Are electric dirt bikes street legal in Idaho?

The short answer

An electric dirt bike, as it comes out of the crate, is not street legal in Idaho. It is also not an electric bicycle, whatever the listing on a marketplace site called it. Under Idaho law it is an off-highway vehicle, which means it has to be numbered with the state, and the public roads it can legally use are limited and locally controlled.

That is not a mark against the bikes. It is simply what they are. Riders run into trouble when they buy expecting one category and end up owning another, so it is better to have this settled before the bike is in the truck.

What Idaho counts as an electric bicycle

Idaho Code § 49-106 defines an "electric-assisted bicycle" as a bicycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than seven hundred fifty (750) watts, and then sorts qualifying bikes into three classes by how the assist behaves:

• Class 1 — the motor assists only while the rider pedals, and cuts out at 20 mph.
• Class 2 — the motor can propel the bike on its own, but cannot assist past 20 mph.
• Class 3 — pedal-assist only, cutting out at 28 mph.

The label matters because of what follows from it. Idaho Code § 49-726 exempts electric-assisted bicycles and the people riding them from the state's financial responsibility, driver license, title, registration and license plate requirements. That is the entire prize, and it is why so much marketing copy stretches to reach the word "e-bike."

The exclusion runs the other way too. Idaho Code § 49-114 defines "motorcycle," "motorbike" and "motor-driven cycle," and each of those definitions ends by carving electric-assisted bicycles out. The legislature drew a hard line between the two worlds on purpose.

Why the pedal test decides it

Both conditions have to be met. The electric dirt bikes we sell meet neither. They have footpegs, not pedals, because you ride them standing on the pegs through rough ground. And they are built to make considerably more power than a 750-watt bicycle hub motor, which is the whole reason a kid can climb a hill on one.

So the e-bike exemptions in § 49-726 are unavailable. Nothing about the bike is illegitimate; it just lands in a different part of the code.

What it is instead: an off-highway vehicle

Idaho Code § 67-7101(9) defines a "motorbike" as any self-propelled two-wheeled motorcycle or motor-driven cycle, excluding tractors, designed for or capable of traveling off developed roadways and highways. There is no mention of engines, displacement or fuel anywhere in it. An electric trail bike fits that description exactly as well as a two-stroke does.

Subsection (10) of the same statute folds motorbikes into "off-highway vehicle" alongside ATVs, UTVs and specialty off-highway vehicles, and everything downstream follows from that: numbering, equipment rules, and where you may operate. We cover the paperwork in the Idaho OHV registration guide.

Where you can actually ride

Trails and public land

This is what the bikes are for. Once the machine carries a current certificate of number, you can ride designated routes on Caribou-Targhee National Forest and BLM ground. Which routes are open is decided by the land manager, not the state, so the authority is the Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map for the district you are in. Those maps are free and they are the document a ranger will hold you to.

City and county roads

Idaho Code § 49-426 opens highways that are not state highways and not interstate highways to off-highway vehicle use, with speed capped at the posted limit or 45 mph, whichever is lower. Cities, counties and highway districts can close or limit roads under their jurisdiction by ordinance, so the local rule is the one that counts.

Riding on those roads is not free of paperwork. It takes a restricted vehicle license plate under Idaho Code § 49-402(4), with the OHV number sticker affixed to that plate, plus a valid driver license and liability insurance. Interstates and full access-controlled state highways stay closed regardless.

Highway 39 runs past our door, and it is a state highway. Assume it is not available to you.

Private land

Idaho's numbering requirement reaches private land too, with narrow exemptions for agricultural use and snow removal. Owning the acreage does not exempt the bike.

The conversion route, and whether it is worth it

Idaho does have a path to a plate. Under § 49-114, a "converted motorbike" may be titled and registered as a motorcycle once the owner certifies that conversion components have been installed making it compliant with the federal motor vehicle safety standards. The mechanism is ITD form 3018, a self-certification affidavit covering standards for lamps and reflective devices, mirrors, brake hoses and fluids, tires and wheels, brake systems, and controls and displays.

Done properly you end up with a titled, plated, insured motorcycle, ridden by someone holding a motorcycle endorsement. That is a real option for a full-size machine that somebody intends to commute on.

For a trail bike it usually is not the right call. The conversion only starts if the machine can be titled at all, which depends on the paperwork that came with it from the manufacturer. Ask about the certificate of origin before you buy if a plate is your goal, rather than after you have discovered the bike cannot get one.

What this means when you are buying

Budget for the OHV sticker. Decide where the bike will actually be ridden before you choose a size. If the honest answer is "up and down our road," find out what your city or county has designated before you assume it is allowed. And if what you really want is something to take on the street, say so early, because that is a different machine.

We would rather explain this at the counter than take a return three weeks later. If you are shopping for a young rider, the rules for riders under 18 and our sizing guide are the next two things to read.

Common questions