My CBT experience

I took my CBT on a manual 125cc bike in September. In my group there were two people who were retaking their CBT, one on a manual bike and one on an automatic bike, as well as me and one other. I believe it was his first time on a manual bike.

The start of my CBT was classroom based. We were told how the day was going to run and also went through some highway code information. At times it was a little like being at school.

Around an hour later, you go outside with all your gear and you get shown different bits and pieces on the bike. When the show and tell section is over, you get to sit on the bike, start it up and ride it a few feet. This is where you can tell if people have ridden a bike recently or not! Balance can’t be taught in a day so people who can’t ride push bikes often fall down here (literally!).

After a brief introduction to the clutch and first gear we were told to ride around in a big square, stopping and moving off at every corner to practice our slow control and braking. It took a little bit of getting used to to try and find out where the biting point is but I think that could just be me (it took me ages to nail reversing off my slightly downward sloping drive when I was learning how to drive a car!).

Once the instructor was happy we were all going round in circles sufficiently, he then got us doing moves which needed a little bit more control.The slalom and figure of eight are manoeuvres you are tested on when you do the DAS. I wasn’t super confident doing these but practised at it until I got it right.

We were just about to break for lunch before going out for our assesments (and I was on the verge of panicking!) when the instructor took us through the rest of the gears and got us to practice these for a while longer so we could get the hang of them.

Gears on a bike are different to gears in a car because you need to go through them sequentially. 1st gear is down and the rest of the gears are up. 

To complete the CBT, the final stage of the day includes a two hour observed ride. This is where you put everything you learnt into practise and the instructor decides if you are safe enough to be let out on the road alone. During a CBT assessment, there can only be a maximum of two learners to every instructor. As there were 4 of us learning off road, it meant the instructor had to split the groups into two. I had an extended lunch break while the instructor took the first two people out. I don’t know if this is common or if this was because I went to a relatively small motorbike school but this is something you may need to think about when you book your CBT. I was lucky enough to have a shopping centre to wander around and some decent food shops to eat in but had this not been there, I would have been pretty bored for over two hours. Maybe it’s worth giving your local motorbike trainer a call and get them to talk you through the outline of the day so there are no surprises when you get there.

When it was time for my actual ride out, I was pretty nervous. Part of me couldn’t believe that a few hours after I first sat on a geared bike I was going to be let out on the road on it. The ride itself was ok, there were a lot of instances where I didn’t get the right gear and would have been done for undue hesitation on a full motorbike test, but as this wasn’t a test, it didn’t matter.

Riding out on the road reminded me why I wanted to get a bike license in the first place. There were a few moments in that ride where I was smiling like a chesire cat for no other reason than that I was on a bike. Riding a bike give me a lot more pleasure than driving a car does and feeling the wind against my body, the sun on my arms (it was a really sunny day), and the movement of the bike felt amazing…even when I was cut up by a car!

I think most learners,  no matter what vehicle they chose, feel that 30mph is a little fast when they are behind the wheel (or bars in this case). I definitely think this was the case with the other person I was riding with. I lost count of the number of times our instructor said “We’re doing 20 in a 30, get moving!”

After the two hours were up and we were back at the off road centre, I handed over my driving licence so the instructor could take the details he needed to issue me with a CBT! I went home happy, knowing that I was on my way to having a full bike licence!