HOW I GOT MY MOTORBIKE LICENSE AFTER NEVER RIDING A MOTORBIKE!

So after never riding a bike in my life, I decided to go ahead and get my full motorbike license meaning I can ride any bike I want.. how hard was it? how much did it cost? did I pass first time?

Come along on the journey with me from start to finish, from never riding a bike to having a full A license! We go through a CBT, Theory Test, Mod 1 and Mod 1, this is how you get a full bike license in the UK, also known as a direct access.

How you enjoy the content!

video credit to: https://www.youtube.com/@BikeMatters

now I’ve always been into cars from a little little kid with the road car in my bedroom to a little kid sticking spoilers on cars and painting the wheels black with a sharpie to watching Too fasty Furious on repeat so getting my driving license was the biggest thing in the world cars are and always have been my thing so how did we end up here motorbikes never really fascinated me that much I won’t lie I always just thought cars were cooler and more practical what’s the point in having a bike then I got the and I bought a kawazaki ZX6R to do an engine swap and I remember the feeling of first looking at it and first sitting it on my driveway I instantly just got it the engineering of them the sound of them and the Simplicity of them that’s when the bug started then we went and planned the route for True rally through Switzerland and Italy and this is where it gained the plays in my heart there were bikes here from all over Europe and no matter what country they were from the respect every single biker paid each other was something I’d never seen before a wave a tip of the house or was sticking out with the foot every single bike never failed to almost salute the other bike passing the car Community has not like this and I wanted to feel that camaraderie and this is the view I had the other day with my a license in my pocket it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done but how did I get here how long did it take what’s the process how much did it cost what was the first ride like well let’s get to it now a bike license is way more confusing than a car license a car license you get lessons you pass a The and then you pass your test and you can basically drive whatever you want if your insurance would allow it my bike license is very very confusing and most instructors I talk to still don’t understand why it’s so confusing you have to do a CBT now this will allow you to ride a 125 on the road you don’t even have to do a theory test if you’re 17 you can do a CBT which you can’t legally fail and then you can ride on the road not even knowing a road sign for 2 years but if you want to ride more than a 12 5 CCC you have to do a theory test a modular 1 test and then a modular 2 test and this also depends on your age you have to be 24 or over to drive the fast bikes you can do a direct access when you’re younger but you have to do another direct access all over again when you hit the next age bracket so from 17 if you want to take advantage of the best bikes you can ride you have to do in total three Modular One test and three modular 2 tests now luckily I’m an old bastard so I only have to do two test so let’s start from the beginning let’s go to my CBT bonjour people bonjo people it is the morning of my CBT and it is throwing it down it was £70 it’s a lot more expensive than last time I looked I think last time I looked it was like 110 120 I wanted to find a CBT which I could fully film the process and I messaged so many people and I waited so long for replies and I never got one single company um saying that they’ll let me film uh and I was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for a company that would and just none of them popped up so I’ve just took the bullet so I don’t think I’m going to be able to film the whole process I might try and film as much as I can but this isn’t going to be like a walk through full video like I’ve done with the drifted and stuff unfortunately now here’s just a clip of me being angry because I didn’t get sent through an email when I booked this CBT so I had no idea what to bring uh and their address on Google was wrong so I went to the total wrong place and I just didn’t really have a good experience in the morning get into the CBT Okay so we’ve just finished the first bit these are the bikes that we were on uh 125 some Chinese ones so we had one of these bikes each and this is where we was doing the uh the training so first of all we’re just you know going up and going around going through the gears going through some cones doing some figure eights and then we uh made shift some Junction so turning left Junction turning right Junction we did some uh we did some it’s absolutely throwing it out it doesn’t help cuz he’s so cool look at my jeans I’m literally drenched uh so yeah we’ve just been doing it in here um and we’re just doing some u-turns we’ve done quite a lot to be fair I’m actually quite surprised with how much information we’ve got it’s not just like this is what you got to do this is what you got to do it’s actually been really helpful information as well so in terms of what gear you should get why you should get gear some good brands some good websites to buy some gear from um and just loads of stuff we’ve got a lot of over the Mechanicals of the bike as well which I quite enjoyed um but I’m absolutely freezing so I’m going to go get some food around the corner I’m going to go sit in the BMW cuz we’ got half an hour until we go out on the road so we’re going out on the road in half an hour um which is going to be fun uh I’m not going to lie I’ve picked it up really quick I’m not going to lie I feel like I’m am doing really well um so let’s go get some food let’s get some heat seats on the BMW for half an hour and then uh I’ll catch you well wish had a GoPro but I can’t do it unfortunately now sadly I haven’t got any footage of my CBT I didn’t uh I wasn’t aware I could film on the road uh but I uh we get some footage later on of the mod one and the mod 2 right and uh that’s it done so we basically went out for a couple of hours uh the other guy there was three of us one guy wasn’t come to enough going out on the road so there was two of us that went out on the road just had uh people throughout we had microphones in and he was saying take the left at the next exit go straight on tight right blah blah blah uh and then I went out as the lead biker after that and oh it was such good for it was honestly really really really good fun um it was the when I went out as well we just did the same route so I knew where we was going so I could just relax and just enjoy it I was really really really enjoying it the guy was really happy with us as well he was like you’re both ready to go up to a 650 to be fair so yeah I’ve got my theory booked on Tuesday um and then I’m going to get the mod one booked after that hopefully for the end of this month so what it’s great it’s honestly really really really good fun the CBT is not like definitely not like people telling you what to do and this is a test and blah blah blah it’s like let’s go have a bit of a laugh and let’s just make sure you’re safe enjoy yourself and yeah enjoy yourself so I had a really good time I really did um bit of a sticky not not the best start to the day but really really good fun and it was absolutely freezing so yeah now we got to go and prep for our Theory now the next part is the theory test now even though I’ve been driving for over 10 years I still found this difficult um you forget what road signs mean you forget what signs are orders and what signs are suggestions and blah blah blah it’s almost like doing your car Theory test over again but adding a little bit more into motorbike safety but the main thing I did was just go on the government website and keep redoing their mock tests they don’t actually want you to fail these tests they just want you to know what the answers are so I always feel like the government website are going to be the most up-to-date questions so just keep doing the marcks over and over and over again so you start getting 50 out of 50 that was my plan good morning everybody good morning everybody it is getting warmer it is getting way nicer it was getting it is getting absolutely it’s it’s getting good it’s getting good and I’m getting really excited because we’re so close we’re not close for motor bike test but everything’s booked in for the motorbike test we’ve got our direct access um in about 10 days I believe 10 days we got we start our direct access and I can’t wait for that um the thing is I I ended up cracking my head open the other day on the door so all this side I was in hospital the other day and I’ve had my glued so my head looks a bit weird I can’t wash it but it’s fine we’re on our way to get our Theory test today so we got our Theory test booked at 9:00 and it’s a bit of a weird time cuz I don’t really like eating the first first thing when I wake up but I know I know that if I don’t eat I can’t concentrate so I’ve made myself a little Brios bacon Bal I’m just trying to force it down me um we’re onun away I’m excited but I’m also nervous as well because I have been passing the mock Theory test especially the ones on the Go website and stuff like I’ve been absolutely smashing them getting like 50 out of 50 on the gov website and like third party apps the questions are a little bit different um but I I have I have been you know um passing them really uh but there’s just some questions that keep throwing me off and it’s usually on the third party ones like the third party mock tests some questions have been throwing me off and I think they just word a lot of them are just worded wrong where it’s like it could be multiple answers that it could be right um but I so theyve been really pissing me off when I’ve been doing them but we will see um I am really nervous but yes so I’m going to get there and I’ll let you guys obviously I can’t film any of this I’ll uh I’ll let you guys know how it goes okay so I’ve just got the test center I haven’t looked yet I’ve got it here I’m not looked if I F away to film it uh it was a little bit harder than I thought there was some questions that really threw me off um to be honest um but I think I should have done let’s have if I haven’t yay we passed I me I get I got 49 out of 50 Get Wrecked cuz I first I opened it and the first question was well on I was like oh no I’m not prepared enough for this I was on the first question for about 3 minutes I was like [ __ ] I got 49 out of 50 holy [ __ ] wow I got one wrong I’d love to see which one I got got wrong I passed the I got 60 65 out of 75 in the hazard perception and you need 44 to pass so I was well in on that and 49 out of 50 mate I I was I swore I got like three questions wrong swore I really want to know one question is oh that’s really annoying man I guess I’ll never find out to be honest yes you passed I will [ __ ] my pants honestly when I opened that first question I was like oh it’s going to be way harder than I thought 49 50 wed so now that we passed our Theory we can do our direct access which is our mod one and our mod two I actually went with a different company than my CBT just I didn’t have a really good experience and I went with a company called bikes and motion and they have been nothing but amazing from day one I’ll put their uh information on screen now uh they’ve been honestly great and they were super nice people and uh yeah so on a CBT you use a 125 CC bike and on your mod one you jump to a 650 so this is a Honda uh CB 650r so the mod one is all about bike control and it’s about slow riding and slow Maneuvers basically so on day one with bikes in motion we went to a school and we used their their playground and we just practiced the Maneuvers over and over and over again I couldn’t film this because it was in a school property uh but I’ve put there’s a video here on YouTube and I’ve put a link on where I’ve got that these are the main maneuvers of a mod one you will have a manual control which is basically just walking the bike around making sure you don’t knock over uh and then you’ll have a slon which is close to cones a figure of eight a slow ride which is a 4 mph ride without falling over then you’ll have the dreaded U-turn which everyone worries about and then you’ll have some faster Maneuvers as well which is Hazard of oison which is basically driving at 30 mph and avoiding a cone now my mod one was over 3 days and I really like this about bike and motion they really want to just to get used to the bike so they actually hide out the test center and we just did the actual test on repeat until we passed every exercise and then we kept going on Long rides the long rides they said was to just get used and comfortable to the bike they didn’t want us being worried about driving the bike so we went on super long rides and this was my favorite part about the whole experience just going and having a ride through some countrysides good morning everybody it is the final day well not the final day it is the day of my module one test which I’m absolutely buzzing about um a little bit nervous not too nervous it’s good to have a little bit of nerves uh I am quite confident on the bite there was a couple of things which I’m a little bit worried about um and that’s just the only thing I’m worried about is that when you go into the slum you basically go straight off from the slum from part up and the only thing I’m not amazing at yet is like setting off perfectly in control um I mean it probably looks quite in control but with me I don’t know I like to be consistent with everything and I’m not massively consistent on setting off the same time that I’m not massively consist on setting off the same every time there’s little deviances on how I set up or you know I’m a little bit misbalanced or my speed’s not always perfect when I set off uh and obviously going into the slum you need your speeding your balance pretty much you know sorted before you get into the first cone so that’s the only really thing I’m massively worried about obviously the U-turn a little bit cuz again I’m not massively consistent I mean I’ve I’ve done like 15 u-turns in a row perfectly but it doesn’t feel massively consistent so I don’t know maybe I’m just over critical of myself but I’m going today it was raining when I woke up it’s starting to brighten up now so I hope that it either does one or the other and just like rain and get sunny again I was told that they’ve tacked somehow apparently I was told that they’ve tacked the bit in the Mod War where it’s always grippy even if it’s wet so hopefully that’s the case because like I was going pretty fast like on my hazard of oous and stuff I was going like over the speed I had to but I just thought well let’s just go over cuz then if I do drop down a couple you know comments on the test then I’ll still pass so yeah I just don’t want in the back of my mind is this wet is it going to be slippy do you know what I mean so I’m going to get there we’re going down to um the bike place first not the test center and uh I’m meeting them at 8: and my test is at like4 to 10 so I think we’re going for about an hour ride and we’re just going over some things again which would be good because obviously I’ve been driving my kawazaki between all this so very different bike to ride yeah wish you luck guys again I can’t film too much especially on this day because um obviously it’s a test so wish me luck and I’ll catch you when we get out so ignore my helmet here uh I passed yay I got one minor because cuz it was I I it was a bit wet on the floor um apparently I went too much rear break and the ABS kicked in um or it was like a little bit so they give me a miner for using too much rear breake but other than that yeah I passed which was good it was a lot easier than I remember doing as well the hardest thing is just getting it from where they Park you into the gate because you got to pull out quite a tight thing tight space and you’ve got the curb and he’s holding the gate he’s staring at you and that’s the hardest thing is before you even start uh the test what what they do actually test you on pulling out and stuff so it is the test it’s not really a test but yeah so I’ve got my mod 2 next week so we got a week until my mod to so until then we’ll just keep they said the instructor said that’s the hard bit the mod one’s the harder bit the mod 2 is just being safe on the road uh so I’ve got mod two next week so we’re going to do a day driving on the road getting all the the all the the signals right the position on the road right and blah blah blah and then mod two and then we can uh we’ll try and get some bloody insurance so with my mod one passed I can do my mod 2 now mod 2 is all just riding safely and confident ly on the road um what you’ll have an examiner follow you and he’ll just say turn left turn right pull over stop here stop behind this car and it’s basically just like a normal driving test the biggest difference between the the motorbike test and your driving test is that on your driving test they want you to stick to the speed limit and stay behind cars and just be safe and be boring in the bike test it’s really not like that they want you to show confidence they want you to use the power of the bike to get away from potentially dangerous situations they want you to overtake they want you to filter traffic they don’t mind if you go over the speed limit to you know get away from danger it’s actually quite refreshing um having examiners who work for the dbsa want you to be confident but also at the same time they are very strict and they’re very strict on a few things you cause any driver to have to break or change direction you instantly fail so they’re strict but they also and not strict it’s really weird experience and it’s also really Dawn him because all you can see is that big examiner right in your mirror because he stays as close to you as possible so he can see what you’re seeing knowing that you make the right decisions extremely daunting but I found it a lot easier in the mod one so I had my mod 2 this morning and I passed it so I pass on mod two super happy I thought I failed it at one point cuz some [ __ ] white van cut me up and I I thought was that my fault well obviously it wasn’t cuz I still passed so I was buzzing so we just gone to the unit I’ve just got the bike back from Mt the Mt pass the MLT and I’ve just rang my insurance and obviously I’ve got a claim I’ve got three points and i’ obviously it’s a fast bike and I’ve never I’ve L was like when you pass I was like today and they were like oh I was like yeah and they was like have you got any driving connections I was like yeah there that any claims in the last three years yeah and then I she was like okay we got one person on kby I was like oh for God’s sake it’s going to be so much and I was just waiting she was like the price is I was just waiting for 1,700 and she went £430 I was like what yep take my cards so we’re in short on the bike uh I’m not going in straight away because I want to I want to do a first drive video all you which you’ll see soon and so I want to make sure my gopro’s charged and I want a plan of where I’m going to go I just want to drive around Lakeside at 5 yeah so we’re going to go for a ride tomorrow uh and I’m going to try and find something with a mic so we can have a fun ride but we done it we’re all in short we’ve got a motorik license oh yeah even when I’ve been on my like the training and stuff every bike’s been like and I’ve got an L plate on I’m like look they they’re obviously cooler than I am I’ve got an L plate but they’re still respecting me so now I can’t wait to do a proper nod and non plate nod can’t wait and here we go after a month finally get to get out on my own bike sense of achievement and just a sense of Freedom that this thing gives you the respect that you get from not only other bikers but other drivers as well you just feel like people respect you when you’re riding on the road cars move out the way kids wave at you kids point at the bike people want you to rev it people want to take photos there’s special cafes for all the bikers all the bikers come over and talk to you you get to feel just a total different experience of just enoy Jo in the roads and it’s honestly one of the best best things I’ve ever done and I can’t wait to do some adventures in the summer and to bring all of you guys along with me