The CBT from Hell
Discussion
That's shocking. My own experience was of a real professional set up. I.e. the bikes were already out ready even though I rocked up 45mins early and the instructors were also blue band/IAM trained.
There's no excuse for the helmet condition. But I'm guessing they were £40 jobbies with no removable liner...
There's no excuse for the helmet condition. But I'm guessing they were £40 jobbies with no removable liner...
If the one thing you do buy yourself is a helment, it's the most important one really. A: It wont stink and B: You know its history.
The rest (I would argue bar the boots) can be 2nd hand.
Chin up. I rode my bike into a wall at 90 degrees at the very start of the on road session of my CBT and fell off and was told that perhaps I shouldnt go out that day and to come back. Its all part of your exciting journey that is bikes
The rest (I would argue bar the boots) can be 2nd hand.
Chin up. I rode my bike into a wall at 90 degrees at the very start of the on road session of my CBT and fell off and was told that perhaps I shouldnt go out that day and to come back. Its all part of your exciting journey that is bikes
My first CBT was a poor experience but nothing close to that. I had longer in the cabin doing the theory because the 16 year old I was being trained with had zero road experience. She'd read the highway code though and was pretty decent after a few "helpful suggestions" by the instructor.
The bike riding started fine with the ride to the wall slowly and then riding in circles. Then the problems started. I had an instructor who I'd made it very clear to that I had zero experience on motorcycles and, aside from knowing which of the controls does what, I'm a total novice. That's when he berated me relentlessly for using the front brake on the bike during the riding round in circles bit. He asked why I grabbed it. I told him I'd had a wobble, felt like I needed to stop and panicked so grabbed what I knew was a stopping device so I could collect my thoughts and try again. Apparently all my 20 minutes of motorcycling had not brought me fully up to speed with emergency stops (you know, the ones where you grab the front brake). Then he yelled at me for looking at the clocks on the bike. I wasn't looking at them, it was the natural resting position for my head while I focussed on setting off (often up hill in the tiny slanted car park).
The hardest part was trying to get up to 3rd gear (apparently a requirement) in said tiny slanted car park measuring a good ~7 car park bays at the longest point while never letting fully off the clutch (I ignored that instruction), remembering the brakes fiasco from earlier, constantly stopping and starting while going up and down the gearbox of a very "well used" Lexmoto ZSF, trying not to get too close to the other girl who was having a much easier time of it on her moped and trying to listen to whatever he was barking out at either one of us. He was very good at telling me what I shouldn't be doing but gave me absolutely no guidance at all on what I should be doing instead.
I booked in with them again for my repeat CBT through lack of a better option and had a scouse instructor who was satisfied with my riding and inspired a lot of confidence. That CBT was orders of magnitude better. I also later discovered the useless chump that I had was let go by the school due to the number of complaints he had.
Glad you've passed and are on your way to full licence freedom!
The bike riding started fine with the ride to the wall slowly and then riding in circles. Then the problems started. I had an instructor who I'd made it very clear to that I had zero experience on motorcycles and, aside from knowing which of the controls does what, I'm a total novice. That's when he berated me relentlessly for using the front brake on the bike during the riding round in circles bit. He asked why I grabbed it. I told him I'd had a wobble, felt like I needed to stop and panicked so grabbed what I knew was a stopping device so I could collect my thoughts and try again. Apparently all my 20 minutes of motorcycling had not brought me fully up to speed with emergency stops (you know, the ones where you grab the front brake). Then he yelled at me for looking at the clocks on the bike. I wasn't looking at them, it was the natural resting position for my head while I focussed on setting off (often up hill in the tiny slanted car park).
The hardest part was trying to get up to 3rd gear (apparently a requirement) in said tiny slanted car park measuring a good ~7 car park bays at the longest point while never letting fully off the clutch (I ignored that instruction), remembering the brakes fiasco from earlier, constantly stopping and starting while going up and down the gearbox of a very "well used" Lexmoto ZSF, trying not to get too close to the other girl who was having a much easier time of it on her moped and trying to listen to whatever he was barking out at either one of us. He was very good at telling me what I shouldn't be doing but gave me absolutely no guidance at all on what I should be doing instead.
I booked in with them again for my repeat CBT through lack of a better option and had a scouse instructor who was satisfied with my riding and inspired a lot of confidence. That CBT was orders of magnitude better. I also later discovered the useless chump that I had was let go by the school due to the number of complaints he had.
Glad you've passed and are on your way to full licence freedom!
Hazuki said:
I did my initial DAS assessment on a 125 last week, and as I still need to work on my slow speed manoeuvres, I have another session booked for Wednesday before I move up to the big bikes.
Get ready for hopping onto a CB500, thinking it's rocket ship fast and wondering why anyone would want anything quicker!Sounds terrible, I'm surprised you lasted that long with that guy.
My experience was thankfully much better, times have changed I guess with theory tests etc but the basics of riding a bike remain unchanged. My CBT back in 1998 was a very sedate affair, there were a few of us, I had no gear, maybe some gloves and a pair of Doc Martens on, but the instructor was great, all done in a college car park without any drama. I'd been driving for 10 years at that point but even riding on the road was unnerving as I recall.
Anyway, the instructor said I'd need 3 days 1-2-1 with him to get my DAS done and that's exactly what it took, passed with flying colours and never looked back.
My experience was thankfully much better, times have changed I guess with theory tests etc but the basics of riding a bike remain unchanged. My CBT back in 1998 was a very sedate affair, there were a few of us, I had no gear, maybe some gloves and a pair of Doc Martens on, but the instructor was great, all done in a college car park without any drama. I'd been driving for 10 years at that point but even riding on the road was unnerving as I recall.
Anyway, the instructor said I'd need 3 days 1-2-1 with him to get my DAS done and that's exactly what it took, passed with flying colours and never looked back.
MesoForm said:
Hazuki said:
I did my initial DAS assessment on a 125 last week, and as I still need to work on my slow speed manoeuvres, I have another session booked for Wednesday before I move up to the big bikes.
Get ready for hopping onto a CB500, thinking it's rocket ship fast and wondering why anyone would want anything quicker!I'd been on a CG125 for 18 months so when I jumped on a CB500 for my proper test it felt huge and epically fast
. Then the next week I bought as Bandit 1200 and that felt out of this world, loved that bike.
That's an atrocious tale of incompetence on the part of the first school. Hindsight being 20/20, that's why I always try and pay for this sort of thing on a credit card and in that case would 100% have been doing a charge back when they refused the refund.
Glad you got on better at the next school, and welcome to the wonderful world of 2 wheels!
Glad you got on better at the next school, and welcome to the wonderful world of 2 wheels!
Sounds horrific OP !
Mine was a shambles, similarly late to start, the theory portions were held outside and then partially inside the trailer.
There was a 16 year old lad that knew one of the two instructors, a guy on his 3rd cbt, a young lass and myself. I had no previous experience on a bike, lined up behind the girl who immediately sent the front wheel into the sky, falling off backwards as the bike bounced to the floor. The instructors helped her up and we all paused for a moment, then it was my turn. In a bid to not copy her, I gently let the clutch out and....nothing. The instructor said give it some throttle, at which point I realised the throttle had about 1/4 turn play before doing anything.
The instructors attempted to fix the two bikes with no luck. They then grabbed a couple of scooters out the trailer and myself, the girl and the 16 year old used those for the rest of the day (note, day in this context was 30 minutes in the car park, then a further 30 minutes down the road and back).
Walked away frustrated, but with a certificate. Found another school and asked to just book an hour with an instructor to practice on a geared bike which they sorted out and the instructor was so good, I used them for my DAS.
Mine was a shambles, similarly late to start, the theory portions were held outside and then partially inside the trailer.
There was a 16 year old lad that knew one of the two instructors, a guy on his 3rd cbt, a young lass and myself. I had no previous experience on a bike, lined up behind the girl who immediately sent the front wheel into the sky, falling off backwards as the bike bounced to the floor. The instructors helped her up and we all paused for a moment, then it was my turn. In a bid to not copy her, I gently let the clutch out and....nothing. The instructor said give it some throttle, at which point I realised the throttle had about 1/4 turn play before doing anything.
The instructors attempted to fix the two bikes with no luck. They then grabbed a couple of scooters out the trailer and myself, the girl and the 16 year old used those for the rest of the day (note, day in this context was 30 minutes in the car park, then a further 30 minutes down the road and back).
Walked away frustrated, but with a certificate. Found another school and asked to just book an hour with an instructor to practice on a geared bike which they sorted out and the instructor was so good, I used them for my DAS.
Definitely not the worst one I've heard of but not good either.
I found my first training school was very good with cbts but utter s
te at the proper test.
I went back to them at 17 (did my cbt at 16) and they had just completely turned tac (same guy). Belittling you, full on road rage arguments with multiple people at once and totally lost his st at me when i pulled forward into the crossroads to turn right (to allow cars to pass on the left as you're supposed to do). I then failed my A2 because of this reason alone - I did what he told me to do in the test.
Went elsewhere that was made up of ex and moonlighting SEG riders. Totally different scenario.
I found my first training school was very good with cbts but utter s
te at the proper test. I went back to them at 17 (did my cbt at 16) and they had just completely turned tac (same guy). Belittling you, full on road rage arguments with multiple people at once and totally lost his s
t at me when i pulled forward into the crossroads to turn right (to allow cars to pass on the left as you're supposed to do). I then failed my A2 because of this reason alone - I did what he told me to do in the test.Went elsewhere that was made up of ex and moonlighting SEG riders. Totally different scenario.
There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to training schools. They're either fantastic or terrible. I did my CBT and DAS earlier this year.
Your first guy was a bit of a weapon, as was the young lad. I'd imagine it is difficult sometimes though.
There were 4 of us all doing CBT, one of which was a girl with us who rocked up on the back of her boyfriends Kawasaki H2 and was the cockiest bh I've ever seen. Going on about the brand new Duke 125 she has waiting for her at home (125cc wouldn't have been enough to shift her arse), she shouldn't need any training because her boyfriend was basically Valentino Rossi and has taught her everything already "better than the instructors can" etc.
She couldn't put the little YBR125 on and off its' centre stand.
She couldn't pull away without stalling.
She couldn't do any manoeuvre without putting her foot down, and was effectively just wheeling the bike round using both feet with the clutch fully in, like a toddler would on those push-along bikes with no pedals.
Whenever the instructors tried to help her, she'd cut them off with "I know". I could see them getting frustrated with her and couldn't blame them.
Me and another guy had had 125's before when younger so took to it easy enough so another instructor cut short the carpark stuff and took us out for a ride. When we got back, the big beef-unit was sat in reception in tears on the phone to her boyfriend.
They'd taken the keys off of her because she was a danger to everyone. She was about to crash into the car park wall, so took both hands off the bars and put them out in front of her to protect herself, and then inevitably fell off before she got to the wall. Amused looks on the instructors faces
Your first guy was a bit of a weapon, as was the young lad. I'd imagine it is difficult sometimes though.
There were 4 of us all doing CBT, one of which was a girl with us who rocked up on the back of her boyfriends Kawasaki H2 and was the cockiest b
h I've ever seen. Going on about the brand new Duke 125 she has waiting for her at home (125cc wouldn't have been enough to shift her arse), she shouldn't need any training because her boyfriend was basically Valentino Rossi and has taught her everything already "better than the instructors can" etc. She couldn't put the little YBR125 on and off its' centre stand.
She couldn't pull away without stalling.
She couldn't do any manoeuvre without putting her foot down, and was effectively just wheeling the bike round using both feet with the clutch fully in, like a toddler would on those push-along bikes with no pedals.
Whenever the instructors tried to help her, she'd cut them off with "I know". I could see them getting frustrated with her and couldn't blame them.
Me and another guy had had 125's before when younger so took to it easy enough so another instructor cut short the carpark stuff and took us out for a ride. When we got back, the big beef-unit was sat in reception in tears on the phone to her boyfriend.
They'd taken the keys off of her because she was a danger to everyone. She was about to crash into the car park wall, so took both hands off the bars and put them out in front of her to protect herself, and then inevitably fell off before she got to the wall. Amused looks on the instructors faces
Having done 3 CBT's over the years due to starting and stopping the process of attaining my license I find all facilities are generally quite poor when it comes to the CBT element. Some are down right dreadful and dangerous and others are acceptable.
I'd glad to see it didn't put you off and you pushed through.
I'd glad to see it didn't put you off and you pushed through.
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