CBTA Restricted Assessment: What Happens on the Day

Most riders turn up to their restricted assessment nervous, usually because nobody has told them what actually happens. This guide walks through a CBTA restricted assessment from start to finish, so you can spend your energy on riding rather than guessing.

What CBTA is

CBTA stands for competency based training and assessment. It is one of two ways to move from a motorcycle learner licence to a restricted licence in New Zealand. The other is the restricted practical riding test.

With CBTA, an NZTA approved assessor rides with you and assesses you against set riding competencies on real roads. Pass and you get a certificate (often called a 6R certificate), which you take to a driver licensing agent when you apply for your restricted licence.

You can sit the restricted CBTA assessment at any time after you get your learner licence, once you are ready. You must be at least 16 and a half to get the restricted licence itself. The practical test route is different: it needs you to have held your learner licence for at least six months. The NZTA CBTA page has the current rules.

How the day runs

Here is how a restricted assessment runs with us.

• Arrival and paperwork. Bring your licence and the details you booked with. We check them against the assessment form before anything else, because a paperwork problem found at the end wastes the whole morning.
• Bike and gear check. Warrant, registration, tyres, brakes, lights and chain all get checked, along with your helmet and gear. A bike that fails this check cannot be assessed, so look it over the night before.
• Briefing. We explain what the assessment covers, which roads we use and how the radio works. This is the time to ask questions. Nothing in the assessment is a trick.
• The assessment ride. Real roads, real traffic, with the assessor following and talking to you through the radio.
• Result and debrief. You find out on the day. If you are competent, we sign it off. If not, you leave knowing exactly what was not to standard.

What the assessor is looking for

NZTA's CBTA material groups riding skills into four areas: observation, interaction, control and rules. In plain terms:

• Observation: are you looking far enough ahead, checking mirrors and doing head checks before you change position?
• Interaction: how you deal with other traffic. Following distance, gaps at intersections, being visible and predictable.
• Control: smooth use of throttle, clutch, brakes and steering, including at low speed.
• Rules: speed limits, give way rules, signalling and lane use.

The assessor is not looking for a perfect ride. They are looking for consistent, safe habits. One small slip that you correct is very different from a pattern of the same mistake again and again.

Common reasons riders are not yet competent

• Head checks missed or done too late, especially before changing lanes or pulling out.
• Following too closely, particularly in slow traffic.
• Poor road position, such as riding in the gutter or hugging the centre line.
• Rolling through stop signs or creeping over limit lines.
• Coming into corners too fast and braking mid turn.

None of these are about nerve. They are habits, and habits can be changed with practice and good feedback.

How to prepare

• Ride as much as you can on your learner licence, in different traffic and road types.
• Practise head checks until they happen without thinking.
• Check your bike the night before: tyres, brakes, lights, chain, warrant and registration.
• Sleep well and arrive early. Rushing in late does nothing for your riding.
• Consider coaching before the assessment. Riding the kind of roads you will be assessed on, with someone telling you what they see, is the fastest way to find the habits you do not know you have.

If you are not ready, we would rather tell you before you pay for an assessment than after you fail one.

What if you do not pass?

You find out on the day, along with exactly which areas were not to standard. You can book coaching to work on those and rebook the assessment when you are ready. More answers are on our FAQ page.

Book your assessment

We are NZTA certified instructors and assessors, and every session is one instructor with one rider. See our courses for the restricted CBTA and coaching options, or book a session.