Heading up to Texas and Arkansas. I have 2 questions I need help with: Whats the helment law in Texas & Arkansas ? Are motorcycle endorsments required in Texas & Arkansas ? Thanks

 

check the ama website. it is www.ama-cycle.org.

 

Don't know about the endorsment but no helment needed if you are 21 or older in Arkansas. www.asp.state.ar.us

A helmet is not required over 21 with successful completion of rider training or $10,000 medical insurance. www.txdps.state.tx.us

Safe Riding

 

Per H.O.G. Touring Handbook:

Arkansas: helmet required under 21, Texas helmet required under 21, no helmet required with successful completion of rider training or $10,000 in insurance coverage.

No mention of endorsements but most states honor the licensing of a person's home state. If you're moving to one of these states, check with the DMV for their requirements.

Personal choice not withstanding, common sense says wear one, IMHO.

 

I'm surprised that all states don't require a motorcycle endorsement.

 

No Helmet Law in Texas, but you do need a sticker and endorsement to verify your medical coverage before they will allow it

 

You do NOT need a sticker in Texas.

 

While it's not "law" to have the sticker, they can and WILL pull you over if you don;t have one and they feel like jack'n with ya. At that point you better be prepared to show proof of recent MSF and/or the additional $10k bodily injury insurance. The sticker is just a way of showing them you meet the reqirements w/o them pulling you over to "ask"....

 

No where in the law (TICF) does it state that you have to have a sticker, but it is certainly implied as it is mentioned immediately after the exemptions. The law does state that if you have a MSF cert. or insurance you have a defense against prosecution. Now, the way I read it is, if you don't have a sticker, you can get pulled over, ticketed, arrested, shackled, drawn and quartered, or otherwise detained or fined. Just because you are carrying proof of MSF or Ins. the officer does not have to acknowledge or interpret these documents if he does not wish to.

If you have the requirements you can go down and talk with the nice judge, provide the necessary paperwork and pay a court fee (even though you never went to court???). You will get your fine dismissed and all will be hunky dory and you will have wasted most of the afternoon. If you do have a sticker, you won't get pulled over (for no helmet) and you don't have to go to the hassle of getting it dismissed. If you are OoS you can't get a sticker (cycle not registered in Texas) but your OoS tags should clue in the officer to maybe give you the benefit of the doubt, but.....? (no disrespect to the LEOs intended. All of them I know are great and will work with you within reason.)

Right or wrong, the $5 sticker fee seems cheap. I'm not a lawyer and I've never run into this situation or anyone who has. I am just comparing it to another law (CHL) I know a little better that has the same type of wording and gray areas. Also, different parts of the State sometime read and enforce laws differently where there are gray areas...beware.

It also may be one of those laws that is not really inforced until you get hammered for something else. "Here's your speeding ticket and oh, by the way, you don't have a helmet or sticker so here's another ticket. Have a nice day." Kind of like watching COPs and they arrest the drug dealer and tack on charges for not paying taxes on his (illegal) income, running a business out of his home with no license, not having his dog on a leash, and he was watering his yard on the wrong day. YMMV.

If someone else has 1st hand proof elsewise please chime in and set us (me) straight. I'm just reading the law and that in itself is scary. You can read a law and argue it to no end but until someone produces case law, it will be interpreted several ways. I, for one, do not want to be the 1st to establish the case law. What the dealer, MSF instructor, you buddy, the LEO, or I says doesn't mean anything until case law is established or you can get a clear-cut answer from the State's Attorney General...GOOD LUCK.

As for out of state license...you got me on that. Generally states will honor the license but you have to follow the host state's laws (including helmet laws). Again I am speaking from the CHL law (and automobile laws) that I am more familar with which may all be apples and oranges. It's that the motorcycle laws read very much like the CHL laws. Same type of wording and similar gray areas. Maybe all the State's laws read this way......[:'(]

Texas Motorcycle laws - more complete
Laws

Here is the form for No-Helmet sticker
Helment Sticker Form


Texas Motorcycle Helmet Law.

Effective September 1, 1997, persons at least 21 years old are exempt from wearing a motorcycle helmet if they:

1) have successfully completed a motorcycle safety course,
OR
2) are covered by a health insurance plan providing at least $10,000 minimum in medical benefits for injuries incurred as a result of an
accident.

Motorcycle Safety Course. The Basic and Advanced Motorcycle Operator Training Courses meet the helmet exemption requirement. The Advanced Motorcycle Operator Training Course is recommended for experienced licensed motorcyclists

 

I've been stopped for an "insurance" check, and the ossifer said I needed a helmet without the sticker on my plate. I replied in a nice manner that I had taken the course years ago, and that I had well over the minimum insurance required, and that the sticker was not mandatory. I also pulled a reduced size copy of the course certificate, and a copy of the name of my health insurance to show him. He looked at them, gave them back, and said 'it's a good day for a ride.'

Be polite. Be nice. No problem.

If I was from a foreign land (anywhere else but Texas ) and I got a ticket for no helmet, I'd probably go on about my business, and simply forget about it.