Motorcycle License in Tennessee
Verified against Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Driver Control Division ·
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 →
Tennessee issues a Class M motorcycle licence from 16, and a Class P-M motorcycle learner's permit from 15 that is limited to daylight riding within 20 miles of home on a machine of 650cc or less and carries no passengers. The state runs the Tennessee Motorcycle Rider Education Program through certified public and private sponsors, and a completion certificate exempts a rider from both the written motorcycle knowledge test and the riding skills test. Tennessee requires a crash helmet meeting the federal standard whenever a motorcycle is in motion.
Tennessee's motorcycle license requirements — including a minimum age of 16 and a training course completion that can waive the skills test — are verified against Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Driver Control Division (see Rules of the Tennessee Department of Safety, Driver Control Division, Chapter 1340-1-12 — Issuance of Motorcycle License and Motorcycle Learner's Permit (Class M), (Class P.M.)), current as of 2026-07-28.
Tennessee Motorcycle License Requirements at a Glance
| Permit | Class P-M Motorcycle Learner's Permit |
|---|---|
| Permit minimum age | 15 |
| Permit fee | — |
| Permit validity | — |
| Minimum age (unrestricted) | 16 |
| License fee | — |
| Renewal | — |
| Knowledge test | Required80% passing score |
| Skills test | Required |
A Class M-limited licence covers the operation of a motor driven cycle or moped but not a motorcycle. An autocycle — an enclosed motorcycle with safety belts, rollbar, windshield, wiper and steering wheel, on no more than three wheels — is defined separately in the same chapter. Tennessee driver licences are generally valid for five years, expiring on the holder's nearest birthdate forward from the date of application that divides evenly by five, and are never issued for less than three years or more than seven; an applicant under eighteen issued a Class D or Class M licence holds it until their twenty-first birthday. A Motorcycle Rider Safety Fund fee is collected whenever a Class M application requires a test.
Completing Tennessee's motorcycle safety course waives the state's motorcycle skills test. See Tennessee’s motorcycle safety course.
Engine-size tiers
- Motor Driven Cycle License (Restricted) (up to 125cc, separate credential) — A restricted licence for a minor between 14 and 16, covering a motor driven cycle — a motorcycle or motor scooter producing at most five brake horsepower or with a cylinder capacity of no more than 125cc. Valid only between 4:00am and 8:00pm and within a seven-mile radius of the driver's home.
- Motorized Bicycle License (up to 50cc, 30 mph max, separate credential) — A licence for a person between 14 and 16 covering a two- or three-wheeled vehicle with automatic transmission, a cylinder capacity of no more than 50cc, no more than two brake horsepower and a maximum design speed of 30 mph on level ground. Valid only during daylight hours and within a seven-mile radius of the driver's home.
Tennessee helmet law
Required for all riders
A crash helmet must be worn whenever a motorcycle, motor driven cycle or motorized bicycle is in motion, and during all on-cycle testing. The helmet must meet or exceed the standards set by the United States Department of Transportation, must fit snugly, and its chin strap must be properly fastened. The requirement reaches passengers as well as drivers, and there is no exemption for a rider's age, insurance cover or riding experience. Section 55-9-302(b) does carry narrow situational exceptions. One covers an autocycle that is fully enclosed, which since 28 April 2025 means having side panels, a roll bar or roof, and a windshield. Another, in force since 1 July 2015, covers a funeral procession, a memorial ride under a police escort or a body escort detail, and applies only where the driver travels at no more than thirty miles per hour, the driver or passenger is twenty-one or older, and the procession does not exceed fifty miles.
T.C.A. § 55-9-302, as amended by Public Chapter 197 (2025) · 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.
- Licence classes, permit ages and restrictions, testing rules and the helmet requirement come from the Rules of the Tennessee Department of Safety, Driver Control Division, as published in the Tennessee Secretary of State's official compilation of effective rules. Training facts come from the same compilation's chapter on the Tennessee Motorcycle Rider Education Program.
- The Tennessee Department of Safety's own website could not be reached from the environment used to research this page, so nothing here has been checked against that department's current published guidance. The helmet rules are checked against the Public Acts of the Tennessee General Assembly and are current to April 2025. The licence and training rules come from the state's effective compilation, but the motorcycle licensing chapter was last revised in 2001 and the training chapter in 2006, and a rule cannot show a later change to the underlying statute. Fees in particular are not shown at all: the rules describe how Tennessee's licence fees are structured but state no amount, and the Department's fee schedule is published only on the site that could not be reached.
- Tennessee's crash-helmet requirement applies to every driver and every passenger, with no exemption for age, insurance or riding experience. The statute lists a small number of situational exceptions, of which the fully enclosed autocycle and the escorted funeral or memorial procession are described here; the full list could not be read from a reachable primary source.
- No course price is shown for Tennessee. A sponsor that accepts a state start-up subsidy may not charge more than $250 for the basic rider course or $150 for the experienced rider course, but a private sponsor that takes no subsidy sets its own fee, so no single figure is published.
means no primary source publishes that figure — left blank on purpose rather than estimated or copied from an unverified aggregator.
Sources
- Rules of the Tennessee Department of Safety, Driver Control Division, Chapter 1340-1-12 — Issuance of Motorcycle License and Motorcycle Learner's Permit (Class M), (Class P.M.)
- Rules of the Tennessee Department of Safety, Chapter 1340-01-13 — Classified and Commercial Drivers Licenses and Temporary Driver Licenses (September 2021 revision)
- Tennessee Secretary of State — Effective Rules and Regulations of the State of Tennessee (index of the official compilation, T.C.A. Title 4, Chapter 5)
- Tennessee Secretary of State Official Compilation — Chapter 1340, Rules of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security
Data last verified: 2026-07-28 (verified by: agent) | Source: Rules of the Tennessee Department of Safety, Driver Control Division, Chapter 1340-1-12 — Issuance of Motorcycle License and Motorcycle Learner's Permit (Class M), (Class P.M.)