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LML star: Green Lanes & Byways


Fabergé Greggs

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It's not that bad, and i think they have relaxed the 32mph bit. If you're not fast enough they send you round again, if you're within 2mph or so you'll get a pass.

 

I got sent round twice and the second time was only 49kph or whatever but i got a pass.

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..... and PASS!

 

Really had to wring its neck to get through the speed trap- managed 52kph on the nose.

 

Hmmm, should I attempt my mod 2 without any lessons? An instructer at the test centre said it'd be £150 for a day's lesson. With the test being £75 I'm tempted just to chance it.

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Honestly I think you'll be fine, it's 40min of which about 20 is being instructed through a radio and 10 or so is "independent riding" where they tell you to follow signs to Richmond or whatever.

 

They're just looking for being safe, using mirrors etc. There is a system of observations they are looking for every time you start, I've long since forgotten it but it should be available online somewhere.

 

 

I would say do it, top tip is don't filter. It's legal of course but every minute sat in a queue at a traffic light is a minute you're not making a mistake. 

 

Follow that tip and you're only likely to do about 3 miles if you do your test in That London, WCPGW?

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The other option would be to see if they do the training hourly - a couple of hours might be enough as you've been riding a while.

 

Edited to add: I did mine as direct access with 3 full days of training at £100 a day (because North).

 

I felt I got pretty poor value simply as by the time all the fag breaks, chat breaks and dinner breaks were added up I probably only got 2-3 hours instruction for a full day's fees.

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^^ Similarly! Did the same 'Stand-on-the-corner' test ('Part 2') 30 years ago. No idea what a MOD1 is. 

 

Agree with Eddie H though. I've always had first time passes (in old money: A, D, HGV1, PSV) thanks to good instructors & prep. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Can we infer that the man from the ministry - he say yes?

 

Well done sir (still can't believe the test is £75 tho'!). Do you get a full A-licence or a restricted or whatever it's called type ticket these days?

Yup, booked a cheeky little test this morning. It was all very sunny and peaceful. I only picked up a couple of minors.

 

It's an A1 licence, because I did it on my 125, meaning I can only ride geared or auto bikes up to 125.

 

Teaching myself and doing my test on my own bike meant the whole thing cost me £90 versus £750 or so through a school..

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Well done chief, I found my test to be pretty pleasant and uneventful as well.

 

I think that doing the mod 1 separately off road means you have less to think about on the road and you can just concentrate on riding well. 

 

Shame it doesn't get upgraded to big boy bikes after 2 years anymore.

 

Off to ride up a motorway with a pillion passenger to celebrate?

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Well done on going the DIY route as well, glad to see it's still possible to do it that way if you've a mind to and can organise/train yourself. (<£100 vs. £750 - no brainer time!). The whole training course thing seems to have become a bit of a racket nowadays. 

 

Think it's a bit stupid the A1 licence class doesn't mature into anything else though (like the restricted A class or whatever it's known as). 

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I think that the bike licences are currently under review again, they're welcoming input at the moment.

 

One of the proposals is that if you had a restricted licence you could just do a training day to ensure that you can handle more power- makes much more sense in my book.

 

As an aside, I notified my insurance of passing and they rewarded me by upping my premium from £280 to £950. Fuck that! Found a much more sensible quote online, but really, why must everything be so illogical.

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Insurance is nonsense innit. 

 

 

One one hand I don't think you should have to shell out £200 or so on retesting every time to ride a bigger bike, especially as to do it legally you'd probably need to hire a bike from a training school who would probably insist on at least a couple of lessons etc.

 

However I do think that there should probably be something, just because I've driven a car safely for X years doesn't mean I can automatically handle a lorry, and the same applies I guess.

 

Have you got a link for the consultation please?

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Have you got a link for the consultation please?

 

Oh balls the consultation period is actually over.. 

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dvsa-sets-out-proposals-to-improve-motorcycle-training

 

 

As an aside, I notified my insurance of passing and they rewarded me by upping my premium from £280 to £950. 

 

Excuse me?? WTF?

 

Unbelievable these people. And their bullshit reason for this was????

 

Same as the only reason they ever give: "the computer says so" 

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Firstly congratulations on shedding the L plates.

 

I wish they still did two years and auto upgrade. If they did I'd book a test soonish, as it is until I have money / need for a full licence I'll be riding around having no check on how much I've learnt since my CBT. I really can't see how that is at all safer. Just putting a little carrot back would encourage people to get training.

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I wish they still did two years and auto upgrade. If they did I'd book a test soonish, as it is until I have money / need for a full licence I'll be riding around having no check on how much I've learnt since my CBT. I really can't see how that is at all safer. Just putting a little carrot back would encourage people to get training.

Good point. It's crazy how many people in London ride around on perma CBTs.

 

You may yet be in luck with regards to something closer to auto upgrades, I'm banking on this coming into effect, from the above link:

 

"Training courses to upgrade motorcycle licences

DVSA also wants your views on a proposal to introduce a training course that existing riders can take to upgrade their motorcycle licence, rather than having to take extra tests."

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I done my mod1 and 2 on a CG125 without much training. Having a car license helps as you already should know the rules of the road, and the interweb has details of all the bike specific lifesaver and mirror stuff the testers test for.

 

I was restricted for two years. Six years on from the test and I'm riding an 1100 and no kittens have drowned as a result.

 

Personally I feel doing all these tests for bigger CCs is a costly joke, they should bring the restriction period back and leave it at that.

 

Incidentally I've learnt far money from riding with experienced riders, plus the iam and roadsafe stuff is better real world learning.

 

Attitude is the biggest problem with riding and no test I've seen so far weeds out twats.

 

As for the insurance, WTF?

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

This has generally being going well- in use 7 days a week and it's been largely trouble free.

 

I had one FTP when the mount that held the CDI broke which pulled on a cable. Quickly rectified with a new stainless bracket. Annoyingly though the weight of the CDI unit broke the insides of one of my indicators- bodged for now. Interestingly it's a genuine Ducati one which wasn't OEM on these. Jolly good.

 

Cheesy metal bracket

 

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Fixerating the new bracket

 

607B9221-2B9F-4C20-9340-780F35BB7F77_zps

 

I also took the opportunity to fix a phone charger using the switched 12v that feeds the horn. Weirdly though when I plug my phone in it causes the horn to faintly beep- meaning there must be current flowing through my phone?? Is that a result of the 12v-USV adapter that I'm using? It seems relatively good quality. The wiring diagram is thus:

WIRING_DIAGRAM_LML_STAR_DELUXE_ES.jpg

 

In other news my clutch is one the way out, most probably as a result of endless stop start traffic. It's always been grabby anyway as some of these LML's are, so rather than dropping £20 on new plates, I'm tempted to spend circa £120 on a "cosa" clutch. This is a later design with more springs and more plates, ultimately resulting in a lighter, smoother clutch action that can handle more power once I eventually throw a cylinder kit onto it. I'm familair with it from the clutch on my PX which was waaay nicer.. but still.. £120.. ouch.

 

Oh, and some other spends needed: I've put a better tyre on the front but still running around the nylon factory one on the back- showing zero wear after 13,000kms. All advice says bin them immediately so I really better get round to swapping it out. I went to take the tyre off the old rim and found a bit too much rust- I don't fancy the idea of this rubbing up against an inner tube. New tubed split rims are £15 or so but there's alloy tubeless ones at £55ish- apparently these are way safer in the event of a puncture- they don't suddenly deflate and the tyre stays on the bead. hmmm.. thoughts?

 

A02A9372-9031-4E43-8139-488ED5B2E91D_zps

 

maxresdefault.jpg

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I've been weighing these up again today, oddly enough and pondering about a 200cc automatic. How have you found reliability so far?

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I've been weighing these up again today, oddly enough and pondering about a 200cc automatic. How have you found reliability so far?

It's been totally great- as expected there was some electrical gremlins that seem all sorted now, and someone must have swapped out the CDI and stator before. The 200 auto's are supposed to be very quick, though parts are in short supply as the factory keeps shutting/ going bust. 

 

For that reason if it was me I'd probably stick with the 2 strokes- infinite parts supply 4 EVA

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