ManhattanMcC
Registered user
This Sunday I took step 3 (1 Prov License, 2 Theory) in my process to becoming a fully licensed motorcyclist in the UK. Since the CBT seemed fairly innocuous and most of the DAS schemes commented that it was best that you came with it I decided to check out a school relatively close to home.
Alpha is located at the back of a auto sales lot & next to a car detailing shop appx 100m away from the Ace Cafe. It consists of a few large shipping containers converted to classroom, office and storage facilities. As well as a 40m x 40m-ish 'pad' surrounded by tyre walls for practical skills. It's probably good to note that it is not the location shown in the gallery on their site, but is entirely adequate for the training I received. My instructor Dez was a former motorbike courier and current black car driver for a large firm. He was knowledgeable and well spoken. The rest of my 'class' consisted one totally inexperienced aspiring motorbike courier, one current motorbike courier renewing CBT with some experience & very limited skills, and one very experienced motorbike courier with good skills who had taken module 1 but needed to retake mod 2 post renewing CBT. And then me, who rode up fully kitted out on my GSA (using my US license, of course) and confused everyone...
We began around 9:30 and finished at around 2:30. The instruction was well thought out and tailored to each of of our skill levels. Based on my level of experience, most of my day was spent going through "demonstrate and wait" while the instructor worked with the others. I really appreciated that Dez was willing to also help out with habits and items that might help me as I progress to Mod 1.
I was happy to have a bit of a break around 10:30 for a quick(of it wasn't quick...) bacon sandwich at the Ace Cafe.
Overall it was nice to get back to basics and practice a bit. If I had 1 complaint it would have been the condition of the bikes, mechanically they were in OK shape for trainers. But the mirror stalks on both sides just wouldn't stay put to the point I had to stop and try to fix them into place at one point on my ride.
I highly recommend them as a training school for CBT.
Alpha is located at the back of a auto sales lot & next to a car detailing shop appx 100m away from the Ace Cafe. It consists of a few large shipping containers converted to classroom, office and storage facilities. As well as a 40m x 40m-ish 'pad' surrounded by tyre walls for practical skills. It's probably good to note that it is not the location shown in the gallery on their site, but is entirely adequate for the training I received. My instructor Dez was a former motorbike courier and current black car driver for a large firm. He was knowledgeable and well spoken. The rest of my 'class' consisted one totally inexperienced aspiring motorbike courier, one current motorbike courier renewing CBT with some experience & very limited skills, and one very experienced motorbike courier with good skills who had taken module 1 but needed to retake mod 2 post renewing CBT. And then me, who rode up fully kitted out on my GSA (using my US license, of course) and confused everyone...
We began around 9:30 and finished at around 2:30. The instruction was well thought out and tailored to each of of our skill levels. Based on my level of experience, most of my day was spent going through "demonstrate and wait" while the instructor worked with the others. I really appreciated that Dez was willing to also help out with habits and items that might help me as I progress to Mod 1.
I was happy to have a bit of a break around 10:30 for a quick(of it wasn't quick...) bacon sandwich at the Ace Cafe.
Overall it was nice to get back to basics and practice a bit. If I had 1 complaint it would have been the condition of the bikes, mechanically they were in OK shape for trainers. But the mirror stalks on both sides just wouldn't stay put to the point I had to stop and try to fix them into place at one point on my ride.
I highly recommend them as a training school for CBT.
