Getting a full bike license in the UK involves various stages now. I remember when, if you had a car license, you could ride a 250cc machine as long as you had L plates. Not any more. Last Sunday I did a day long CBT (compulsory basic training) on a 125 bike at Cambridge’s CAMRider. It involves some classroom teaching followed by trying out the bike on their site, starting up, going around cones, practising slow speed manoevering etc. A morning is exhausting enough, then after lunch they lead you out onto the road. Its nerve-wracking! We drove, not just around the lanes of the quiet village where CAMrider is sited, but straight into the middle of Cambridge. Yikes! All with the teacher giving instructions into a earpiece. At the end I got the CBT certificate and an aching body and ringing ears for days after. Next week I do another 1/2 day which includes an introduction to riding a 500cc machine. Its a heady mixture of excitement and fear – mostly fear. Now I have some more padded trousers – I fell off on sunday onto a grass verge luckily.