Many riders feel less confident after passing their motorcycle test than they were in training, and this is completely normal. Passing your tests proves you can ride to a required standard on the day, but this does not automatically build real-world confidence. Once training ends, structure and support are removed, responsibility increases, and you face unpredictable roads alone. This can create a gap between your ability and how you feel about your ability. Confidence develops through experience, repetition and continued learning, not from the tests themselves. If your confidence has dipped after passing, it is not a failure. It is a natural part of becoming a rider.

Read on to find out more. 

You’ve passed your CBT, your theory, your mod1 test and now your mod 2. You’ve got the certificates, and you are officially allowed out on the road on your own. It should feel like a clear shift. A line in the sand. Before and after.

And yet, for many riders, it doesn’t feel like that at all.

Instead of confidence soaring, it dips. Instead of feeling like a rider, you feel exposed. Instead of excitement, there is pressure in the background. I hear about this all the time, and it catches people off guard because the assumption is that passing equals confidence. In reality, they are two very different things.

As I often say, we need some nervous system activation to help us focus and ride properly, but not enough and we can be reckless or complacent (which is another article in its’ own right), and too much and we can get in our own way.

Passing a Test Is a Standard. Confidence Is a State

Passing your test means you have demonstrated a required level of skill, awareness and safety under assessment conditions. It means you met the standard on that day, in that environment, with that level of support around you. What it does not mean is that you will automatically feel natural, relaxed or fully confident when you head out on your own. Those feelings are not handed to you with a pass certificate. They are built over time.

A test is a snapshot. Confidence is something that develops through repetition, exposure and experience. When people blur the two, they often end up questioning themselves unnecessarily, assuming something is wrong when their confidence doesn’t match their qualification.

Learning to Ride and Learning to Drive are Different 

According to the DVLA, the average successful learner driver has around 45 hours of lessons and a further 22 hours of practice. All of this is done under supervision, with someone sitting beside them, and usually spread over weeks or months. Lessons are often one to two hours long, with time in between for learning to settle and consolidate. A lot of that consolidation happens when we are asleep, which is why spacing learning out actually helps it stick.

Now compare that to learning to ride a motorcycle.

Most riders have a fraction of that time. Training is often delivered in more concentrated blocks, with long days, a lot of information and very little time between sessions for things to properly embed. You are expected to take in complex skills, apply them quickly and progress at pace.

This is despite motorcycling being a higher-risk activity.

On top of that, the experience itself is completely different. Riding is more exposed, more demanding and far less forgiving. You feel the road surface, the weather, the traffic and your own reactions much more intensely than you ever would in a car. There is no protective shell around you, no passenger seat support, and no easy way to pause and reset in the same way.

Even riders who have been driving confidently for decades often find learning to ride unexpectedly difficult. Not because they lack ability, but because it is a completely different skill set, physically and mentally.

When you look at it like this, it starts to make sense why confidence doesn’t automatically follow passing your test. In many ways, you have had less time, less support and more intensity while learning something that demands more from you.

That is not a personal failing. It is the reality of how rider training is structured.

Why Confidence Often Dips After Passing

Confidence often takes a nosedive after passing, and although it feels uncomfortable, it is completely normal.

One of the biggest reasons is the sudden loss of structure. During training, everything is organised. You are told where to go, what to focus on and you receive constant feedback. Then suddenly, it’s just you. No instructor, no voice in your ear, no one holding the bigger picture.

At the same time, the sense of responsibility becomes very real. Every decision is yours. Every judgement matters. That awareness can feel heavy at first, not because you are incapable, but because you are now fully accountable.

The environment also changes. You may move from familiar routes and relatively controlled scenarios into busy roads, unpredictable drivers and situations you have never experienced before. Your nervous system reacts to that, even if your actual riding ability hasn’t changed.

The Identity Gap 

But the biggest shift is the identity gap.

You can pass your test and still not feel like a rider. On paper, you are one. In reality, you may still feel like someone who is just about managing. That gap between what you can do and what you believe about yourself shows up as doubt, hesitation and overthinking.

Many of the riders who come to me are grappling with the conflict of wanting to ride but feeling unable to. One rider, Richard, passed his tests but didn’t ride again for 18 months.  The more time went by the harder it was for him to get out. 

Passing your test is an event. Becoming a rider is a process that takes time.

Confidence builds best when it is allowed to grow at the right pace.

More Training Isn’t a Weakness

This is where more training becomes important.

Since passing my tests I’ve undertaken a number of advanced training sessions. One of those was dedicated to slow control and I made more progress in a single day than weeks of trying to practice slow manoeuvres on my own. 

More training, in whatever form that takes, is not a sign you are lacking. It is how you close the gap between passing and feeling capable in real-world riding.

Even Experienced Riders Struggle More Than You Might Think

This identify gap and confidence crises doesn’t just apply to new riders.

I have worked with riders who have been riding for years, even decades, who still have specific situations that unsettle them. Tight corners, group rides, or riding in busy cities. They have learned to manage around those things, maybe even avoiding them, but they have never fully addressed them.

The reason is often the same. They feel like they should have it sorted by now.

So they don’t talk about it. That silence creates the illusion that everyone else is confident all the time, when in reality, many are not. They are just not saying it out loud. And nothing changes. 

That is one of the reasons I created my Facebook community. Riders need a space where they can be honest about what they are finding difficult without feeling judged or behind. Because confidence is not something you achieve once and keep forever. It changes depending on experience, context and life circumstances.

Why Mindset Work Matters Alongside Training

Training gives you the skills, but it does not always address what happens inside your head when things feel pressured or uncertain.

One rider described how a single mistake on a ride would replay in her mind for days, overshadowing everything that had gone well. Another said her hands would tense up every time she approached a junction, even though she knew exactly what to do, and it would affect her ability to turn the bike. .

That is not about skill. That is about how the brain and nervous system respond to perceived risk. When you understand that, you stop taking it personally. You stop seeing it as a flaw and start seeing it as something you can work with. That is where mindset work supports your training. It helps you steady your response, build trust in yourself and actually use the skills you already have.

If riding has felt harder since you passed your test, nothing has gone wrong, and you are not the only one experiencing it.

You are in the part of the process where responsibility has increased, structure has reduced and your identity is still catching up.

That is normal. The key is to keep going, but to do it properly. Build your experience gradually. Repeat routes until they feel familiar. Progress at a pace your nervous system can keep up with. Reflect on what is going well, not just what feels uncomfortable.

And where needed, get more training and support, because that is how confident, capable riders are built. A good instructor will be able to spot and help you fix things that you are not even aware of, before they get embedded. 

Passing your test proves you can ride. Confidence comes from proving it to yourself, again and again, in real situations, so that you can trust that whatever happens, you can handle it. 

That takes time.

Final Thought

If this resonates, this is exactly what I explore in my book Remember You’re a Rider, available on Amazon where I share real rider experiences and explain what is happening inside your helmet, so you can work with it rather than against it. And if you want support applying this in your own riding, my coaching is designed to sit alongside your training and help you build confidence from the inside out.

Visit www.motorcyclemindset.co.uk to find out more and book a free chat to explore your options.

Disclaimer

The content shared on this website and in related social media posts is not intended as riding advice and should never replace professional motorcycle training or safety instruction. It is written from the perspective of a certified life coach and motorcyclist, not a qualified riding instructor.

My aim is to support your mindset and emotional resilience as you learn, ride, or return to the road. The tools and reflections shared are based on lived experience and coaching practice, not technical riding expertise.

You are responsible for your own safety, decisions, and actions on and off the bike. For practical riding instruction and technique, always consult a DVSA-approved motorcycle instructor or school.