Motorbike license comparison

Here in South Carolina the law is very slack when it comes to motorbiking. The only requirement was for me to take a 25 question written multiple choice easy as pie test to get my beginners permit and I'm off. I can ride anything I want as big as I want as long as I'm insured. To get my full license I just have to go in a take a road test that involves:

Tight cornering left and right
U-Turns left and right
Hard acceleration then immediately into Emergency braking
Stalled car avoidance
regular controlled braking (stop with front tire in a box)
S-curve at speed
control in and out of cones

I've been through it with a friend and it's more difficult than the car road test, but still not that hard. Seems like you guys have it rough...????

*edit* Completely wrong section and I apologize, I wasn't paying attention and just hit new thread. Help please?

If you can already ride whatever you want what's the point in getting your full licence?

At least you have to prove some skills. Am I correct in thinking in some sates there is nothing?

I'm from Serbia. You just give 100 Euros ($140) on top of the original price (another 100 E) to the "guy" and you're off. No limit license. + insurance is only mandatory for the bike. Helmets are not in wide use. More like one in ten. Death toll... just imagine!

beginers permit = no riders on back, plus I think you arent supossed to ride after midnight till 6 am i think. Ive had my beginers permit for years, you have to renew it every 6 months though while your permanent is good forever and automatically renews. Ive never got my license since all my bikes were choppers and not really legal, no turn signals etc.

Originally Posted by xscorex

beginers permit = no riders on back, plus I think you arent supossed to ride after midnight till 6 am i think. Ive had my beginers permit for years, you have to renew it every 6 months though while your permanent is good forever and automatically renews. Ive never got my license since all my bikes were choppers and not really legal, no turn signals etc.

Yeah I forgot about that. I'm not supposed to ride after 8pm or 6pm depending on daylight savings and I have to renew my permit once a year...and that does not mean I have to take the test again.

Originally Posted by sarah

If you can already ride whatever you want what's the point in getting your full licence?

It really is silly and I have no answer cuz I came from California but it is (or was in the 80's) equally as lenient.

I went 4 years with nothing more than a full car driving license and road motorbikes. Fully insured, even made an insurance claim after I had a slight off, got the bike fixed no probs. Have been pulled by the cops as well and I told them I hadn't got my motorcycle license yet but was insured and the common reply was "well son just get down there and get that license ok" no word of a lie.

Things may (and I hope) have changed only to insure there is proper training obviously. It is quite an amazing thing having gone through it. But it was true.

[timwilky]

Makes the old 4 times round the block,an emergency stop and a question on the highway code look easy. Yet my brother still managed to fail his first time.

[Spanner Man]

Morning all.
Back when I was a motorbike instructor in the very early days of the CBT, I used to train a lot of Americans who had been working here for more than 12 months, and needed to pass the UK test in order to continue riding.
Bar none, they were aghast at how difficult the UK test was, compared to the US one, & it didn't seem to matter which state they were from.
I think that most of them thought it was going to be a mere formality.

They usually knuckled down to it, & most passed our test on the first attempt. Except for one obnoxious individual who actually argued with the examiner who had failed him, because for most of the test he used only the rear brake. This was despite three days of solid nagging from me about using both. His excuse was that he didn't like using the front brake. Apparently he waved his US licence in the face of the examiner, shouting the usual rhetoric about freedom & liberty etc. Guess which examiner he got on his second attempt

American licence, please take one!

Cheers.

Teehee - I've often wondered about examiners how much they can actually tell while sat behind you. I guess the rear brake usage kinda shows up on the emergency stop some I've often thought that the stress on lifesavers is as much to show the examiner that you're looking as they can't really tell if you're using the mirrors and situational awareness. (obviously I still use lifesavers and they definitely have their place, just don't use them as much nowadays).

I remember my dad giving me sage words of advice - "never use the front brake, you'll go over the handlebars". Gee, thanks dad

Does seem like it's getting tougher year by year nowadays, it's not like I can really pull the O level trick to my younger siblings/cousins etc and say "oh back in my day it was a real test"