The CBT

CBT stands for Compulsory Basic Training. This is not a test, but rather a one day (or more depending on your ability) training course. The purpose of the CBT is to give you a basic grounding in riding a motorbike. You can learn to ride either manual or automatic bikes and once you have a CBT, you will be able to ride bikes up to 125cc (dependent on your age).

The CBT will usually last a whole day. You will be on the road for a minimum of two hours with an instructor (max 2 students to 1 instructor on the road assessment part). Following the two hour road ride, if the instructor feels you are capable to ride you will be issued with a CBT completion certificate.

The CBT covers five main parts –

  • introduction and eyesight check
  • on-site training
  • on-site riding
  • on-road training
  • on-road riding

You can find out more on online.

The cost of the CBT varies between £80 – £140 depending on the motorbike school you choose.

After CBT 

So if you have passed the CBT, you are now free to ride upto a 125cc motorbike with “L” plates. For some people this is enough. Riding a 125 will give you more freedom than driving a car will and you can avoid the ever increasing London traffic.

You will need to renew your CBT every two years though, so if you are in this for the long term, you might want to consider getting a full motorbike licence. Then you can throw away the “L” plates and carry pillions (motorbike passengers).   

Read my CBT experience.

Things to note 

If the instructor feels you don’t know enough about riding / the highway code, or if your control of the bike is not good enough during the off road manoeuvres, they may stop the training course and get you to come back for more training at a later date.

Although this is not a test, if the examiner feels you are not capable of riding on the road, they will not issue you with a completion certificate.

You can take a test on an automatic bike and if you pass, you can ride a manual bike as well (although you should really complete the CBT on the type of bike you want to ride).

You will need to have some experience on two wheels. If you can’t ride a push bike, you might want to get practising on that first. The instructors can’t really teach you how to balance!