Minimum Ages For Kids and Motorcycles in the USA

Minimum Ages For Kids and Motorcycles in the USA

Posted by Team Motorcycle on Jun 26th 2016

It obvious to everyone that you need to be of a certain age to ride a motorcycle. Putting a 10 year old behind a big Harley is asking for problems. But not every state in the USA is the same, may differ in their laws.

In every state, you can start riding quite young, but with a lot of restrictions. These restrictions may be in age, displacement used, time of day, etc. All states offer young kids to start as a learner, often at a very young age.

Below you will find a table with the minimum age requirements, as far as could be gathered since wrestling with local DMV and government sites is anything but an easy task; We've listed the minimum we could find for a learner permit, and it's always the car version, but in most states, if not all, the same applies for motorcycles, albeit a 50 cc one (more suitably called a moped or a motorized bicycle).
 
 
But often states also have a minimum age for being a pillion passenger. In the same table below, you will also find those minimum ages. But for sure, every state makes it mandatory, no matter what age the pillion is, to have a seat and foot pegs. Duh.
 

 
*So here's the table with minimum ages for being a pillion and for riding a motorcycle:
 

State

Minimum Age as Pillion

Minimum Age to Ride

     
Alabama

None

14

Alaska

None

14

Arizona

None

15.5

Arkansas

8

14

California

None

15.5

Colorado

None

15

Connecticut

None

16

Delaware

None

16

District of Columbia

None

16

Florida

None

16

Georgia

None

16

Hawaii

7

15.5

Idaho

None

15

Illinois

None

15

Indiana

None

16.5

Iowa

None

16

Kansas

None

14

Kentucky

None

16

Louisiana

5

15

Maryland

None

16.3

Massachusetts

None

16

Minnesota

None

16

Mississippi

None

14

Missouri

None

15.5

Montana

None

15

Nebraska

None

14.2

Nevada

None

16

New Hampshire

None

16

New Jersey

None

15

New Mexico

None

13

New York

None

16

North Carolina

None

16

North Dakota

None

14

Ohio

None

15.5

Oklahoma

None

15.5

Oregon

None

16

Pennsylvania

None

16

Rhode Island

None

16

South Carolina

None

15

South Dakota

None

14

Tennessee

None

15

Texas

5

15

Vermont

None

16

Virginia

None

15.5

Washington State

5

15

West Virginia

None

15

Wisconsin

None

15.5

Wyoming

None

15

 

Tags: