Throughout the majority of your adventure in SWTOR, you will mainly be moving around on foot. This can be in the form of walking or sprinting, if you've earned this ability. You can also access transport service lines found on major areas of the planets. However, getting your very own SWTOR speeder is probably the best way to quickly move across the land.
You will only be able to purchase a personal SWTOR speeder when you reach level 25. To access your personal speeder bike, you will need to open the abilities panel and then click on the vehicles tab. Then, you can right-click on the personal speeder button to activate it or to deactivate it. You can also drag and drop the personal speeder button to your Quickbar for more convenient access.
There are some speeders that can only be accessed by either Republic or Empire players and not both. In any case, you'll be able to purchase your very first SWTOR speeder for 8000 credits. For Empire players, you will be able to get this from Captain Tanji of the Imperial Fleet - Vaiken Spacedock in the Galactic Trade Market. You can find this in the 2nd room from the right in the lower level. For Republic players, you will be able to get this from Barik of the Republic Fleet - Carrick Station in the same trade market. You will find this in the center room on the lower level.
Some of the very first SWTOR speeder types that you will encounter are:
Czerka Patroller: This speeder will increase your movement speed by 90% and costs 8000 credits
Rendili Watchman: This speeder will also increase your movement speed by 90% and also costs 8000 credits
In order for you to pilot any vehicle, including the speeder, you must purchase a speeder piloting skill from your Class Trainer. There are 3 rankings and they are:
Rank 1 - 40,000 credits
Rank 2 - 210,000 credits
Rank 3 - 330,000 credits
The reason why there are 3 speeder ranks is because there are also 3 corresponding tiers of speeders that you can purchase. As previously mentioned, the 1st tier is level 25 and then this is followed by level 40 and then level 50. Higher levels of speeders give you better protection of being knocked off. However, you must keep in mind that none of the SWTOR speeders will give you any bonus attributes other than increased speed, none of the speeders can protect you from being damaged and you also cannot ride a SWTOR speeder into any spaceport or building.