Chronically Bad Trainee

The day dawned bright but cold. I rode over and completed the paperwork. The CBT took the same course as before with minor changes – first there was the safety and legal requirements lecture, then it was out in the car park for a guide to the bike and then the riding it round the cones.

That was where it all went horribly wrong! Despite driving a geared car for twenty years, I found it impossibly difficult to properly control the CG125 I was given to ride. Whatever I did I could not find the bite point for the clutch, and despite listening to the engine; I found it very difficult to gauge when to change gear.

I was clearly having far more difficulty than the complete novices. I can only put it down to being used to constantly variable transmission, I was even finding it difficult to control the revs of the bike – possibly because on a CVT bike, the transmission system means the revs don’t change much at all. I am also glad it wasn't wet as I am not convinced that I ever used the rear brake other then when doing hill starts!

By now the sun was high in the sky and it was getting very hot. I was melting in my jacket and was very grateful for a break for lunch. I had never visited it before, but was very impressed with the burger and sandwich joint on the edge of Wimbledon Stadium and would recommend it for good value tasty fresh food.

After lunch we had the on-road safety lecture, and having passed the theory, Ray the instructor for this bit ended up asking me not to offer answers to the questions, as I obviously knew all the answers! None of the other students had taken their theory, despite two of them owning and admitting riding their 500 and 600cc motorcycles for many years!

After this each of the two instructors took two students on the road for two hours. Three others and I were left to our own devices. To be honest, I was a bit surprised they intended taking me on the road as I didn’t feel I had got good enough at controlling the clutch and throttle – but they are the experts! I used the time popping home on my Vespa to get a cooler jacket, and then stood around with the others in the sun getting accidentally sunburned!

Eventually the other instructor, Richard, took me out with one of the other students who we will call Chris. We went up through Wimbledon Village and back down through Raynes Park with Chris and myself taking it in turns to lead. It was much better getting practice controlling the bike on the road, and on familiar roads at that, but I really still did not have the clutch right and was regularly stalling the bike. We rode round parts of Raynes Park and Lower Morden and ended up near New Malden. Richard then realised that one of the CG125’s was hired from a shop in East Hill Wandsworth and needed to be back before they closed. Richard checked were both happy to go down the A3. If I had known how gutless a CG125 was, I might have been less happy! It struggled to do more than an indicated 50mph making it much slower, and certainly much more less willing to accelerate than my Vespa. However, I was able to practice overtaking.

We successfully negotiated the Wandsworth one-way system and dropped the bike off. Richard had obviously decided that I need more practice than Chris so put him on the pillion and I followed him down Trinity Road back to Wimbledon Stadium.

One might think that this extensive ride round South West London means I must have been doing something right, but my throttle and clutch coordination was still terrible, pull aways and gear changes were rarely smooth, and stalling was still a problem and the occasional unintended wheelie was worrying!

When we got back I was given a new CBT certificate as was Chris, and had the chance to talk to Richard about where I was heading. His view was that my riding was OK and that on my automatic he would expect me to need no more than a day-and-a-half training to pass. But if I wanted to pass on a geared bike, then I needed to lock my Vespa away and get a geared bike and do nothing but ride it for a few weeks to improve my clutch and throttle control. Richard has given me a difficult choice as I want to pass my test, and I don’t really have the time to spend riding a geared bike to improve my control.

As for Richard – I must say, this man has the patience of a saint. He was always professional and helpful, and always showed good humour and never fell into the trap of denigrating students who were having problems. Both Richard and Ray are a credit to Elite Motorcycle Training and I would recommend them.