Show HN: Learner Approved Motorbikes

Show HN: Learner Approved Motorbikes(learnerapproved.com)

13 points by jeromesalimao 13 years ago | 26 comments

MattBearman 13 years ago |

Great idea and a cause close to my heart (I ride a Kawasaki Versys 650 - http://www.learnerapproved.com/bikes/584).

My only gripe was that it's not clear what country this is for, and of course every country has different learner legal laws. I was only able to conclude it was Australia after reading about the founders.

I'd love to see this expanded to other countries, especially for EU countries with the new 4 tier motorcycle licensing (so glad I passed before they brought that in)

jeromesalimao 13 years ago | |

Thanks Matt.

I'd be super interested to know how other countries / jurisdictions specify what is learner approved. For us, I guess it would just mean a bigger dataset and potentially, more sophisticated mechanisms of filtering?

Cool bike btw :)

MattBearman 13 years ago | | |

Cheers, I love that bike, it took me and my girlfriend on a 6 week tour of Europe, by far the best way to travel :)

The law regarding learning has changed twice in the UK (and Europe) since I passed, so I don't know all the details, but I think there's now two or three tests to take in stages, each on progressing you to a more powerful machine. Unless you're over 25, then you can do Direct Access and go straight to any bike.

acanby 13 years ago |

As a bit of background, in most states of Australia you can only ride restricted motorbikes (commonly referred to as LAMS bikes) when on your learner or provisional license. As motorcycle riders, we wanted to help people find out what bikes were out there.

We plan on growing the site into a place where all riders can discuss the pros and cons of each Learner Approved motorbike.

Lots of places we're looking improve on this, (ie the initial page load). We'd love to hear any other thoughts you have!

wuest 13 years ago |

Fantastic. I've been riding for roughly 10 years and, in the US at least, the idea of learning to ride before one hops on a scarily-powerful/heavy motorcycle is a polarizing factor (either one absolutely agrees with it, or one scoffs at the very notion).

I realize this is targeting Aussies, but the more resources dealing with the idea of learning to ride _safely_, the better.

jeromesalimao 13 years ago | |

Personally, I absolutely agree with it. The exhilaration and freedom afforded to a motorcycle rider is unparalleled, but it comes at a huge cost. You are completely exposed. To other cars and to the elements. It also seems that everyone has horror story to tell. All that being said, I wouldn't give it up for the world.

Edit: Thankfully where acanby and I live, it's compulsory to complete learner riding training + to ride a learner approved bike (shameless plug) and few other restrictions. eg. Zero alcohol limit, speed limits, not allowed to double people on the back etc etc.

drkripper 13 years ago |

Filtering by make and model doesn't really help me find a bike. I would de-emphasize or even remove those dropdowns. A think a pricing filter would be useful.

Labels for the dropdowns should be added, is someone new to motorcycles even going to realize that the first dropdown has motorcycle makes?

acanby 13 years ago | |

Appreciate the feedback! We're working to add the field labels now so stay tuned.

With regard to price, its a tough one. We purposefully left it out initially because it's subjective. If we use RRP - should a 2000MY Suzuki 650F be filtered because a brand new (2013) one is outside your price bracket? Obviously there are going to be differences, but we're thinking hard for a way to include this. I agree it would be a big helper!

lumberjack 13 years ago |

Pretty sure this isn't a postie bike:

http://www.learnerapproved.com/bikes/459#

jeromesalimao 13 years ago | |

Heya. I never even knew this bike existed! But looks like you're right.

As an aside, the postie bike as we know them now (and for the past 20-30 years) are Honda CT110's. Seemingly our dataset is missing this model. Something else we're looking into.

acanby 13 years ago | |

Thanks for raising this, will take a look.

We plan on adding a reporting system into the site so people can flag inaccuracies, but that is still a little while off.

codingninja 13 years ago |

Awesome, wish it was around a month or two ago when I was getting my bike! Never knew there were so many different bikes I could ride on my L plates...

Hates_ 13 years ago |

Learner approved for what country? The rules here in the UK are horribly complicated and sadly a lot of the suggestions do not apply.

jeromesalimao 13 years ago | |

Australia mate ;)

"have an engine capacity up to and including 660ml and do not exceed a power to weight ratio of 150 kilowatts per tonne." - rta.nsw.gov.au

jeromesalimao 13 years ago |

This is our first rails website to make into the wild. Tell us what you think!

Cofounders - me and acanby

tobiasu 13 years ago | |

The header is blocking half the page, and the dropdown menus don't show what you can select (manufacturer, type, cc, etc.). Otherwise it's nicely done.

I'm not sure whether most of these are good learners. Especially the entire armada of barely road-legal enduros ;) Many bikes seem to be expensive classics (often with shocking handling, miserable brakes), or stuff for the really dedicated (e.g. the Dnepr, a SU/Ukrainian make that no longer exists, which will teach you more about motorcycle mechanics than you ever wanted to know).

So idk about the selection... are you targeting a specific part of the world?

acanby 13 years ago | | |

Yep definitely more info required here isn't there :)

This targets the Australian market, and more specifically the state of New South Wales.

Some of the bikes may be expensive (or not worth learning on), but this list is provided by the Roads authority (RMS) as to what you can ride, not necessarily what you should ride.

Thanks for the feedback!

jeromesalimao 13 years ago | | |

Thanks for the tip mate. We intended to have some slick images scrolling in the header. But agree, it may be too much yellow-negative-space. Slimming it down right now.

acanby 13 years ago | | |

Dropdowns are a bit more intuitive now, hope that clears up any confusion :)

orangethirty 13 years ago |

Two things. It crashed Safari on iOS (latest build). The headline and tag line should be swapped.

acanby 13 years ago | |

Ha - yeah I wouldn't be surprised. We haven't looked to make it mobile friendly yet, but it is on the list. Thanks for checking it out!

jeromesalimao 13 years ago | |

For my information, why do you think the headline and tag should be swapped around? Have I committed some kind of tag line faux pas?

Systemic33 13 years ago |

A list of learner approved motorbikes, and no filter for ABS?

acanby 13 years ago | |

Definitely another criteria we would like to have. Will try and source the info and add it in the future. Cheers!

martinced 13 years ago |

I quit riding bikes the day I started going out with a doctor and her friends. They would refer to us as "organ donors" and talking about "warm ones" coming in for organs.

That and videos of bikers waiting, stopped, at a red trafic light only to get killed or very seriously injured by cars losing controls. Accidents in which people in cars were still perfectly fine.

Life is too short to make it even shorter or to experience it has a paraplegic when you're perfectly healthy. Do like me: get rid of your bikes and buy a fancy Porsche 911 Carrera ; )

The Carrera is probably more dangerous than a Prius but doctors do not refer to Carrera owners as "organ donors'.

Xylakant 13 years ago | |

We always used to joke "There's so many people that say they're an organ donor. But few only take that serious and ride a bike." Granted, bikes are dangerous, but given that people go rock climbing or parachuting for fun - i guess you just need to decide for yourself which way you want to die.