around the cones on the part 1 test, it had an appalling lock on it. When we weren’t doing proper training, the instructors used to let us play around on their bikes.
So whilst playing with the Guzzi, I threw it at the cones, through first time. Gill said it was a fluke, so I did it again.
Apparently the only guy that had ever managed it was a Police Advanced Trainer, and he only ever managed it once.
I felt like God when I took Gill through it two up on the same bike.
Tough bike, minx on the back, with a creasing erection. No mean feat, I can tell you
Theres an olde boy in the next village who is 79 yrs young, he rode a Guzzi this year to Spain and back with his wife on pillion. So theres still time for you yet son
.
As for my organs, your welcome to them come the day, i`m sure they will be well pickled by then
… , O>l-'\o ride free 
Hiya you don’t need more than a 125 nowadays…the chap next door has a fancy BMW something
that dose 199.99mph literally (a bit like tt winner this year) he’s also got an Aprilia 125. he has
more fun on the 125. its quick light and nippy, shear fun,especially when you live on the north
wales border. horse shoe pass. nod nod wink wink…
John
I’ve had bikes nearly all my life too. Started off on Jap stuff with the odd clapped-out British bike thrown in to remind me of how good Hondas really are;
but for the past 25 years it’s been virtually all Harleys. I’ve heard all the old jokes about them but I wanted one from age 11 or thereabouts and the interest’s never waned. By the standards of modern Japanese or European machinery they’re expensive, slow and don’t stop or handle particularly well; but quite frankly I really couldn’t care less. I should add at this point that the modern ones don’t do much for me, I’m into the really old stuff.
If any of you are going to the Classic Motor Show next weekend at the NEC, call in at the Harley-Davidson Riders Club stand and say hello, I’m taking this old heap up there;
Just be careful its not like a car or a truck they are the most difficult road going machine to master, out comes the sun up go the deaths, middle aged fair weather riders and 1000cc sportsbikes do not mix well, get some good training and ride as much as possible I rarely use my car and ride all year round I find cars slow and frustrating to use you can chop through the traffic on a bike and park almost anywhere.
Just stay away from Harley Davidsons and dressing up like Clint Eastwood, it looks wrong.
Yep, I’m finally pencilled in, scratch that, lazered in for next spring.
I’ve always been a bit concerned that I may maim or kill myself though as I’m a bit of Hard Charger & coupled with a fairly hefty lazy habit has always got in my way.
I’m old enough now & know the road well enough to do it without going 6 feet under. You need to show the skill of restraint on a bike unless the road is clear as the Great Larry Fishburne once said, “If you allow yourself to be hit on a bike, it’s more likely than not that it’s your own fault”. Wise words if you ask me.
mike68:
Just stay away from Harley Davidsons and dressing up like Clint Eastwood, it looks wrong.
As of course does riding race replicas and dressing up as Quasimodo.
mike68:
Just be careful its not like a car or a truck they are the most difficult road going machine to master, out comes the sun up go the deaths, middle aged fair weather riders and 1000cc sportsbikes do not mix well, get some good training and ride as much as possible I rarely use my car and ride all year round I find cars slow and frustrating to use you can chop through the traffic on a bike and park almost anywhere.
That however is excellent advice. Modern bikes are deceptively fast; you see others hooning into corners like they’re at the TT, think you can do the same and the next thing you know you’re inspecting the tarmac from very close up, assuming you’ve survived. The older you get the more it hurts when you fall off and whether you like it or not your reactions simply are not as quick as a younger rider. Remember that a fairly average sports bike in the showrooms today would have been perfectly capable of winning a world championship not so many years ago; ride within your limits not the bike’s, most of them are far better than their riders.
Past my test in 1981 the guy just stood there watched me part way round block as he couldnt see me most of time passed
Just bought a gpz 500 so will be out playing on that very soon
3300John:
Hiya you don’t need more than a 125 nowadays
Maybe for riders with a racing-snake physique 
, but I’d say the practical minimum is 250/ or about 20hp. 12.5/15hp doesn’t quite cut it when the wind is against you.
I had a Honda 125 twin back about 1980.I could strap my skis to it and ride up to Glenshee or Cairngorm hoon about on the slopes and ride back home again .
in my opinion the two best bikes on the road are the Yamaha XJR1300,and the Suzuki GSX1400,both very similar muscle bikes,does not help the OP I know but I had to say about them,what do other drivers think
I got back into biking with a Yam XJ600N, which is technically a very poor man’s Bandit. Probably a blessing, as it turned out to have been detuned to 33hp, rode it like that for a couple of weeks, until the bike shop had time to have it back in. Stopped me riding like a tool.
ZZR was found for me by a neighbour, bargain of the century. If I’d gone straight back on the road on that, I’d be dead now.
Hung onto the XJ, mainly because it was the newest motor I’d ever owned.
Rode it now and again to keep it mobile, and had an absolute scream on it. Compared to the ZZR it was like a 125, great fun to chuck about.
Still got them both, really need to get them back on the road.
Sold my Varadero 18 months ago to buy a van. Took a Trumpet 955 Sprint in part-ex, MOT’d it and sold that, but not before a trip to take the shine off the new tyres. 