Thanks Dickie 500 ot 600 cc will probably be about as far as I want to take it.
Though it would be nice to experience riding a 1970’s Norton 750/850 Comando just for bragging rights.
Just booked a Motor Bike Theory test, glad to say I passed the on line mock without reference to any reading materials. Roll on Feb 12th 
Good luck with the theory test and welcome to the mad world of bikes. At 58, I’ve now been riding them for 39 years and have a BMW 1150 in the garage with the mx5 renovation project.
It’ll certainly make you aware of everything around you even more so than a rag top car and that can only be a good thing in the long run.
If you decide to stick with it and move to something larger, I’d highly recommend taking the advanced course at some point as the things they teach you there give you really useful, and potentially life-saving, skills.
Have fun 
I was seriously thinking of getting a bike for my 70th birthday. Something historic like an old Bonneville. The last time I owned a bike was 1973.
My daughters firmly put their feet down on that idea so I scratched the other itch and bought the Precious, Probably for the best. 
I’ll get the bike for my 80th.
Booked a Theory Test for Motorcyclists 12th Feb in Watford, had a go at the free online mock multiple choice and narrowly passed with 44 out of 50, 43/50 is the pass mark.
Thought I better swat up with some bedtime reading, just 485 pages to go !
I remember when I did my bike test in 1977 there was no theory test just a few random questions from the Highway Code. The practical test was observed on foot, you were given a course and the examiner would observe you at points over it and step out with his clipboard extended when you had to make an emergency stop. I got lost on the course and still managed to pass, different days.
Same here in 1982 - by then there was a part one test, which was riding around cones and slow control etc. Part 2 was the same examiner on foot and an emergency stop when they jumped out at you. I had a Yamaha DT175MX at the time and the limit for learner riders had just been reduced from 250CC to 125CC - I think there was a six (maybe 12?) months grace period if you already had provisional bike licence. The general consensus was you could fall off, pull wheelies, etc on the test and most likely get away with it as the examiner was only able to get a short distance from the test centre (I think I was told by friends who’d done the test where they tended to jump out at you too). I gave up on bikles after a few crashes and am pleased to have a full unrestricted bike licence but think it’s very unlikely I’ll get another bike. Fun days.
Blimey Art, that’s brave! I gave up 'bikes in 1974 when it became clear every tintop driver’s sole aim in life was to kill me.
My (hopefully mid)-life crisis was assuaged by passing my ARDS car race licence test at 68 and being about to finish my course to coach drivers on-track at 69.33.
A quick “thank you” for mentioning TrackDay Coaching. You’ve prompted me to book myself a day’s track day tuition at Oulton Park with Dave! Always good to have bits of fun to look forward to in life.
I also took and passed my bike test in September 1982, but I only had to do the “round the block exam” like @IanH, no part one or part two for me? Your reference to a Yamaha DT175MX caught my attention, as I took my test on a DT250MX, as I was still able to ride a 250cc bike at the time. We did have to remove the indicators before the test, because they were not working, so it was hand signals all the way 
I currently have a Kawasaki Z1000SX, which only gets used now and again these days
Karma strikes again!
As well as having enough reading material to sink a battle ship I am now hoarding bits and pieces for my next trip to see Hildegard at the weekend 5w 30 oil one litre, dot 4 brake fluid I litre to thoroughly flush.
Picked up a chrome rear rack from a lovely chap called Mito at equipment4motorcycles in Leicester last weekend , it will match the one more or less permanently attached to Madge. Sticky L plate for the front mudguard, while I was in lidl noticed a bargain 1/4 inch drive set which will replace a freebee one I got from Halfrauds for buying some oil donkeys ago, the spring on the old ratchet has been popping out for months so I can now bin it.
Found out yesterday my MUK compliant helmet is not suitable for use on a motorcycle so looks like I will be getting a new helmet too !
Oh I suspect I’d not be here if I had a Z1000SX! I wanted a RD350LC after the DT and had saved up to get one but ended up writing a car off and having to spend all my RD money on that. Probably for the best as I suspect. My bike license shows as valid from Dec 1982 and I defo had to do two tests - I possibly fell between two regimes (and at the vanguard of the new two-part test regimen) as I recall I was able to use a 175CC bike due to a time-bounded exemption as my bike was too big (over 125CC) for a learner under new laws just implemented. I loved all the DT series but had a fondness for the XT250 with the gold wheels - four-stroke rather than the two- of the RDs. I went with the 175 as I thought it was lighter and back then I did some green roading - probably frowned upon now.
Edit: Just found this - Changes-motorcycle-learner-law
I also wonder if I just had to pass my test before the law changed in 1983 rather than there being any sort of extension - althoiugh my recollection is there was some sort of a delay / grace period - it’s a long time ago now!
1982 – New two part test
Learners wishing to get a full licence have to take a Part 1 test which involves a figure of eight in a box, a slow ride and a sort of junction and one or two other manoeuvres.
Part 2 remained pretty much unchanged with the test being conducted by the examiner watching from the side of the road. This was a pretty hit and miss affair with as much attention being given to what was worn as to how the bike was ridden.
1983 – Learner motorcycles are reduced to 125cc
Another rush to get a licence gets underway (something we have become more and more familiar with over the past few years) as learners lose the right to ride their 250’s. This marked the steep decline in the 250cc motorcycle market for road bikes that finally hit the floor in 1997 with the introduction of the Direct Access Scheme. This also marked the end of the “sidewinder” era.
My brother had a Puch 50 - if you survived riding that you’ll be fine on Hildegard. It (Puch) was the most unstable thing I’ve ever ridden and at the time I felt it was dangerous even though it barely went 30 mph (if it even went that fast).
Ha ha I remember riding my friends Puch along a cambered road in Oxford at mildly above walking place, came across some leaves in the road and the thing suddenly thought it was on a rotisserie. Fortunately my helmet, donkey jacket and jeans were enough to prevent the drawing of any blood.
I had a Bandit 1200. I sold it 10 years ago and bought my mx5 as a replacement.
I had my fun, I enjoyed every minute, and I came out with all four limbs attached.
I’d like another, but prefer to keep my limbs.
I have had an array of bikes since then, at the time I didn’t actually own the DT, I borrowed it from a friend, but I did own it some years later, along with a couple of air cooled RD’s, and a Yamaha R1 mixed in with some other bikes, probably too many to rattle on about here today
I will be 60 later this year (my god, that sounds old 
), so I think that the Z1000SX will be the last one, apart from the Raleigh Runabout (RM6) that I inherited from my dad nearly 30 years ago 
Managed to change Hildegards 17 year old engine oil on Saturday, to celebrate we bundled her in to the back of my mates van and took her to a car park so that I could ride her for the first time. By the second gear change I was already reliving the delights of riding my C90 back in 1985/6. A couple of times round the car park and a figure of 8 around 2 parked cars with a gap between them was enough to convince me I have taken the first steps on a long journey.
I never had a car until I was 35. Never other than a utility vehicle until 2 years ago. At 72 decided my kayaking career was over and thoughts turned to thrills where you only had to move your hands and feet about.
Ideal would be to join all the greybeards on some fancy two-wheeler but really didn’t want all the faff of dressing up as DarthVadar again…
Dip toes…. 200hp Volvo V60 : much fun and no barge. Add Mk2 TT. Now I’m addicted. Add Nc and wife is worried. Took herself out to assuage her.
I remind her of Mr Toad of Toad Hall apparently. Must have been having the top down I guess.
Remind her of the tales she told me before we met of her antics in a Triumph Spitfire against a rather hot Hillman Imp she jousted with on the go-to-work-run back in the day.
Game/set/match to me ( for a change)
I also took and passed the (round the block) test in 1982 on a Suzuki TS185. Having failed two tests in the 70s i swore i would never take another one, it must have been the impending change in the law that prompted me to take it again. Last year after being seriously ill with sepsis and much badgering from the wife, i sold my Triumph Street Twin and a couple of 70s classics to help pay for the MX5, probably one of the best decisions i ever made. 
Failed my driving test the day before my 18th Birthday which was a bummer. Fortunately 12 weeks later the same examiner passed me. Only 150 pages, or the 500, from the DVSA Theory Test for Motorcyclists book and 80 videos to look at before 11.30 on Monday
