Safe riding requires knowledge and skill.  Licensing tests are a good measurement of the basic skills necessary to operate safely in traffic.  Assessing your own skills is not enough. People often overestimate their own abilities.  It’s even harder for friends and relatives to be totally honest about your skills.  Licensing exams are more complete and designed to be scored objectively.

To earn your license, most states require you to pass a knowledge test and an on-cycle skill test.  Knowledge test questions are based on information, practices, and ideas from this manual.  They require that you know and understand road rules and safe riding practices.  An on-cycle skill test will either be conducted in an actual traffic environment or in a controlled, off-street area.

ON-MOTORCYCLE SKILL TEST
Basic vehicle control and crash avoidance skills are included in on-motorcycle tests to determine your ability to handle normal and hazardous traffic situations.

You may be tested for your ability to:

• Know your motorcycle and your riding limits.
• Accelerate, brake, and turn safely.
• See, be seen, and communicate with others.
• Adjust speed and position to the traffic situation.
• Stop, turn, and swerve quickly.
• Make critical decisions and carry them out.

Examiners may score on factors related to safety, such as:

• Selecting safe speeds to perform maneuvers.
• Choosing the correct path and staying within boundaries.
• Completing normal and quick stops.

Diagrams and drawings used in this manual are for reference only and are not to correct scale for size of vehicles and distances.