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@DethBeard
RE: Learning to ride
When i did my CBT my instructor said i should go buy a 125 and ride it until it isn't fast enough anymore, then come back for big bike lessons.
I took his advice and got a CBF125, after a few weeks of daily commuting i stopped talking myself through the actions of gear changing (throttle off, clutch in, tap up, clutch out, throttle on) and realised i knew what i was doing (quite an elating moment really).
After that, the next milestone was filtering, the gap in traffic is tiny, then its slightly bigger, then you wonder why you spent so long queueing and happily bomb down between cars/ lorries.
Finally i was full throttle all the time and i knew it ws time for a proper licence (also office moved to Dartford so was riding the bridge/ tunnel but couldnt use the M25 so had to use slower roads to get there)
I would suggest doing your theory test as soon as possible if you are wanting to go full licence, especially as if you fail there can be a big gap between slots.
When doing full licence, i spoke to myself the whole time, talking myself through each step, especially "indicators are on, on, on, turn them off" and "lifesavers, lifesavers, lifesavers" both are really silly fails.
Also exagerate head movement when looking in the mirrors, turn your whole bonce, not just your eyes.
I bought a 700cc Honda Transalp, which is large and underpowered. good for commuting, can hit it a ton easy enough (I have been told...), I think I've done 20k miles in the last 2 years on it and am quite happy.
Only really notice its lack of acceleration when I am trying to keep up with a bigger/ sportier bike, out drags 4 wheeled vehicles as only a motorcycle can.