RE: PH2: new licencing laws explained...

RE: PH2: new licencing laws explained...

Monday 21st January 2013

PH2: new licencing laws explained...

Want a bike licence? The first test is understanding the new rules



Well it's happened - at the weekend the new bike licencing laws came into force, bringing the UK into line with the rest of Europe. While this is all very well and good, the main issue seems to be that no one can actually make head nor tail of them! PH2, with a little help from the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA), will now attempt to explain just what the hell they mean...

Age 16
OK, you are a young spunker and want to ride a bike. Great stuff. After getting your provisional licence from the DVLA you need to do your Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) and then you can charge around the UK's roads on a 50cc moped restricted to 28mph. You can't take pillions and need L-plates but at least you can escape the home. Should you wish you can progress to take the two-part practical test, but you will still be restricted to 50cc and 28mph although you can take a pillion and dump the L-plates.

So that's nice and clear then...
So that's nice and clear then...
Age 17 or over
Here is where it starts to get confusing. Previously at the age of 17 you could take you CBT, hazard perception and two-part practical then ride a bike restricted to 33hp for two years or until you were 21 years old, at which point you could ride anything. This is no longer the case.

Pass the CBT at the age of 17 and you can now ride a 125cc bike on L-plates with no pillion. Take your theory test and two-part practical and on an A1 licence you can now ride a 125cc bike with no L-plates. That's it, no 33hp bikes until you are 19 years old.

Age 19 or over
Unless you have an A1 licence you need the CBT, theory and two-part practical as before. Do this and you can ride any bike of up to 47.5hp without L-plates and carry passengers - this is the A2 licence. If you have an A1 licence you can take the practical test and upgrade to an A2 licence but only if you are 19 or over. After two years, or on reaching 24 years old, you can take a Full Category A test and ride whatever you like. Previously this extra restriction didn't exist and you could have ridden anything you liked after taking the practical test at 17 and doing your two years probation on a 33hp bike.

Age 24 or over: Direct access
As before, CBT gets you on a 125cc bike with L-plates and no pillions. Theory and two-part practical now gains you an A licence. Off you go, enjoy any bike you like. If you have an A2 licence and are over 24 or have held the A2 for two years you can take the practical and also ride anything you like. If you have an A1 you then need to take the full A test to gain a unrestricted licence - you don't need to do the A2 test.

How long til you can out run pedestrians?
How long til you can out run pedestrians?
What's the difference?
Previously if you passed your test on your 17th birthday you could ride a 33hp bike for two years simply upgrade to a Fireblade on your 19th birthday as you had served your probationary two years. If you were 21 or over then you could do 'direct access' and also gain a full, unrestricted licence with minimal hassle.

Now you are stuck on a 125cc bike until you are 19, then after another test you can upgrade to 47.5hp and stick with this for two years at which point you can take another test to gain an unrestricted licence. So the youngest you can gain a full, unrestricted licence is 21, but only if you have been riding for two years. Previously 21 year olds could go straight to an unrestricted licence, this is now no longer possible until you are 24.

So, is it all doom and gloom? It is annoying for younger learners as you will have to take more tests to gain a full licence as well as possibly a new bike should you wish to upgrade to 47.5hp when you get the A2 licence. So that adds to the cost. But on the bright side there are some great new 46hp bike coming out such as the Honda CB500 and Kawasaki Ninja 300, all of which have enough performance to kick the arse of your mates in their knackered Ford Kas...

Download the PDF flow chart explaining it all here.

Author
Discussion

Salgar

Original Poster:

3,283 posts

183 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
LOLWUT

Vantagefan

643 posts

169 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all


I'm looking to do the A2 asap and great shout on the CB500F, love the look of that bike. Not a fan of bright green in-your-faceness either!

Fats25

6,260 posts

228 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
The video in the link explains in more detail.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

Not sure the flowchart explains the fact that you need to sit both modules on same size bikes, and that because they are limiting you not only by bhp/kw, but by cc, you are quite limited (aged 24) by many bikes you would expect to be able to ride.

Aar0sc

279 posts

156 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
I've got a CRB...

bks, that's not helpful is it.

V8 FOU

2,970 posts

146 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
Soooo, this doesn't prevent mid-life crisis man (or woman) doing direct access and jumping straight onto an R1 / Fireblade / Harley, then.
Poor show. anyone over the 24 on direct access should be restricted to 50bhp etc for a year IMO.
Have to say, these people keep us in business with their frequent mishaps.

vonuber

17,868 posts

164 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
So why doesn't this apply to cars.

13aines

2,153 posts

148 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
OP said:
...ride a bike restricted to 33hp for two years or until you were 21 years old, at which point you could ride anything
Didn't know that!! Crammed my test in at 19 years old in October. Would be restricted until October 2014 but I am 21 in a year and a day! Maybe I'll get my next bike sooner than I thought - will have just over a year of no claims hopefully by then too.

Anyhow, so glad that days after I got my 125 I realised it wasn't gonna cut it for long and powered through my tests before the changes. Yes I'm restricted to 33bhp and new riders now get 47bhp, but it's all a little irrelevant anyway whistle

Edited by 13aines on Monday 21st January 11:08

LukeBird

17,170 posts

208 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
V8 FOU said:
Soooo, this doesn't prevent mid-life crisis man (or woman) doing direct access and jumping straight onto an R1 / Fireblade / Harley, then.
Poor show. anyone over the 24 on direct access should be restricted to 50bhp etc for a year IMO.
Have to say, these people keep us in business with their frequent mishaps.
I thought it meant you now had to ride a lower-powered back for at least 2 years before you could jump onto something silly.
I'll freely admit I could be wrong though, it looks damned confusing!

I thought about doing mine (direct access) a couple of years ago, wish I had done now!

MonkeyBusiness

3,912 posts

186 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
vonuber said:
So why doesn't this apply to cars.
Very good point.

mike-r

1,539 posts

190 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
vonuber said:
So why doesn't this apply to cars.
It's effectively controlled by insurance prices anyway.

Unless you're well off, then you can do what the hell you like.

Gotta say I'm 24 and was planning on doing my bike test this summer after many years of procrastination, can't say I'd enjoy being held back so much if I were younger. Bit of a generalisation about younger riders, but probably a fairly accurate one.

paulvillage

21 posts

145 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
Brings back memories this does, in 1996 I was 17 and passed my full test weeks before the original changes so I could literally ride anything, by the time i was 19 I was riding a GSXR 600 which was quite frankly insane so I did understand the need for the changes I know I wouldn't want my son riding something like that at 19! but I must admit if I was 19 now I would be gutted frown

GilesGuthrie

169 posts

146 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
I can't see any mention of being forced to go onto an A-class licence. I've been riding under CBT for coming-on 5 years, and each time I go to renew the instructor tells me I shouldn't be doing that.

But I know me: if I wasn't legally prevented from buying a bigger bike, then I would do it. And since I only use my 125 scooter for urban commuting, I really don't need something bigger.

catso

14,771 posts

266 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
The article says 'bringing us into line with the rest of Europe' - so why can't we ride a 50cc at 14 then?...

LiamB

7,922 posts

142 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
Too right I'm a young spunker.

My statement still stands that who ever authorised these rules to come to the UK needs to be taken to a dark room, beaten the st out of by powerfully built PH'rs and then shot from the feet up until he dies.

nick_mcuk

489 posts

199 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
Glad I did my direct access back in 2001!!

Hooli

32,278 posts

199 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
MonkeyBusiness said:
vonuber said:
So why doesn't this apply to cars.
Very good point.
Because every thick fktard out there gets a licence by just turning up for a car test, no skills required. Why would we want to make people learn to drive cars properly?

Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

189 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
LiamB said:
My statement still stands that who ever authorised these rules to come to the UK needs to be taken to a dark room, beaten the st out of by powerfully built PH'rs and then shot from the feet up until he dies.
That's the thing about being in the EU though. It's very difficult to pick and choose what rules to follow.

The EU brings out legislation that saves you from your own government betraying your privacy but by the same mechanism we get utterly shafted in motoring (which our country is brilliant for by the way, we don't know we're born!).

This legislation is probably great in some countries, maybe most, but its statistically absurd in our country where the proven highest risk group is "born again bikers".

At least we're not carting around breathalysers yet.

Edited by Prof Prolapse on Monday 21st January 11:46

CBR JGWRR

6,518 posts

148 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
catso said:
The article says 'bringing us into line with the rest of Europe' - so why can't we ride a 50cc at 14 then?...
Because they aren't allowed to do it anymore. They will of course, the first scooter is practically a rite of passage in some places...

GilesGuthrie said:
I can't see any mention of being forced to go onto an A-class licence. I've been riding under CBT for coming-on 5 years, and each time I go to renew the instructor tells me I shouldn't be doing that.

But I know me: if I wasn't legally prevented from buying a bigger bike, then I would do it. And since I only use my 125 scooter for urban commuting, I really don't need something bigger.
The instructor is just trying to get a test out of you - provided you keep redoing CBT you can stay on a 125 for as long as you like. Well, nearly. Effectively as long as you would want...

V8 FOU

2,970 posts

146 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
LukeBird said:
I thought it meant you now had to ride a lower-powered back for at least 2 years before you could jump onto something silly.
I'll freely admit I could be wrong though, it looks damned confusing!

I thought about doing mine (direct access) a couple of years ago, wish I had done now!
Nope. Over 24, pass your CBT,theory, and 2 part test and you can ride anything legally. A bike with 150bhp? No problem,sir.
Mad, mad, mad. A real missed opportunity. I was talking to another bike shop last week about this, and he has a customer with much money, and he didn't make it from his garage to the road without crashing his new bike! He bought this for "something to ride" while his R1 was being repaired. That was an old one. all of 3 weeks old....

Neezer

391 posts

227 months

Monday 21st January 2013
quotequote all
I've often wondered how the authorities check if you have a CBT or not, it'll be easy enough to check Driving licence or insurance.. But where would details of the CBT be recorded?