Michigan Motorcycle License/Endorsement

[dreamaker]

Does anyone from Michigan, remember what was the first year Michigan required a motorcycle endorsement on our licenses?

[Hooter]

I don't know why but 68 rings a bell? But I would say give or take a couple of years. Boy, now there was a bunch of help. To be honest I really don't remember having one before then?

[dreamaker]

Tried looking od Michigan DMV, but I couldn't find anything.

[Jess from VA]

I know that when I got my first bike in July/August 1970 ('70 BSA Lightening, at age 17) in MI, there was no such thing as a separate MC endorsement.  So I learned by trial and error and falling down.  But when I had to go and renew my dr. license, a couple years later, there was.  MI SOS asked if I had put X miles on motorcycles and I answered yes, and was granted a grandfathered MC endorsement, after paying the extra $2.50 or so (with no class and no MC written or driver's test).  This was Wayne County, but a MC endorsement was probably a state-wide SOS deal.

So I am guessing 1971-3 is around when the MI MC endorsement came along.

Years later in '84 I joined the USAF, and my MC endorsement was meaningless to them.  Until I could produce a MSF class certificate, I would be required to push my bike to the Maxwell AFB gate before I could get on and ride it.  That was a really long (hot) push, so I took and passed the USAF MSF course on base (on my own CB 750K, no bikes were supplied), at age 31.  Years later, helping my wife get thru a local MSF course, I found that the USAF and private MSFs were nearly identical in content (day and a half classroom, and day and a half riding in the box).

[MP]

In ND, got a MC, dirt bike on the farm, 1968.  Rode for a year or so on the farm and dirt roads.  Got old enough to take the MC test.  Put it in the back of the pickup, and went to the license dept, town of about 2000.  Passed the written, then the HP walked out with me to the pickup, to take it out and do the driving test.

We leaned on the pickup, looking at the bike. It was a 125 Yamaha Enduro.  He asked if I bought it new.  I said yes.  He asked if I had been riding it around the farm ( he knew my parents socially), and I said I had.

Then he said, "That is good enough for me", walked back in, and issued me my license!

MP

[MP]

oops, duplicate

[Black Pearl's Captain]

I think the big "M" endorsement came to Kansas in about 1976 or 77. They asked at the DMV if I wanted M typed on the license for a few dollars more. Yup, that was all the test required that first year. The wife and I both got ours that way.

Along those lines, if you take the test and pass why should it cost you more every year thereafter to have M on the license? I guess I've paid the extra $6 dollars about 8-10 times now.....Why?

[Bighead]

Here in  Alabama when you got your license it was automatically put on there. Up until some time in the early 90's. You could however at the age of 14 go down and take a MC test and get an MC license, but only could legally ride up to a 125cc until age 15 when you could move to a 250cc.

[Jess from VA]

I've paid the extra $6 dollars about 8-10 times now.....Why?[/i]

Like the hundreds (or thousands) of state, local and fed G taxes, fees, and costs we the people pay, the reason they charge them is because they can do so.... with relative impunity (and apparently with no guilt).

I'm sure a G representative would be happy to provide you with a stock answer along the lines that these fees help defray the expense of hiring people to write motorcycle tests, and give DMV parking lot driver's tests, and so on. 

Thinking of G as a malignancy that always grows (and costs more) and never shrinks (and quite often fails and stumbles and wastes resources) is an accurate analogy.

On the other hand, who hasn't known someone who had a MC endorsement, and because they got out of bikes, let it expire to save the couple bux it saved them every few yerars, only to get back into bikes and have to retake a written and driver's test or even MSF (because they can't pass the test in the box at DMV on their road bike)?  I have known a number.  Stupid is as stupid does.      

[Michvalk]

I got my first endorsement, I think in 71, at renewal. I was riding a bike to the SOS office, and was not required to take any tests. 

[Momz]

In MI, endorsements went in effect in 1969.
It was in response to the then new [helmet law].

[scooperhsd]

I got my first restricted license in Kansas in '74, and first unrestricted in '76 (at 16) - when asked about wanting the MC endoresment - of course I said yes. Then in '78 I got my first motorcycle ('78 CB400A) and I've been riding ever since. Took the MSF course in the Navy in Pensacola, and after I got my PC800 in '94 - did the Advanced Course on that. I was thinking about repeating the Advanced course last summer when I got the Valk, but never did anything about it.

I've had DL  / MC endorsements from Kansas, FL , and NC. None of them have ever required me to take a test on the range. I've been halfway surprised about that - but not complaining

[Dorkman]

In Kalifornia, I think it was 1968.  The only "test" was doing a figure 8 in the parking lot.  Since then, the vehicle code and everything else has gotten thicker, more expensive, and screwed up than anywhere in the other 49 states.  Oh well . . .

[Momz]

I got my "CY" endorsment in 1972.

Went to the local Secratary of State office (DMV) and they could/would not give me the test. They then told me to go to the Dearborn Police, as they had a drivers license office within.

An officer told me to take my bike into a parking lot and do a figure eight. He looked out the window as I did my figure eight, and when I finished he gave me a document to take to the local SoS.

What a joke

My wife is a certified MSF instructor, and when she teaches. only about 40% of the students pass. The MSF Beginner Course is not at all difficult, yet the percentage of participants that pass is less than half. Just what does that say about the skill level of people that want to ride?   

And it seems that more than half of those that failed the beginner class, rode their motorcycles to class.

Some people just should not ride motorcycles




 

[old2soon]

Rode and raced in the Navy when ashore. M/C endorsement in Il.-Tx.-Co.-and Mo. NEVER took an actual M/C endorsement test of any kind. When I turned 70 in Feb 2015 I gave up my C D L but kept the M/C endorsement. My current license expires in Feb of 2021 when I turn 76. Got my first semi license in Il. and when she asked what else I said add the M/C-had it ever since. Can't rekemember the year it changed in Il. but I do recollect riding awhile without the actual M/C endorsement!  I see the lack of skill level of some of the "riders" these days and  NOT only shudder at their lack of knowledge I'm starting to understand WHY more of them are expiring out there.  NOT always the fault of the cagers-most generally but NOT always.  We have a license office right he in Willow Springs and I've had the Phatt Ghurl on their course. I WOULD NOT pass their course on the Valkyrie or any large M/C-the turns are entirely too tight and unreasonable BUT the edict came down from Jefferson City Mo.-the state capitol .Probably-MOST likely laid out by some office drone that DOE'S NOT ride.  My friends wife had a difficult time on her 750 Shadow. RIDE SAFE.

[wiggydotcom]

I got my endorsement in 1978 for Illinois. Had a Honda CB500 twin for two years. Sold it and went without a bike for a 20 years-and kept my endorsement that whole time up to including today without ever having to take another test-written or driving.