As anyone knows who has tried to get a motorcycle licence in recent years, it has become a cumbersome, pricey uphill struggle to achieve the dizzy heights of a pass.

Although getting a car licence is expensive and time consuming, a motorcycle licence is even more difficult and costly - anyone would've thought that they didn't want people to ride bikes! It can currently be as much as £1,200 to get a bike licence, which seems ridiculous in an age when we should be encouraging people to use smaller more economical machines like motorcycles, as opposed to cars, to help with congestion and emissions.

Motorcycle groups, however, are working to get this situation improved with a view to making it easier to get a motorcycle licence. Lobby groups for motorcyclists like MAG (Motorcycle  Action Group), released a report in autumn 2022 about the motorcycle licensing situation to highlight some of the problems. Their findings showed that young people were being put off progressing up to larger machines, because of the difficulty and expense involved in getting a licence. The good news is that the MAG report may have had an impact already, as Richard Holden, Roads Minister stated that a review of the whole process was now due.

Currently people who are interested in riding motorcycles tend to be older when they get their licenses, than car drivers, which may be due to the prohibitive cost and effort required to get a licence, making it the preserve of people who are earning enough. It is even noted in the report that there are more people over 60 gaining their licences, this is nick named the 'bucket list effect'.

At the moment, many riders who get their CBT just stick at that and remain on a CBT and on smaller bikes throughout their riding years, perhaps put off by the difficulty and stress of moving up the licence system. The idea of the CBT is that it is a stepping stone towards getting a full bike licence, not an end in itself. Riders with a CBT have a lot less training than is necessary to get a full or restricted licence, but are being put off from continuing through the steps needed to gain a full licence, by the cost and the amount of hurdles they have to jump. Basically the report illustrates that the difficulty of getting a full licence is preventing people from following the intended progression up throught the steps to gaining a full licence. Currently riders are sticking at CBT level or moving over to cars rather than the complex further motorcycle licensing system.

Richard Holden, roads minister, is asking the DVSA motorcycle strategy group to take on the task of reviewing and streamlining the bike licence process, initially by gauging the number of riders staying with CBTs and not moving up the licence ladder.

One  idea being mooted is that CBT riders on-road experience should be factored in and count towards their full licence, if they have been riding for a few years. It stands to reason that someone who has been riding for years on a CBT, will certainly know more about actual motorcycling on the road, than someone who has just got on board for the first time. These kinds of considerations should be counted in future perhaps.

However it pans out, the system needs to be made simpler and more affordable to help motorcyclists actually get a licence instead of being put off. Currently they are incentivised to move to a car or wait until they are over 60 to be able to afford a bigger motorcycle, but re-taking the CBT every two years is also a costly process. Basically the system is long overdue for an overhaul and an update. We welcome anything which is going to make life easier for people to get a bigger bike licence if they want to rather than move over from two wheels to four, so let's hope this is the beginning of that change.

Have you got any direct experience of trying to get a bike test recently? Let us know how you fared at: [email protected] or on Facebook