Motorcycle License in Indiana
Verified against Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles ·
Compiled and verified against primary state DMV/DPS/BMV sources by GetMotorcycleLicense Research Team — cite-or-deny, with no invented figures. How we source & verify →
Indiana adds a motorcycle endorsement to an existing Indiana driver's licence. A resident reaches it either by completing an approved driver education course and a Ride Safe Indiana safety course at 16, or by holding a motorcycle learner's permit and passing a knowledge and skills exam from 16 years and 270 days. Indiana's helmet law binds only a rider under 18; an operator or passenger 18 or older may ride without one, although a learner's-permit holder of any age must still wear one under the permit's own restrictions.
Indiana's motorcycle license requirements — including a $19 fee to add the endorsement and a training course completion that can waive the skills test — are verified against Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (see Indiana BMV — Motorcycle Endorsement), current as of 2026-07-28.
Indiana Motorcycle License Requirements at a Glance
| Permit | Motorcycle Learner's Permit |
|---|---|
| Permit minimum age | — |
| Permit fee | $9 |
| Permit validity | — |
| Minimum age (unrestricted) | — |
| License fee | $19 |
| Renewal | $0 |
| Knowledge test | Required |
| Skills test | Requiredgiven by a third-party tester |
A first-time endorsement carries a one-time $19 fee. As long as the endorsement stays valid on the licence, no fee is charged again at renewal. An out-of-state motorcycle endorsement transfers on request through myBMV.com.
Completing Indiana's motorcycle safety course waives the state's motorcycle skills test. See Indiana’s motorcycle safety course.
Indiana helmet law
Required for some riders
A rider is exempt only if all of the following are true:
- the rider is 18 or older
IC 9-19-7-1(b) requires an individual less than 18 years of age who is operating or riding on a motorcycle or motor driven cycle to wear a DOT-standard helmet and protective glasses, goggles or a transparent face shield. The section does not apply to a person in an autocycle. Violating this chapter is a Class C infraction under IC 9-19-7-3. Separately from this age-based rule, the BMV's own restrictions on a Motorcycle Learner's Permit require the permit holder to wear a helmet regardless of age — so a permit holder 18 or older is still bound by a helmet duty, just not the one recorded in conditions[] here, which describes the general statutory rule for a licensed rider.
Ind. Code § 9-19-7-1 · verified 2026-07-28
Source Notes
Where a source is stale, conflicting, or required a judgment call, we document it here rather than presenting a single confident-sounding number. See our methodology for how these calls are made.
- Endorsement rules, permits, tests and fees come from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Training facts come from Ride Safe Indiana, the BMV's authorised motorcycle safety program. Helmet rules come from the Indiana Code as published in a full-text compilation hosted directly on in.gov, since Indiana's official code browser is a JavaScript application this project's tooling could not fetch directly.
- Indiana's helmet law applies only to a rider under 18. A rider 18 or older who holds the full motorcycle endorsement may ride without a helmet, but a rider of any age who holds only a motorcycle learner's permit must still wear one under the permit's own restrictions.
- Ride Safe Indiana course fees are set by each individual training provider and are not published by the state as a single figure.
means no primary source publishes that figure — left blank on purpose rather than estimated or copied from an unverified aggregator.
Sources
Data last verified: 2026-07-28 (verified by: agent) | Source: Indiana BMV — Motorcycle Endorsement