Motorcycling

Finally on the bike – and you know exactly what you're doing.

You're working toward your motorcycle endorsement – the learner's permit, the knowledge test, the skills test or the waiver through an approved rider course – or still just dreaming about it? A thousand questions are spinning in your head, and that's exactly what this book is for: relaxed, patient and without jargon – and with a special eye on women getting into riding.

This is the American edition, built around the one fact that shapes everything else: there is no national motorcycle license and no national riding test in the United States. Who may ride, from what age, after which test, whether a helmet is required and whether you may filter between lanes are all state law – fifty states plus the District of Columbia. So this book gives you the shape of the process, the same nearly everywhere, and a state-by-state table for the parts that are not.

Three parts – one complete companion

• Part I – Beginner Questions. Detailed answers across 13 categories. Why doesn't the motorcycle fall over once it's moving? How do I brake and shift correctly, ride corners and direct my gaze? How do I overcome fear? Plus rider training, riding in town and over mountain passes, protective gear, buying your first motorcycle, maintenance and breakdowns – right through to electric motorcycles and riding off-road.
• Part II – The knowledge test. Fourteen core topics, the motorcycle-specific chapters the car books leave out, plus eight practice tests at full length: 25 questions, 20 to pass. The layout is deliberate – the question is on the right, the solution with a clear explanation on the left when you turn the page. No app subscription.
• Part III – The online community. The motorcycle catalog, the advisor for choosing a model, the route planner with weather check, the navigator for your phone, a collection of routes, and the digital garage that tracks your service intervals.

And between the chapters you'll keep stumbling over hand-picked biker sayings – classics from the regulars' table.

What makes this book special

• It never invents a number. Where a figure varies by state – fees, minimum ages, penalties – this book says so instead of quoting one state's number as if it were the country's.
• Sourced, not guessed. Every rule is traced to the statute, regulation or sign standard behind it.
• "No statute" is not "legal." The lane-splitting table says exactly what each state's law does and does not do – a distinction most summaries blur.
• Honest rather than sugar-coated, on a first-name basis and without jargon.
• With a special focus on the questions that matter most to women at the start.

Who is this book for?

For everyone who wants to do their research before spending any money. For anyone studying for a state knowledge test who wants a complete practice bank without an app subscription. For returning riders easing back in, and for riders crossing state lines who want to know what changes at the border.

Enough gut feeling and half-knowledge. Get on – this book makes the start easy. Ride safe and keep the rubber side down.

Independent learning and practice work. Our own practice questions – not the questions on any state knowledge test, and no state driver handbook was used in writing them. No connection to, and neither endorsed nor sponsored by, any state motor vehicle agency, the NHTSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation or AAMVA. Covers the 50 states and the District of Columbia; U.S. territories are not covered. Law as at September 2026 – state law changes, and your state's motor vehicle agency is authoritative. Passing is not guaranteed.