Thinking about dipping my toe....

oleras

As the title says, thinking of getting myself a bike, something in the classic insurance range,and licence would need to suit first time rider (full car) something that needs to be done up within reason where parts would be readily available and is mechanically sound(ish). Price range would be about the grand and again for parts and the like. Anybody have any recomandations or disaster stories to share ?

Thanks in advance !!

oleras.

murphaph

Hello and welcome

Your full B licence is pretty irrelevant unfortunately as is your category B no claims discount I'm afraid.

So, you are presumably over 18 and you will be applying for your provisional category A licence, so you can ride any motorcycle under 33HP (there's a bit more to it than that but that'll do for now). You will not be able to avail of classic insurance on a provisional, so apply for your test asap and get the full A licence. There is supposed to be a 1 year period following your test before you can apply for classic insurance but my own experience has proven otherwise. There is flexibility there. You also should be over 25 for classic insurance.

So, to get a full A licence you need to sit the test on a bike bigger than 125cc, effectively this means ou'll be looking for a 250/400cc bike, which is under 33HP. There aren't that many actually! The fact that you can't get classic cover until you pass your test means you can buy any year, then sell on when you have your test passed and classic cover got.

You could opt for a Honda CB250, Honda Bros (400cc, right on horsepower limit). Both these bikes (and many others) are often the choice of couriers though, so beware of totally worn out wrecks. Parts would be readily available however.

To be honest, I found it a pain to find a cheap bike that met the horsepower restriction and was also over 125cc.

oleras

murphaph wrote:

Hello and welcome

Your full B licence is pretty irrelevant unfortunately as is your category B no claims discount I'm afraid.

So, you are presumably over 18 and you will be applying for your provisional category A licence, so you can ride any motorcycle under 33HP (there's a bit more to it than that but that'll do for now). You will not be able to avail of classic insurance on a provisional, so apply for your test asap and get the full A licence. There is supposed to be a 1 year period following your test before you can apply for classic insurance but my own experience has proven otherwise. There is flexibility there. You also should be over 25 for classic insurance.

So, to get a full A licence you need to sit the test on a bike bigger than 125cc, effectively this means ou'll be looking for a 250/400cc bike, which is under 33HP. There aren't that many actually! The fact that you can't get classic cover until you pass your test means you can buy any year, then sell on when you have your test passed and classic cover got.

You could opt for a Honda CB250, Honda Bros (400cc, right on horsepower limit). Both these bikes (and many others) are often the choice of couriers though, so beware of totally worn out wrecks. Parts would be readily available however.

To be honest, I found it a pain to find a cheap bike that met the horsepower restriction and was also over 125cc.

I have seen a few honda bros, they look nice ! Im 33 now so the age thing aint a worry, just the licence, its more of a project i want than anything else at the moment, so if i applied for my licence and got some road experience and took my test fast enough it might be possibly to be able to take the odd sunday drive on a classic bike, does that sound reasonable ?

murphaph

oleras wrote:

I have seen a few honda bros, they look nice ! Im 33 now so the age thing aint a worry, just the licence, its more of a project i want than anything else at the moment, so if i applied for my licence and got some road experience and took my test fast enough it might be possibly to be able to take the odd sunday drive on a classic bike, does that sound reasonable ?

Yep, classic insurance is still gonna run to almost 400 quid though. You should apply to Raheny test centre if you can as the wait there is the shortest in Dublin by far. Get a pretest at least before you do it.