Hello, I used to have my motorbike license in Australia. Sadly it has expired, I do have my car license here in Japan. I have ridden bikes for many years, so I’m wondering if it is possible just to do the test at the testing centre. I have heard they can be tough on people who do not go through a training centre. I looked at the prices for these places and it’s just so costly.
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Thanks for any advice you can give! 🙂
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8 comments
It’s technically possible, but is challenging. I rode for 5 years before coming here and tried to take the motorcycle driving test.
The first thing you do is go over a beam at a certain slow speed. It’s not super challenging except for the fact that you are riding a bike you’ve never ridden before and have zero time to get used to the balance, brakes, and throttle. You can try again, but the next available reservation might be weeks away if not longer.
I ended up going to driving school – it was around 120,000 yen and was worth it in the long run.
I paid a school and appreciated getting my bad habits corrected.
The stress of taking a test at the license centre which is a 90 minute drive away and likely getting failed the first couple of times, pass.
I just did the riding test 3 times and passed on the last try. Only cost around ¥15000 all up. Gotta do mandatory safety course after you pass the riding test which costs about 2 man.
exam + test is def. possible.
may be a good idea to pay for a couple practice runs, or you can hang out next to the testing site and just watch what you’ll have to do.
If you have a valid JP car license, you will not need to do the written test for your motorcycle license (unless rules changed). Taking the test at the center is possible, but the course can be challenging on a bike you may not be used to. As others noted, it will be 12-15 man to take a center course.
Advice
– first is that knowing how to ride is relatively minor in terms of passing the test. They are testing if you can do very specific things that they’re looking for that the riding classes will teach you. If you can pay for an hour or 2 of class and memorize the 2 paths through the course.
– going over the balance beam fast but not falling off is a point deduction, falling off is failure, so if you’re in any way concerned about making it across go ahead and power through and pass.
– they want you to stop at very specific spots on the hill. Make sure you hold the brake down and let the clutch out to pull yourself up out of the brakes so you don’t roll back.
– even if you can keep the bike up they don’t want you skidding on the braking test. They get really annoyed if you’re doing it for fun in driving school.
– going too slow through the slalom is a point deduction, hitting a cone is an automatic fail, same advice as the balance beam. Better to go slow and not hit the cone than fail.
– on the back of the course there’s a T intersection with a stop sign but bushes on each side. They want you to carefully pull out so you can see around the bushes before going even though you know there’s no traffic.
– in the zig zag putting your foot down is a point deduction, hitting a cone is failure, I think you know where this is going…
It depends on how proficient you are at riding.. most people take 5 or 6 times .. one friend did it in the.second try ..
I actually learned how to ride a bike at the driving school .. so it was real beneficial for me .
If you want to take the test directly, you may want to take a lesson or two first at the driving school.. to give you an idea of what to expect
Taking the test directly is pretty challenging – remember that you’re not being tested on your riding ability, but on your ability to take the test. There are rules for everything, including how to mount the bike in the beginning, and there are a LOT of instafails.
Full list of fails and point demotions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RideitJapan/wiki/index