British licences/insurance??? help!

Home Forums BikeMeet Cafe British licences/insurance??? help!

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #12742
    triumph
    Participant

    Hey all, im new to the forum. Im 20 and going to Kingston upon Thames in september for uni, at the moment i live in the Irish republic. Im big into classic British bikes and have a small collection of them.

    Could someone explain the British driving licences? I have a full Irish A1 licence which lets me drive anything upto 125cc. The waiting list to do my A class test (125cc upwards) has a one year waiting time so i wont get it before i go to london. Would i have any trouble getting insured in the UK with my Irish licence? Ive advanced training, full clean licence and 4 year no claims bonus. Also is insurance in the UK expensive? its robbery here in Ireland.

    If i was to get a UK licence how long would i be waiting for my test? my girlfriend is going to Edinburgh so i’ll have to have at least a 250cc bike for travelling between there and london. Any advice?

    #52957
    Radar
    Moderator
    #52958
    Thumper
    Participant

    Hi Triumph, I pleased to hear you find collecting bikes irresistible…..me too!
    Boy are you going to miss them when you are over in the UK.
    As far as the licence is concerned…I’m sorry I dont know, but the link about seemed pretty useful.
    You mention a 250cc to go from Kingston upon Thames to Edinburgh….huummm….I would go for something bigger if I were you.
    Have you thought about a 500 or 600. This sort of mileage warrants a bike that is not spinning to fast at motorway speeds.
    I’m sure the forum members can recommend some possible bike candidates.
    Why are you thinking of a 250, and which one di you have in mind? – Am I missing something, altough I understand you need to get a full licence. cheers

    #52959
    triumph
    Participant

    Hey thumper,
    yeah id love something bigger than a 250 but im just not sure about the cost of insurance in the uk? Up until Quinn Direct came came to Ireland a few months ago it would have cost me approx £2800 just to insure a 250 3rd party, now its more affordable though about £500 with Quinn. I was thinking about a Yamaha virago xv250, used to have one and it was the best bike ive ever driven, never gave me even a hic up. New tyre and normal servicing was all it ever needed, great bike, and with a top speed of 110mph it has more than enough power for what i want to use it for (although not at those speeds!). Have you any idea what sort of money id be looking at for that size of bike or maybe even a 400cc bike in the london area??? Sorry i know these are stupid questions… i know the irish system and all the dealers inside out but not the British system so im sort of back to square one until i get there and start calling around and finding out costs

    #52960
    Radar
    Moderator

    £1500 should see you on a very good 400cc bike. Thought about an SRX400?

    https://bikemeet.net/forums/topic/srx400-less-is-more/

    #52961
    Thumper
    Participant

    Radar is abut right on that cost….you can always pay more or les, but I suggest you have a quick glance at the Autotrader web site, and put in a London post code.

    https://www.autotrader.co.uk/BIKES/bikes.jsp

    Just find out your prospective post code, and put a 40 mile range in….and away you go checking out a few popular machines.

    I had 2 Yamaha SRX’s, a 400 & a 600cc. They are lovely handling big singles, hence my name ‘Thumper’!. I would suggest they are all getting on a bit now though, although they are great value. There are soo many good bikes out there I find it hard to advise. Maybe you prefer cruisers to normal road bikes.
    My ‘price guide’ for a XV250s Virago, say a 2000MY, is between £1100 & £1600.
    My ‘top speed guide’ says you are extremely optimistic! -it sounds more like the 535 Virago!

    I quite enjoy the research stage of any acquisition!.. . especially when you are not sure what you fancy! Have some fun looking, and let us know what you find!

    Happy hunting……

    #52962
    triumph
    Participant

    Thanks for that link thumper! im more into the sports bikes to be honest but i need storage so a cruiser or something like a varadero that can take panniers is what ive got in mind. And yeah i admit that i speed tested the bike, not the smarted or safest thing to do but i got to 100 and was still building up speed, ran out of road so had to stop but i had a screen and back box giving drag. With these removed and a bit more road it would have hit the 110 no prob. I was a bit baffled by it myself! v-twin i suppose?

    #52963
    Thumper
    Participant

    Maybe I’m getting mixed up with MPH, and KPH!,
    Check this SRX out on ebay…
    https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=009&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=190117883789&rd=1&rd=1
    As I said, good little bikes, and great value too.

    #52964
    triumph
    Participant

    thats not a bad looking bike at all! not too pricy either. Ive never seen one before, nice bike

    #52965
    Gix
    Participant

    quote:


    Originally posted by triumph

    thats not a bad looking bike at all! not too pricy either. Ive never seen one before, nice bike


    the only decent bike yamaha made lol
    Thumper if you ever get another, let me have a go before you sell it this time please!!!!! lol

    #52966
    katana
    Participant

    GSX400s Katana

    These are lovely little bikes (I admit to being a bit biased)

    One of the Katana Owners club members rode one from John Ogroats to lands end and it kept up with 750 , 1000 and 1100 Kats no problem.

    look at ad 1888 (£900 isn’t a bad price)
    https://www.katanacentral.co.uk/community/freeads/freeads-show.asp?adtype=Forsale

    215800.jpg

    https://www.katanacentral.co.uk/themodels/gsx400s/background.asp

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.