Info for "older" riders.

[Ms Piggy]

I was just chatting a fellow biker today who told me he got his m/b license back in 1975 but recently while out riding his mates bike he got pulled over by and promptly told he didn't have a m/b license and never had!

So he has had to go through the whole process and cost of getting his Learners & he's just about to do that advanced riding course that Mr Melon was talking about the other day.

Stink!!

[Magua]

That would be a bit of a shock.

[Hooks]

I have the exact same problem, I got my license about then but haven't been pulled up for it ....... so far ..... Apparently this happened when they changed to the first of the..."Lifetime" licenses. If you didn't check the form they gave to confirm the info then they only gave you the car one ..... but then I know a guy who never had his bike license but when this form arrived he ticked the box and ended getting it !! I guess I should do something about it. I can't even get the original info on my license because where I got it in Tauranga was burnt down by some glue sniffer and all the records went up in smoke !! You be surprised the number of people who only look at the card and not at the classes endorsed when they ask for it. Still I think it's about time I went got legal again ... for all the obvious reasons like insurance and the like .....

[digsaw]

oh hell dont tell me,i had same broblem wiv car lic after driving cars and trucks for 48 years.geez did they sure feekup,and it costs a bomb to put right and time too. they dont

[Skyryder]

I go my licence given to me. No test, no exam, no fee. Now I'm off to bed. Part two later.

Skyryder

[Hitcher]

One of the major reasons behind the competency-based full class 6 licence assessment is to get over-25 unlicenced riders licenced. You can get an exemption to to the final course on the "bike you normally ride", which for most of these dudes isn't (surprisingly) a 250. When Mrs H and I rocked up to do this course on our 250s we thought we were at the wrong place! There were a couple of Fat Boys (and some nice Harleys too, Har Har Har) and some other "non-learner-legal" kit.

[Blackbird]

I got my full bike license in '66 (blush) in the UK. I'd stopped riding road bikes for a few years after leaving the UK and when I bought my first bike in NZ ('87) and had to furnish proof of license, I found to my horror that the UK license had expired

I got written proof from DVLA in Swansea that I had indeed held a full license, but the MOT here said that I had to re-sit all stages of the license, but there would be no waiting time between stages. I could hardly turn up on the Honda GB400TT I'd bought (and was riding illegally) and the only alternative I had was borrowing a mates' wife's Yamaha 50 step-through, complete with shopping basket . Apart from my wife taking some highly embarrassing photos of me in leathers and a full-face helmet on the thing, I think that there was general suspicion by officialdom that I had something a bit bigger tucked away. The traffic cop who tool me for my full rider licence was a rider himself, so I 'fessed to him and he thought it was highly funny. The test lasted all of 1 minute, then he waved me in and said that I'd be wasting both our times if we prolonged the test any further. From then on, I've been completely legal apart from a few demerit points!

Geoff

[toads]

yeah well, my husband had several of those provisional bike licences they used to have before all the progressive licence thing happened and sadly never bothered to get his full licence, it was not included on his licence when they changed to the new system, he has only got his learners, despite years of driving/riding experience, he has all the licence classes except 6 and sports a learners licence, with 1,2,3,4,5,6L,7,8 on it, stink alright, and his bike isn't a 250 either, the most ridiculous thing about it is that our son has a cbr 250 rr that cruises at 140kms no problem at all, and that apparently is more suited to a "learner rider" than our old 400cc jap cruisers which putter along only just albe to achieve the speed limit, I know the rules are the rules but they are quite impractical

[marty]

the old licence details are still hidden on the 'wanganui' computer - i have pulled a number of older people that never upgraded to 'lifetime' type licences, their old class A, B etc are still shown when thery are checked - they show as a 'skeleton' licence (no pun intended . if you upgraded, the class a etc doesn't show, but if you did have a class A, then the records will be held by driver licensing in P North somewhere.

[scumdog]

..... but then I know a guy who never had his bike license but when this form arrived he ticked the box and ended getting it !!

You mean there is more than one of us got our motorbike licence like that??? :confused2 heh heh heh!!

[What?]

the old licence details are still hidden on the 'wanganui' computer.

Aaah - the Wanganui computer. A mate, back when the Wanganui computer was a new thing, lost his license. Lost, as opposed to removed. So he applies for a duplicate. When the duplicate arrived, it showed no bike license, but everything else! Considering we were at high school at the time, thus too young to have HT's and Passenger Service licenses etc, this was quite something.
S'pose it has been improved a little since then (excluding the decomission)??

[festus]

Aaah - the Wanganui computer. A mate, back when the Wanganui computer was a new thing, lost his license. Lost, as opposed to removed. So he applies for a duplicate. When the duplicate arrived, it showed no bike license, but everything else! Considering we were at high school at the time, thus too young to have HT's and Passenger Service licenses etc, this was quite something.
S'pose it has been improved a little since then (excluding the decomission)??

I'd bet the above anomaly was nothing to do with the Wanganui Computer system. A computer system is only as good as the people entering data into it.

[rodgerd]

One of the major reasons behind the competency-based full class 6 licence assessment is to get over-25 unlicenced riders licenced. You can get an exemption to to the final course on the "bike you normally ride", which for most of these dudes isn't (surprisingly) a 250. When Mrs H and I rocked up to do this course on our 250s we thought we were at the wrong place! There were a couple of Fat Boys (and some nice Harleys too, Har Har Har) and some other "non-learner-legal" kit.

Say, you sound like you might have been on my course...

[vifferman]

I was just chatting a fellow biker today who told me he got his m/b license back in 1975 but recently while out riding his mates bike he got pulled over by and promptly told he didn't have a m/b license and never had!

Kinda crazy that he never checked the details in the intervening years. They stuffed a few things up with the licence changes, like when they went to the plastic-paper "lifetime" licences, and then again when they swapped to the card type. I checked my wife's some time after she was issued with the 'paper' one, and according to that she had a bike licence but no car one, whereas in reality it was the other way around! Perhaps I should've suggested she just buy a bike and give up driving...

[Hooks]

the old licence details are still hidden on the 'wanganui' computer - i have pulled a number of older people that never upgraded to 'lifetime' type licences, their old class A, B etc are still shown when thery are checked - they show as a 'skeleton' licence (no pun intended . if you upgraded, the class a etc doesn't show, but if you did have a class A, then the records will be held by driver licensing in P North somewhere.

I asked if there was any way they could check and was told that there was nothing on the computer about a bike licence in my name ... but my father did have one .... and he's never ridden in his life !!! I even suggested that they check the registrations to see that I had even owned a 250cc bike for 3 years before moving up to a 500 followed by a 650 ..... didn't make any difference to them though and all they could suggest was to find a JP that knew me and get them to sign a sworn statement .... Yup I know heaps of JP's ....NOT !!! So I guess eventually I will book in do the tests and keep riding until the time is up .....