25Kw License Facts

There continues to be a great deal of confusion over what bike you can legally ride on a provisional license, Learner Permit, or a full restricted license. For the purposes of this document we’ll refer to “restricted license” throughout.

Explanatory Note: The old style provisional licenses are being phased out since 30th October 2007, and are being replaced with learner permits. In most respects the learner permit is the same as a provisional license except that you cannot take a test until you have held the learner permit for six months. By law, holders of a learner permit cannot carry a pillion passenger on any motorcycle, and are required to wear an ‘L’ tabbard or vest at all times.

MAG Ireland has put together this brief guide to give you the facts.

So what  kind of bike can you legally ride?

The short answer is that in the Republic of Ireland you can ride ANY bike on a restricted license, regardless of engine size, provided it does not exceed a power to weight ratio of 0.16 Kw/Kg.

The long answer is a bit more involved so we’ll break it into two parts;

Part 1 – Why am I restricted? (A little bit of history)
Skip straight to part 2 if you don’t care about the reasons why you are restricted

The original restricted license proposal came from the EU, specifically Council Directive 91/439/EEC of 29 July 1991 on driving licences.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31991L0439:EN:HTML

Article 6, 1 b stated;

-for category A; however, access to the driving of motorcycles with a power exceeding 25 kW or a power/weight ratio exceeding 0,16 kW/kg (or motorcycles with sidecars with a power/weight ratio exceeding 0,16 kW/kg) shall be subject to a minimum of two years’ experience on motorcycles with lower specifications under an A license; this requirement as to previous experience may be waived if the candidate is at least 21 years old, subject to the candidate’s passing a specific test of skills and behaviour;

The Irish Government gave it the following interpretation in the ROAD TRAFFIC (LICENSING OF DRIVERS) REGULATIONS, 1999. (S.I. No. 352 of 1999) Section 17, Part 2
(taken from: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0352.html#partii-sec17) which reads as follows:

Motorcycle engine size restriction.
17. A person granted a provisional license for the first time on or after the commencement of these Regulations to drive vehicles in category A and who on obtaining a certificate of competency in that category is subsequently granted a driving license in that category, shall, until a period of two years after the grant of the latter license, be restricted to driving only those vehicles in the said category which have a power output not exceeding 25 kW or a power/weight ratio not exceeding 0.16 kW/kg, or in the case of vehicles in the said category with sidecars, with a power/weight ratio not exceeding 0.16 kW/kg.

So the magic word above is “or“.
You could ride a 100bhp bike on a restricted license if it was heavy enough to come in under 0.16kW/kg.

Note: MAG Ireland understands that the manufacturers original specifications for a particular make and model have been used to successfully prosecute riders for riding full power bikes on a restricted license in the district courts.

Part 2 – where does this leave me if I am on a restricted license?
Or, how do we work out if our bike is legal to ride on a restricted license?

• First, We need to know the weight of our bike. The law does not define how the weight is calculated, so we use the manufacturers stated weight for our make and model.
• Second, we need to know the power output of our bike. Again, we use the manufacturers quoted figure for our particular model.
• Third, we need to do some maths. Lucky for most of us, the maths bit is not too difficult!

So let’s get started!

Bike manufacturers quote power output in bhp (brake horse power).
The law talks kW (Kilowatts).
So we need to convert bhp to kW

Power Conversion:

1 kilowatt = 1.341022 brake horse power
25 kilowatts = 33.52555 bhp
(Note: The commonly accepted conversion is 1 kW = 1.34 bhp)

Example 1:  A Honda Deauville with a manufacturers claimed weight of 228 kilograms and a manufacturers claimed output of 55bhp.

First we convert bhp to kilowatts, so we divide the Deauville’s 55bhp power output by 1.341022 which tells us how many Kilowatts the bike is putting out:

• 55bhp divided by 1.341022 = 41.01 kW

To get the power to weight ratio, we divide the Kilowatt output (41.01) by the weight (228 kg):

• 41.01 divided by 228 = 0.179 kW/kg

So the power to weight ratio of our example Deauville is 0.179kW/kg

The law says 0.16 kW/kg, so our example bike at 0.179 kW/kg is over the limit, so not learner/restriction legal.

Example 2 : A Harley Davidson 883 Sportster with a claimed weight of 260kg & manufacturers claimed power output of 45bhp.

First we convert the Harley’s bhp to kilowatts:

• 45bhp divided by 1.341022 = 33.55kW

Now we divide the Kilowatt output by the weight:

• 33.55 divided by 260kg = 0.129 kW/kg

So the power to weight ratio of our example Harley is 0.129kW/kg

The law says 0.16 kW/kg, so our example Harley at 0.129 kW/kg is under the limit, so perfectly legal to ride on a restricted license.

Remember, the key word in the legislation is “or“. Either 33bhp “or” under 0.16kW/kg.
The law does not:
- limit the capacity of the engine
- specify how the weight of the bike is measured (see explanatory note)
- refer to the torque (pulling power) of the engine.

Bottom Line: So long as you can prove that you are within the power to weight ratio of 0.16 kW/kg you are legal on a restricted license. MAG recommends using the manufacturers claimed specifications for your make and model.

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