How to get your M1 motorcycle license and the different steps involved as well as the different graduated licenses that we have here in Ontario.
I will go over exactly what you need to do to get your license here in Ontario, what you need to get your graduate license, and how to move through the actual different steps.
How, what is the best way of going about it is. We do have three different stages or three different steps of motorcycle licensing here in Ontario. The first stage is an M1 written test.
This will you let ride for 90 days, and it is like a learner’s permit. You are not allowed to ride at night. You can ride half an hour after sunset, and half an hour before sunrise. So you can still ride just before the sunset just before the sun rises.
You cannot ride during actual nighttime. The other restriction is you are not allowed to ride with passengers. You have to ride by yourself. The third restriction is you cannot go over 80 kilometers an hour, or you cannot go on a road that is over 80 kilometers an hour maximum speed. There are some exceptions if you live in an area where you must pass on a road this 80 km/h but this is a rare situation.
That basically leaves you riding the streets in the cities and on the back roads and learning your bike, learning the roads, learning the rules, learning just the ins and outs of riding a motorcycle. Now I understand a lot of you guys have probably already ridden motorcycles. You either come from dirt biking or you’ve ridden motorcycles in your own countries, wherever you come from or whatever the case may be.
A lot of people already have prior experience before they hop on their first road. The second stage of getting your license is called the M2. The M2 will basically give you the ability to ride with a passenger ride on any highway or road at any maximum speed or any speed limit and whatever bike you choose to ride.
You can ride. There are no limitations on the type of bike you can ride or the size of the motorcycle you can ride. That is what most people ride with in the beginning riding experience or they’re riding careers. You have to ride with your M2 for quite a bit, to gain the necessary experience to be able to get your full M successfully.
With your M2 you can ride at nighttime, any size motorcycle, at any speed. It’s almost the same as having a full license, with the exception you cannot have any blood alcohol level, but then the next step after that is going for your full license and the test between those two from your M1 to your M2 and from your M2 to your M are both road tests.
If you do choose the route of taking a course and you want to go and do a motorcycle course, and I’ll tell you why that’s a good idea you will get to use their motorcycle for the test and you don’t have to own a motorcycle at that time.
A lot of people, when they do their M1 won’t have a motorcycle that they own just yet. They won’t have one that they can borrow or use most of the time. It is recommended for you go and take the course. You will get a cheaper insurance rate. Once you do take the course as well, they will provide you with a certificate of completion that you will be able to give to your insurance company.
One thing that you should also remember is you probably will have a very hard time getting insurance with your M1, I personally after calling around finally got a quote for 8k/yr which quickly wrecked my mood, if you do plan on grabbing an M1 and going and riding around and trying to just get yourself familiar with a bike. Having your own bike it’s gonna be quite hard to get insurance because here in Canada, what they look at is when you go for insurance, are they look at your driving history. So they look at how long you’ve been driving. They look at what your history is like if you have any tickets or anything like that.
They also look at years of experience. So how long have you held your license and. Well, actually that’s the same amount as how long have you been riding, but they look at how long have you been insured? They look at years how many years you’ve actually been insured since you’ve had your license, since you just got your license, that, that doesn’t really apply to you, but once you actually get your M1, it’s not gonna be easy because you don’t have a driving record.
You do not have a record of showing that you have good habits and you don’t get tickets because you’re fresh. You don’t have any history. You’re not gonna have any kind of actual experience. You’re gonna be able to tell them that. Yeah, I got my license a month or two months ago, and that’s not really gonna be very helpful in your situation because that’s not really any experience.
They are gonna give you a really big rate, a really high rate. And unfortunately, here in Canada, insurance rates are really stupid. They’re pretty expensive, which is why I ride an SV6. If I had the choice, I’d be riding a super sport. I’d have either a Ducati VS4 or Suzuki GSX-R1000R or something along those lines.
The insurance on those is three to four times what I pay on this and I already pay quite a bit, so I don’t want to go and push my luck just yet. I will get one eventually, but I know that at this time it is too expensive to go out and just pick one up and do it at my age.
They are giving me still high rates. So until you’re around 30 years old, you’re gonna be getting crazy rates here, which I’m guessing most of you guys starting out are. There are a lot of guys that are starting out later on and they have a driving history with their car. So that’s a lot better for them.
They’ll get a better rate, but once you’re starting out on a motorcycle and you’re fresh, you get a pretty bad rate. The other thing that I will mention is it’s gonna be a lot easier to take the test when you do go and take the course. And what’s the reason behind that? Well, because when you go to take the course, they want you to pass the test.
How many people are gonna pass their course? If they say, oh yeah, I took the course and I failed at the end. No, of course not, not everybody passes. I had two people out of the 40 people that were with me that failed, but most people do pass and they make it quite easy. For some people, this is the first time they are on a bike. Everybody starts with a different level of experience.
Ride from this checkpoint to that checkpoint. If you go to do the test with the ministry, they’re not telling you that you have to go and stop. They’re looking for you to shift from first to second, and then back to neutral, put one foot on the ground while still holding the brake in neutral on the stopping pad or whatever area that they want you to stop in is called.
The best part is the course the teachers are the testers. They’re the people that actually give you the test. At the end of your two-day course, for your M2, you will get a piece of paper that you can take to the ministry and get your M2.
You hand it to them and they hand you an M2, no taking the test with the ministry, all done all good. That’s the way I did it. It is way easier. You don’t need to own a bike. You don’t need to actually worry about having your own motorcycle and they walk you through the test and show you everything you need to know so that you don’t Fail. It’s a lot easier and a lot more comprehensive than just taking it by yourself. The third part, getting your M I did not take a course for that. I actually went and did mine with the ministry. That test is all taken on the highway. You show up. The instructor will give you an earpiece and they will follow you in a car.
They’ll tell you, go straight, turn left, turn, right, do this, do that, whatever they want you to do, they’ll tell you through the earpiece and you have to perform those actions. And they’ll basically judge you and see if you’re driving or riding safely. If you know what you’re doing, a lot of the time you will go out in a group.
They do make you go out in groups because they wanna see how you handle yourself around other motorcycles and around others. Just to see if you know how to actually ride in a group because oftentimes you’ll be on a motorcycle. And even if you’re not out with people, you’ll pull up to the light and you’re with other bikes.
So you should know how to act and how to drive around other motorcycles.
If you do the course, the waiting time to get your license shortens from 22 months to 18 months wait to get your M Licence. Blood alcohol is the restriction that comes off when you do get your full M, however, the main reason you are going to want to get your M sooner than later is to bring your insurance rate down.
That is what it takes to get your license. That is what it takes to. Go through the different stages. It isn’t that hard. I’m telling you right now. If you do take your motorcycle course for your M2 from your M1 it makes it a lot easier and it will actually smoothen out the process for you and you don’t have to have your own motorcycle. It will even teach an M1 group that has some experience something extra.
When I did my M2 course, it rained pretty hard the second day. One of the guys in my group said he had been riding for years and had never ridden in the rain and realized it wasn’t that scary after all. He didn’t know why he was bothered all these years. It’s a lot easier experimenting when you are not on your own bike.
How do you practice for the M1 test? You can do the test online. That’s how I got ready for my test. And that’s it. Just do the M1 practice test over and over again until I got it right.
Then I go in and write the written test, it is very easy with a few sessions of studying.
