How to get a motorcycle license in TX

[mrh]

Are you legal to ride in Texas? Look at your license and look at the class. It will say C or A or B, depending on what kind of driver's license you have. If you do not currently have an M (a motorcycle endorsement) on your license after the class (CM, AM or BM) you are not legal to ride a motorcycle in TX.

Currently, there is only one way to get an M on your license: you must successfully pass a state-approved motorcycle safety course. There are two of those courses the qualify:

New riders and folks who do not own, or wish to use, their own bike must take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic RiderCourse. This is offered at many locations around the state. Schedules and prices vary. It is typically a two-day course, 8 hours per day and usually costs around $200-$235 dollars.

Those who own, and regularly ride their own motorcycle, can take the more advanced one-day Total Control Intermediate Riding Clinic, offered in Houston thru MRH Rider Training only, which consists of one 8-hour day. It is offered in two locations and the state DPS has set the price at $250.

After successful completion of your class, you need to take the completion card (called an MSB-8) to any DPS license branch, turn it in, and pay a processing fee of $16. If you are under 18 you will also have to do a skills test in front of a DPS officer. Those 18 and over do not have to do the skills test.

You will be given a temporary paper license immediately. Your new permanent license will arrive by mail within the following two weeks.

There are no written tests at DPS anymore. Unless you are under 18 there are no skills test at the DPS anymore either.

Complete details are available at the TXDPS website or by calling them at 1-800-292-5787.

[EMTP435]

Even if you are an experienced rider who has been 'riding dirty' for years, you may want to consider taking the Basic course vs. the Intermediate. It never hurts to get a refresher on the basic skill concepts and to recognize some 'bad habits' you may have developed.

[jobes1]

Seems to me like the state should incorporate a mandatory class before a dealer can sell a bike to someone with out a license.

If they do that sort of sale.

Heck, when I sold my 08 Zx6r, I asked this one kid how old he was (18)
Had he been riding (nope first bike)
What his parents thought about it ( he didnt care)

I told him sorry, not for sale to you. He would have wrapped that thing around something real fast.

I ended up selling to a local dealer instead.

[EMTP435]

Originally Posted by jobes1

Seems to me like the state should incorporate a mandatory class before a dealer can sell a bike to someone with out a license.

If they do that sort of sale.

Heck, when I sold my 08 Zx6r, I asked this one kid how old he was (18)
Had he been riding (nope first bike)
What his parents thought about it ( he didnt care)

I told him sorry, not for sale to you. He would have wrapped that thing around something real fast.

I ended up selling to a local dealer instead.

Good idea, but then let's make it where you have to have a DL to buy a car, just to be fair.....

There is actually a recommendation that a person must at least have their M endorsement before they could register a bike. Not sure where that is in the whole 'law' process or even if it has been pushed into the process yet. There was another recommendation to repeal the 'no helmet' exemptions too.

https://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net.../0-6712-P2.pdf
Check pages 20 & 21

[jobes1]

I totally agree about having a DL to buy a car
The helmet law i really dont think about as I wear my gear no matter what.

If figure if someone is riding w no helmet or in cut off shorts and a wife beater, eh, let them thin out their gene pool on their own.

[styxnsk1n]

any coupons for the total control intermediate course coming up this Friday? I am interested

[EMTP435]

Originally Posted by jobes1

I totally agree about having a DL to buy a car
The helmet law i really dont think about as I wear my gear no matter what.

If figure if someone is riding w no helmet or in cut off shorts and a wife beater, eh, let them thin out their gene pool on their own.

As much as I hate to say it, yeah.... It can pretty much be a self correcting issue. Ever wonder what would happen if we took warning labels off everything and let the Darwin games begin???

[jobes1]

Originally Posted by EMTP435

As much as I hate to say it, yeah.... It can pretty much be a self correcting issue. Ever wonder what would happen if we took warning labels off everything and let the Darwin games begin???

Lol.
Thats what Im talking about.
Id become a bookie and take odds.

Eh.
Its just a big snowball effect in every aspect of things.

Like why do I really have to keep uninsured motorist insurance on all my toys if we have a law saying one must have ins. to register a vehicle.

Being as how the dmv has a link to a database that tells if i have ins in order to register, why cant they get updates on those who have let ins lapse and fine them.

Oh and make it a law that if one gets in an accident with an uninsured motorist, the one with ins get to keep the said vehicle to compensate for the hassle.

[jobes1]

Sorry I got off topic.
Just had my stinger up. Lol.

[mrh]

Yeah, there's always a coupon for MH folk. The sticky on our forum will give you the code.
This Friday's class is sold out. We still have openings for the LaMarque class on 3/27 and have posted the April class for registrations.
BTW, the Intermediate class is excellent for fixing bad habits.

[sullivan]

I don't recommend doing this, but I rode all over Houston and the outskirts without an endorsement.
Pulled over a few times but I always made the cop laugh and he let me go without trouble.

Most cops ride themselves, and understand that a "motorcycle" course is a joke and just a way for the state to regulate everything and tax the working man.

[FastLife1K]

Well if you go the class with the right attitude I bet you will learn something. I taught the MSF course for 4 years on my base when I was in the military and always had a few guys say how surprised they were at learning something new when they had been riding 10+years.

[skelator]

I been riding 30 years, 14 on the street, I plan on getting a motorcycle license this year LOL, for real, I really should

[jobes1]

Good luck

[sullivan]

Originally Posted by FastLife1K

Well if you go the class with the right attitude I bet you will learn something. I taught the MSF course for 4 years on my base when I was in the military and always had a few guys say how surprised they were at learning something new when they had been riding 10+years.

Doubtful for me. I have over a dozen years on a dirt bike and nearly half that on street.

[FastLife1K]

Originally Posted by sullivan

Doubtful for me. I have over a dozen years on a dirt bike and nearly half that on street.

Thats what alot of guys say...With the right attitude you can learn from it even with your 12+years of dirt/street

[Death4man]

Here's a question to see if you may know or not. What if you never took the course but took the test at the DMV back in lets say 2007 and was giving a class M for motorcycle but have a restriction- J- licensed MC operate 21 or over in sight but yet I'm over the age of 30, does that still apply towards me? Will I need to take the course still?

[mrh]

No. As long as you have the M on your valid, not outdated, license with the J restriction (learner's permit) you can still go to any DPS office and take a skills test. Pass that and you'll have the J removed. Remember to make an appt., tho, as most will not do a skills test on a walk-in basis.

[mrh]

Yeah, the old, "I've been riding for years so what could a course teach me?" excuse. There's an old saying: "If you say you can't learn anything more, you're right." Serious attitude adjustment needed.
The Total Control Intermediate Course is only 1 day, you do it on your own bike, and you're doing it with other experienced riders. You get your MSB8, which you take to DPS for the M, at the end of the day.
As for the ticket, that's nothing. Get in a wreck, and/or hurt yourself or someone else or someone else's property and see if your insurance will pay. There's a thing called the illegal and criminal act clause on every policy that says the insurance company doesn't have to pay for claims made as a result of something that happened during the commission of an illegal or criminal act. It's illegal to ride on public roads without a motorcycle license. And that's been upheld in court many, many times. Ever heard of an insurance company that pays when they don't have to?
What's the matter? Afraid you won't be able to pass a class?

[numskull]

Any weekday classes available inside beltway 8. Week of the 18th of April?