Hi all, was wondering what the situation in the rest of the world is regarding learning to ride a motorcycle when you already have a car licence. Here in SA you have to sit the learners test regardless.
MC specific written and road test here in CO even with an auto license. easiest is to just take a class hosted by one of the MC rights organizations who have programs certified by the state.
in Washington State you can get a motorcycle endorsement by either taking a class and a driven test, or taking a written test and a driven test. the driving test is pretty simple handling issues - stopping quickly, turning, etc. If you take the written test you get a learner's permit with restrictions that you can't ride at night, or with a passenger until you pass the driving test.
I recommend one of the classes that are spoken of here, although that is not the route that I took. In CO you take a written to receive a permit, and there you have to ride with an endorsed rider, but can ride at any time of day. Then you go make an appointment with one of the DMVs that conduct the endorsement test. A cone slalom, taking off and stopping, Turning and a u-turn. Pretty easy, although it would have been easier on a smaller standard bike. sport bikes are tricky because you don't have much play in the handlebars to turn side-side, so you must be more comfortable with leaning the bike at low speeds for the slalom. I simply got my permit and rode for about a thousand miles around town, and went to the parking lot where they conduct the drive test to practice because they had paint marks for the cones on the slalom (that was the part I was most worried about) and turns outlined. After all that city riding and practice I felt comfortable with the test and went and took it and passed. All of my friends were quasi-surprised that I passed it on a sport bike but I don't think it was that bad. Side note- I felt bad for another lady that was on a shiny new Ducati, she dropped it on the slalom and they failed her on the spot. What a crap day she had, but she was pretty squidy. If you decide to go the route I did (not recommended) it is sometimes hard to find an endorsed person to ride with for practice, so I had a story for any men-in-blue in case they pulled me over. I would have told them that my riding partner and I got separated at a light that he went through on a yellow and I stopped, and was trying to either catch up or go home asap. At any rate, the motorcycle class is pretty inexpensive in most states and they provide bikes (nice in case you drop it). You will learn alot about riding by actually riding, instead of reading about it in a book or manual. They teach you about emergency maneuvers, lane position and some simple procedures to check the road-worthiness of your bike before each time you ride (I still need to work on that stuff). I plan to take the ER (experienced rider) course this summer. One can never have enough safety training with all the wackos in cars driving around. Hope this helps.
That seems the same here, except we don't have to ride with anyone else, our only limitations are no pillions and no freeways. My main point is that where the written test only is required it mainly deals with rules of the road ect, which seems pretty redundant when dealing with someone who drives a car every day (I know there's a difference between knowing them and using them)
Bryan, Each state will have it's own method of licensing. You may get all of them if you wait long enough.. We are The United States but not on everything.
Yeah, seems like you are 50 little countries. Is ignorance of the law ever an excuse when you do something wrong out of your home state?
The area to look into is "States Rights" and the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. An easy read and quite clear but when argued by lawyers gets really complex in seconds. The physical transition from state to state save a few regulations on import of alcoholic beverages and some produce among the top ten, consists of a sign on the roadway. Roughly this: "You are now leaving......." or " Welcome to ....." The US borders are a different story. Innocent until proven guilty here except for some Napoleanic Code in the State of Louisiana. Blowing through a school zone with half a load on at the ton is gonna get anyone anywhere in deep shit! The old " But officer I was only going one way", doesn't fly well either..
Yep, them too. Great all you can eat buffets and great places to get some real expensive poker lessons..
Here in Ontario, Canada you write a test. If I remember right, it's 1 or 2 pages driving questions, 1 or 2 pages motorcycle questions, then 2 pages of sign identifications. Pass that and you get your M1 M1 no passengers No highways over 80km/h No riding after sunset or before sunrise good for 90 days 0(zero) alcohol Can take test after 60 days for M2 if approved rider training course taken M2 slightly above zero alchohol no other restrictions good for 5 years Can't take test for M license until after 2 years (18 months if taking approved rider training course) M Standard motorcycle license There are currently no restrictions on size or type of bike to go with license level, High insurance rates act as a deterrent instead
Arizona is pretty much the same as far as the testing and put putting around the cones thing. I went the the easy way and spent $230 for the class. The test was open book and rather easy regardless. During the class when they were teaching us the manuevers they'd randomly grade us on one of our approaches. If we happened to do good on that one then we passed that part. If not, they made us keep doing it till we gave them a good random - and it gave us extra practice on a part we obviously needed it on. When the class was over, we got our certificate of completion and that's that. It's valid as a permit to ride without a co-rider and so you have some time to go to Motor Vehicle and get your endorsement put on... which you've already paid for, so all you have to do is just hand them the form and they print out the new license for you. Easy peasy!!! Bonus about taking the course... you're using their bike, so if you down it on a manuever it's no biggie. I'd rather take a dump on a Rebel or a Nighthawk than drop a brand new Duke or Busa. Out of a class of 16, 4 were women and the only time a bike dropped was in the figure 8 with the shortest guy in the class who'd never ridden a bike a day in his life.
For awhile, Washington State had a bogus deal going that was tiering and had to do with engine displacement. It started out as bikes under 500cc and over 500cc and was in the minds of the politicians who draft such crap a method to make money rather than having to do with speed capabilities of a given motorcycle using displacement as a marker. Another boffo deal was riding tests were being adminstered by DMV personnel who were not certified to ride bikes.
We have a similar system, One code for under 250cc and then another for anything over that, so everyone does their test on a 250cc delivery bike! Also, at 16 you can ride up to a 125 (with only a written test if I'm not mistaken). That used to be a 50cc max when I was a teenager, which although they were sometimes dangerously slow, IMO was a better idea. Some of the 125's these days are quick enough to seriously hurt yourself.
The entire displacement premise is faulty. There are whole herds of Harleys that are 74 ci and put out maybe 40 hp at the rear wheel. On the other side and equally sort of an odd comparison is a 30.5 ci Gamma. I don't know the hp but cranking one of those puppies up on the pipe is real pucker power. Another oddity in Washington is there is no requirement for motorcycle insurance and no helmet requirement for riders of motorcycles that are at last look 25 years old. The former chairman of the senate comittee for the DOT (Department of Transportation) not to be confused with beaming up Captain Kirk, is a former Naval Officer, Harleydood type and Engineer and when approached about forming legislation banning use of cellphones whilst riding, would not even speak with the appelants. Later it was found that he was receiving campaign funding from our Dear Ma Bell.
My neighbor just arrested a guy who was busing in immigrants, who couldn't speak a word of english, and taking their drivers tests for them. Dude was raking in six figures a year but got greedy and got caught. http://www.kdvr.com/kdvr-dmv-employee-arrested-for-fraud-20110518,0,5830516.story
I remember that, there was even a more tiered version when I was in my teens that spliced it up more. I'm thinking of taking my test on my friend's dual-sport 230 instead of my VF1000F since they don't tier anymore. It seems they do have a separate test still for sidecar/trike licensing but I can't say I disagree with that. Also: I knew about the insurance bit, but I didn't realize Washington didn't require helmets (are you sure about that?). I remember when I moved to Missoula, Montana and they didn't require helmets....that lasted one bug-ridden-highway ride, then I put the helmet back on. edit: I just double checked, they must have revised since yuo last checked Bad: http://www.wsp.wa.gov/traveler/helmets.htm they do require helmets now, not sure about Montana anymore though.
Much the same deal in Seattle only the dude there was having the illegals memorize the multiple choice test answers not by the questions and answers but by the checkboxes. On the driving part since the DMV testers were in an habitual route pattern the same thing. A new director came on board, changed one turn on one block and blew the whole scam right out of the water. The written tests come in lord knows how many languages. Cheap when ya figure how much it's gonna cost to have stop signs in 15 or so languages. Shit dudes, that many signs and the intersection would be blocked.. Mself, I find red yellow and green offensive and am writing the President about this dissing my God given choice of colors by unfeeling and unthinking bureaucrats.
There are several sites dealing with helmets some as elementery as a map showing which states require and which do not. The devil is in the details of the statutes. In Washington, the State Patrol can amend the helmet laws. A few years back one could be wearing a helmet and not have the chin stap secured. One does not need a helmet when riding an "Antique" bike. "Antique" in this case is fuzzy since in the antique market, an antique is 100 years old. Then ya got websites that are sponsored by the loonies in ABATE whose latest scam is to toss up websites without specific IDs. Most ABATE dudes are harleydoods and are being takin in by the founder of ABATE who is a PI lawyer.. He naturally would think not wearing helmets is a splendid idea.. I always kinda figured he could make a few bucks making up HD soup bowls and drinking straws for the harleydoods who have split thier melons and are on an all liquid diet. Author David Hough would have IMO, the best info on sidehacks . So far as I know tiering is toast in Washington. I too was never sure about Montana either until I rode Lolo Pass a couple of times. Now I am sure...
