Learn to Ride a Motorcycle

This site is about learning to ride a motorcycle and is intended to be useful to everyone, regardless of where you are learning to ride, however, our location is in BC Canada, so many references are made throughout the articles to ICBC or to getting your BC motorcycle license (referred to as a class 6 or class 8 license).

Learning to ride a motorcycle can be a fun and exciting experience, but it comes with risk. Don’t take on the challenge on your own. And you might regret having a friend teach you to ride, as you will be picking up on their bad habits.

The best riding in Canada is on the West Coast, in Beautiful British Columbia. The temperate climate combined with mountain roads and views of the Pacific Ocean and countless lakes combine to make for many great rides. Once you have learned to ride a motorcycle, use the section on routes to find suggestions for the best motorcycle routes on Vancouver Island and throughout BC.

Here are the recommended steps to learn to ride:

The Licensing Process

Getting your motorcycle license in BC requires a trip to an ICBC office to take the knowledge test. Book your knowledge test.

While it isn’t necessary to take a course in BC in order to get your license, it is the recommended next step. Find a motorcycle school.

Motorcycles have an extra step between the knowledge test and the road test. It is called the ICBC Motorcycle Skills Test (or MST). This is a 15 minute test in the ICBC parking lot. You must demonstrate that you can ride a motorbike at a walking speed with balance, and then perform a u-turn without hitting cones or putting a foot down, and then slalom/zig-zag through 5 cones spaced about 3m apart. Additionally, you must demonstrate that you can perform a suddent stop without skidding your tires.

The final step in the licensing process is the ICBC motorcycle road test. The road test costs $50, plus an additional fee to reprint or renew your license when you pass. The motorcycle road test is about 40 minutes long and is very similar to the road test in the car. More details about the skills marked on the road test can be found here.