Road Rules: Are mini-motorcycles legal?

Question: My son just told me he got a ride from a friend on a mini-motorcycle. It’s got a 49cc motor and looks like a regular motorcycle but much smaller.

Are those legal? And if so, is there an age requirement for them? My son and his friend are 14. (And they weren’t wearing helmets.) If they’re not legal, how upset should I be about it zipping around the neighborhood?

Answer: Those are commonly called pocket bikes, and the answer to your first question is a big nope. They’re not even close to legal. But the people who sell them will answer in their marketing material that they are, and we’re both right. It’s just that we’re not answering the same question. 

I’ve assumed you want to know if it’s legal to ride on the street. The companies that sell them are just letting you know it’s legal to own one (and you’re welcome to ride it in your yard). Dig into the fine print, and they’ll recommend you check your local laws before riding them on the road. However, that’s just a way to avoid the real answer. 

In every state that requires motor-driven cycles to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), and I think it’s all of them, pocket bikes are not street legal.

While the 49cc motor meets the engine size requirements for a moped, there’s more to a legal moped than the size of the engine. We expect, and the law requires, some basic safety features on road-worthy vehicles. Here’s a non-comprehensive list of important safety items that pocket bikes don’t usually have: headlight, tail light, brake light, mirrors and horn. In addition, the brakes, tires and controls need to meet safety standards, and since pocket bikes aren’t built to ride on the road, they likely won’t meet those standards. 

Before anyone can legally use a moped on the road, it needs to be registered. The department of licensing isn’t going to provide a registration to a vehicle that doesn’t meet safety standards and doesn’t have a proper Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). A pocket bike, not being built to meet FMVSS, probably has a serial number, but it won’t have a VIN or the FMVSS label.

Even if your son’s friend did find a pocket bike that met all the FMVSS requirements (which as far as I can tell is a fictional item), and had it licensed, he wouldn’t be allowed to ride it on the road, because you need to be 16 and have a driver license to ride a moped. Also, the law requires anyone riding a moped to wear a helmet. 

To summarize the violations that happened as described by your son: 

• Riding an unlicensed motor vehicle on public roads

• A bunch of equipment violations

• Riding without a valid license

• Riding without a helmet

As to your second question, I’m not going to tell you how upset to be, but from what your son described there’s a legitimate reason to be a little reassured and reasonably concerned. 

The fact that he told you this suggests you’re raising an honest son. I don’t think I’d have admitted to it at that age. The concern part comes from “that age.” The experts will tell you that the human brain doesn’t fully develop its ability to make good decisions until around age 25. I was 14 a while back, and I could have told you that just by remembering the dumb things I did. Middle-schoolers and motor vehicles, even mini-motorcycles, aren’t a good (or legal) mix on the road.

Doug Dahl is a manager with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, Region 11 and publishes TheWiseDrive.com.