Classic learnings
IT’S EASY TO take it for granted that our fine, handsome readers already have a full motorcycle licence, so you may be wondering why we’re running a feature on learner legal bikes. Well, we may have offspring that are of an age to be thinking about taking to two wheels (not just sons and daughters, but grandchildren too – sorry…), and maybe your spouse hasn’t got around to taking his or her test? And, rather than use a new bike to use on L-plates and take your test, surely it’s far more righteous to do it on a classic?...
CONTROLLING THOSE UPSTARTS
As amazing as it seems in the current climate of health and safety overload it’s hard to entertain the notion that, at one point not so long ago there was no requirement for provisional licences, training schemes or learner motorcycles. Anyone with the money could just jump on whatever bike they chose and ride off into the sunset. Or a hedge...
Many of you will remember the 250cc learner law that came into play in 1960 and initially applied to those aged 16 and over. That was changed to 17 and over, with 16-year-olds restricted to mopeds, i.e. 49cc in 1971. Mopeds were restricted to 30mph in 1977, while in 1982 the two-part test came into play, with the first part involving a figure of eight and other manoeuvres on a car park or similar, and the second part conducted by the tester stood at the side of the highway as you rode past. Come 1983 and any learner over 16 was restricted to 125cc, partly because the world had been inundated with high specification, two-cylinder, two-stroke 250cc ‘learner bikes’ like Yamaha’s RD250LC that made a mockery of any kind of assumption that a learner bike was easy and safe to ride or that there was some kind of limit. Further amusement could be had by the fact that it was possible to ride a sidecar outfit, of any capacity, on a provisional licence. This point that was further stretched with the Sidewinder leaning sidecar – essentially nothing more than a tea tray and third wheel that couldn’t carry a passenger.
Passengers were stopped from being carried by learners as late as 1990, while the first half of the
