How to pass a CBT course with Mutt Motorcycles

Miles Lacey is the only member of our podcast host team who doesn’t ride a motorcycle, and John Marcar decided that it was about time that was put right.

The lovely folks at Mutt Motorcycles kindly invited us to their facility in Birmingham, where they organise CBT rides on their fabulous bikes. In this video, we follow Miles’s journey through the one-day course, during which he went from being a total novice to a qualified CBT-certified rider.

If you would like to book or enquire with Mutt Motorcycles for your own CBT, please follow this link: https://muttmotorcycles.com/pages/mutt-motorcycles-riding-school

For more information on Mutt, please visit https://muttmotorcycles.com/

Video written and produced by John Marcar
Filming and editing by Luke Wilson
Special thanks to Mutt Motorcycles

Music licenced via music bed:
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hello and welcome to the very glamorous South Birmingham where today we’re bringing you something a little bit different my name is John marar standing beside me is Mr Mars Lacy hello Mars hi John now as you may or may not be aware myself and Amy and a lot of our production team are all motorcycle riders esteemed motorcycle riders you could say but there is one person on our team that isn’t you it’s me yeah so we were troubled by this and decided it was about time we at the very least put miles Lacy here through his CBT and in doing so got in contact with the lovely people at mut motorcycles and they said look why don’t you come down here have a go on our bikes we’ll put you through the CBT and essentially get you on your journey to being a motorcyclist yeah and one can only hope to be it feels like a I’m the missing piece of the puzzle cuz Amy rides bikes and has done for a long time you ride bikes and have done for a very long time and then there’s me that just hasn’t got a clue exactly so today that changes and that is very very very exciting um now conveniently whil we’re here there is a very very cool shop inside with some very very cool bikes and a coffee shop with a proper coffee machine so I think I’ll spend most of my day satting there in the warm enjoying a coffee and you’ll be out here learning how to wobble around the motorbikes in indeed look what luck we picked a day where it’s not raining so here we are in the middle of Birmingham so today we’ll be showing you the CBT process we’ll be showing you how it all works and catching up with you throughout the day to see how you’re getting on indeed more on that later and just to recap um how much time you spent on a motorbike so far literally thousands of hours Ah that’s not true I’ve never been on a bike ever before um do you know how a motorcycle gearbox Works nope um brakes no um Road eut this will be fun hello and welcome to driven I’m John markart this is Miles Lacy and this is how to do a CBT with M motorcycles whilst miles prepares for his first ever day on two wheels I decided to meet our instructor Jake and find out what miles can expect from the day ahead so before we get started and throw miles in at the deep end and onto a motorcycle thought it’d be worth having a quick chat with Jake here now Jake you are essentially your today’s instructor aren’t you absolutely now talk us through what today is all about miles has never ridden on a motorcycle before and I’m guessing that is fairly typical for the majority of people that coming here absolutely so CBT it’s basically compulsory basic training course so you’ve got to sort of be able to ride a push bikes you’ve got a level of balance and it’s not like a absolute beginner’s course as such you’ve got to sort of have some form of Competency but it’s it’s basically basically trying to get them changing gear correctly learning how to ride in a straight line under control um and being able to stop the bike effectively and safely and then we do if they’re able to do that on the pad we’ll go out onto the road and see those skills translate onto the road plus Road skills the day runs with five different elements so we sort of start with a bit of talking about safety helmets gear it’s a bit more of a Q&A more than anything it’s not really a sort of pass or fail section of the day they just listen make sure they can understand what I’m telling them get some repeat back so I know that they’ve understood it do you know what I mean sort of very basic then they do where we stood now on our little pad you can see safety barriers cones and we go through a load of exercises on the pad um without moving on too quickly and it starts from Simply is pulling away come to a stop pull away come to a stop then a little bit of a slow ride around and the day develops on from there for more turning exercises make sure that control stays then we start developing the riding skills a bit better change gear whilst doing the turning so you can sort of see it goes in stages mhm um if they’re safe enough on here and I feel as though there’s still not too much thought process we’ll then start moving on to more dangerous would probably be the wrong word but more sort of extreme things like an emergency stop sure yeah then I’ll set up a little pad of left and right turns and practice how to use their indicators do their shoulder checks and look around so then they’re prepared for how they need to ride on the road really um and then yeah the road ride is the road ride two hours as a minimum go around do roundabout pedestrian zebra crosses traffic lights all sorts and just see how they get on wonderful and the idea being so once the morning’s gone well we assume and then the afternoon goes well do a bit of Road riding what does that mean then for miles will he be able to essentially ride a motorcycle on the road after today absolutely as long as he passes his CBT he gets a little piece of paper that says well done you’ve not tried to kill yourself all day and he can ride up to a 125 motorcycle yeah geared or automatic yeah a little bit weird that even if you passed on an auto as long as you competency you can ride a gear bike but we do recommend what we call a gear conversion lesson yeah okay but yeah you can go off and ride any 125 mot bike in the UK as long as he’s got tax insurance and all that sort of nonsense and then if he wants to he can start to expand onto his bigger bikes because he’s got a CBT awesome right well let’s uh get into the classroom and’s see how well he listens and then um the scary bit get him on a bike all right once El I is done you can’t really pacified on that one all right element B similar principle on the bikes talk about the controls briefly how they work and where they are and what they do go out look for the one you want the most look for the right color and if it fits great if it doesn’t fit there’ll be something else somewhere else in another manufacturer that will fit you so go to a shop try them on okay good point anyone have any idea how helmet Works in an accident apart from the obvious no part the obviously it protects your head yeah yeah classroom Theory done and it’s time to get suited in safety gear and out on the learning pad but not before polishing that Birmingham accent really get a good good building site there where you want these bricks ling let’s rock that’s okay the CB T starts with an understanding of basic controls and the Art of maneuvering the bike safely and then the first ever ride was mastering clutch control thruffle control and the [Music] brakes my god I’ve not been this nervous for a long time I actually found it quite intimidating what was it that made it intimidating I don’t know I think the fact that I didn’t feel I he told me what to do but it’s just that element of if it what if it runs away with me yeah yeah but obviously all I need to do is put the clutch in and it’s absolutely fine which sounds stupidly simple but when you haven’t done it before it’s just nerve-wracking following a morning of basic skills and controls it was time for me to check in with Jake and reveal a little surprise about his student okay that is the first section of the morning done we’ve done a bit of classroom we’ve done a bit of riding around on the what would you call this area the yeah the training pad so I just refer to it as my pad basically yeah um go on then give us the uh the the Frank and brutal how’s it getting on unfortunately so far so good I wish i’ had more bad things to say about him to be fair the um the clutch controls there yeah already quite impressively so he’s got a good relationship between holding that clutch cuz on a bike you’ll slip the clutch at slow control and like a car where you just pretty much come off it yeah so it does take a little bit of sort of switching brain mode but yeah he’s got it to be fair the only thing is he tends to just stiff W yeah bit wooden bit stiff so I’m just going to beat that out of him a little bit later but the minute he starts to turn his head and look he s he relaxes then everything he’s telling you obviously exactly right as soon as uh my shoulders start to get stiff and I’m not quite looking far enough ahead everything just becomes more unbalanced and unnatural but as soon as you literally relax your shoulders look further through the corner and look where you want to go everything just seems to become much much easier the clutch control thing for me seems to be okay so far um but it just seems to be my actual posture and uh sort of comfort on the bike really and all I need to do is just relax a bit and that will make my life a lot easier but figure of eight done so I consider that a great success so I’m going to reveal something about our our miles now which uh it’ll be interesting to see how this changes your perception of him for the afternoon you mentioned he got quite good clutch control so Miles um is a professional racing driver okay he races for Prager he’s been racing internationally in Australia and all over the world and he used to be believe it or not a development engineer for Bentley so he used to essentially a lot make the cars drive well yeah um and also does a bit of tuition so he’s very familiar with being in that tuition point of view teaching people how to get a better line on track so do you think perhaps that might help with his both his ability to listen cuz I know it can go one way or the other teachers are either great Learners or they’re awful absolutely um so yeah how so two things from that one I can understand the clutch control but two I’m going to Beast him even more about being relaxed now because he should know yeah yeah he should know that if he holds a stiff steering wheel as he hits that curb on the Apex that car’s going to react quicker yeah so he’ll have a relaxed arm position in his car so I’m going to make him beast and make him be relaxed on the bike now well well well well miles Lacy yeah uh talk me through your day so far so you’ve had a bit of classroom yes you’ve had uh a bit of General clutch control gears and you’ve just done the dreaded which was my least favorite thing that I did my CBT the dreaded U-turn yeah but the final test of one more thing and then we’ll head out on the road is the other Infamous one the emergency stop which the whole rest of the success of the day and progress of the day was hinged on he Jake rightly said basically not because I’d be angry not because i’ be worried about the bike or anything all that more worried about you if you do go down in this exercise we won’t be going out on the road okay close to the road right for me to risk concussion elbow injury ankle injury anything because if you do go down and abuse that from right it’s going to be an absolute tank slap it’s going to throw you down Okay Okay Main obviously concern is you but just so you know where we’re at for the day okay understand yeah yeah yeah all right okay because obviously emergency stop is so important yeah um but yeah I mean I was just saying to Jake a moment ago when you consider I started only two hours ago and actually didn’t know how to even operate a motorbike never mind learn how to actually ride one around these tight quarters the tips and everything he’s given like just silly things that he’s probably seen a million times that I do as a newbie he was like try this sorted fix you know um and it’s great doing it on like you know a proper bike yeah yeah absolutely absolutely one of the things that I’ve observed and bear in mind I did my CBT now gosh I tried to think seven eight years ago the the the feedback the tips the and I’m you know yes we’ve got this as a bit of a freebie today as a as a bit of promo for these guys but I mean this the just listening to the way that they tutor and what they say and the attention you know the fact that it’s basically it’s oneon-one at the moment it was one on two earlier when I did my CBT I’m fairly sure I was one of eight on a day it was just manic I think I’d struggle with that yeah yeah so the fact that you’ve been able to have so much Hands-On onetoone tuition and that it’s so in depth and as you say you’re hearing things it’s making sense and I’m overhearing things as a guy that’s been riding five or six years going oh that’s a good point yeah that makes sense yeah and and I think Testament to how what their approach is because yeah it’s it’s nice and relaxed they want you to have a good time but there’s nothing left on the table in terms of we want you to come away from this having taken the most away from it and you know there’s no obviously there’s a way of doing it there’s no way I would have been happy going out on the road very early on but now I feel it’s like skiing or something like that as long as you can stop and turn in control then you can kind of go anywhere do anything because the reality is you can as long as you can control this at any speed which being here you now can you’re not going to get yourself into a situation where you’re out control yeah mut motorcycles HQ in Birmingham is where all muts go through their final checks and assembly before being shipped out to customers it’s also a shop where you can visit and browse and purchase your own bike and your own merchandise oh and did I mention the exceptional coffee shop if you are anywhere near the West Midlands this place is well worth a visit I’m not nervous at all this is like the last bit before we actually go out on the road so I hope this goes well with the dreaded emergency stop signed off it was time now for the equally daunting Road ride more than an hour of riding around the Mean Streets of Birmingham under guidance and instruction from Jake from here only time will tell as to whether or not miles is cut out to be a motorcycle rider [Applause] [Music] [Music] seriously how was that that was absolutely epic that’s hands on heart one of the best things I’ve ever done really seriously one of the best things I’ve ever done like I felt like I was saying to you earlier I don’t think I’ve ever concentrated that hard or felt like I’ve had to learn something that new basically since I did my driving learned how to drive a car 15 years ago or so amazing yeah yeah and just actually getting the bike moving and you know changing up through the gears and stuff we when we very first went out it was just driving around sort of industrial estate and that felt a bit awkward and but we just repeated it and then as soon as we got on the open roads it was just epic seriously and we didn’t really go above 50 miles an hour but I felt like I was doing 150 amazing well um why don’t we go and sit in the classroom yeah and we’ll have a chat with Jake and see how we did right how’ you think you got off well I definitely felt I felt still very when we first went out on the road I felt quite wooden still just going around but going around that industrial estate and just repeating that lefts and rights that was really valuable just chill yeah yeah yeah and then to be honest once we there was the F there was the first bit of fear of just going out into the open roads as it were and start to see other cars and traffic but you know it did soon go it it did go away eventually it disappear you don’t realize how big a lry wheel is until you sat on a bike next to it do you really to be fair you you do feel really over that’s why we do the industrial stat mate yeah one it allows me to see what you do whether you actually understand everything on the pad mhm or whether it sort of all just crumbles and falls apart which would sort of still be natural I had a lady that was smash the pad in about 2 and a half hours got had to change gear when she got on the she crumbled too much pressure yeah so that’s why we used the industrial St to start with but yeah what about you Road ride you think you were safe yeah I felt yes I didn’t feel like could put myself any compromising positions what was the main thing I was moaning that you about towards the start of the r um Road positioning and can’t wait for the race driver to tell me this what was the main thing oh yeah I wasn’t guess guess what dear audience I wasn’t going fast enough far too slow it was quite fun getting him to go faster seriously he was like can you just speed up no one’s ever said that to me ever and then what happened when we went through a speed sign later in the day I got time to slow down 33 had it all 33 and to 30 I felt like such a rebel but all jok inside haven’t told you that you’ve done anything dangerous once yeah have I sat there and have you heard me go down a mic once no ultimately mate more than happy to give you a CBT yeah spot on all right and it gives me great pleasure to welcome miles Lacy almost to the motorcycle club yeah but you’re certainly on your way congratulations CBT awarded thank you I you know what I feel genuinely happy about that yeah it’s been a long day we’ve been here since 8 :0 this morning and it’s now gone 5 nearly 5:30 so yeah long day intensive day but how good has today been from a point of view of mut motorcycles and the instructing team here literally everything like that you come to mut motorcycles here in buring just say HQ the place itself is fantastic it’s like a Biker’s Dream or if you’re just a bit of a petrol head it’s a cool place to hang out we were greeted incredibly they told us what the format of the day was um it’s not a big group they even say even when it’s busy it’s like what three or four people so it’s really genuine like intimate sort of training and nothing was left on the table I didn’t know before I literally yesterday I was saying to you I’m quite nervous cuz I don’t know what I’m doing I’ve never been on a bike before and now I’ve just been out on the road and felt quite happy doing it and really really enjoyed it yeah this is it this is the most exciting bit cuz it is just the beginning so we need to say a massive thank you to mut motorcycles because they have today allowed us to use this space they’ve thrown in this CBT course for us but I will 110% be recommending this course with these guys to plenty of friends that have expressed an interest in doing exactly this because it has been faultless and what a venue what an amazing venue and the fact that you’re able to use the mut motorcycles as well to actually do the CBT is really really cool so there will be more to come with mut in the very near future testing some bikes and of course getting you out on the road as well doing your first bike review very much so and as it happens it’s going to be honor mut one of their brand new bikes which we’re very very excited to have a go on absolutely so watch that space don’t forget hit that subscribe button drop us a like hit the little bell notification share this video with somebody who’s been talking about potentially doing a CBT this might be the help that they need until next 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