If you ride dirt, chances are you have a pit bike. These days pit bikes aren’t just limited to the pits: pit bike racing and good ol’ stunting hoonery are great ways get down and dirty wherever you are. You’re probably asking yourself: are pit bikes street-legal?
With some simple changes to gearing and fuel delivery, even an old tired pit bike can go over 60 miles per hour – and it’s small enough to put in your car.
And it’s not even hard to make a pit bike street legal.
What’s not to love?
Completely street legal!
First, a Little History
While mini-motocross and mini-supermoto racing have been around for a long time, purpose-built pit bikes have not. In the old days, you had to modify some kid’s single-cylinder dirt bike to make a pit bike or mini racer. You had to change the suspension and tune the engine so the bike wouldn’t fall on its face trying to carry your full-size ass down to Wal-Mart to ride dank woolies with your mates.
If you have a pit bike and want to learn how to race it, you should definitely read about how to get started in mini-supermoto racing or mini-motocross racing.
Related Article: What Are Pit Bikes? Are They Street Legal?
Pit Bikes Are Nothing New
Of course, if you want the OG street legal pit bike experience, get yourself a Honda Z50 “monkey bike” from the 1960s or 70s. Those things were popular for decades on end, so it’s hard to imagine a world where we went decades without Honda building us a proper evolution of that basic formula.
That all changed around 2014, when manufacturers realized that the world wanted a factory street legal pit bike that was built to the standards of a modern sport bike.
The Honda Grom was the first in a huge wave of pseudo-pit bikes designed for use on public roads. We’re all so familiar with them these days, from riding on disused go-kart tracks to racing in full-custom indoor arenas, that I honestly don’t know what we did before the Grom came out.
Did we play with sticks?
Related Article: The Honda Grom Is An Honorary Supermoto
But as versatile as the Honda Grom is, it’s still a street bike. True pit bikes are not street legal from the factory. If you have or want a modern pit bike, like the ones made by Thumpstar or SSR, you probably want to ride it on the road sometimes as well – and you’re better off doing it legally.
Here’s how easy it is to build a street legal pit bike.
Getting the Right Parts
You can get all the parts to build a street legal pit bike that will pass most state inspections for less than $50.
The big ones. The idea is to turn an off-the-shelf mini-moto into a fully street legal pit bike. Think about all the things a normal motorcycle has: a headlight, tail light, horn, mirrors, and blinkers are the big ones. In most states you can pass your local inspection with a squeaky bicycle horn, bright flash light, and cheap mirrors from Wal-Mart. No, really! It’s your call whether you want to take the safety risk in the long term, but if you just want to get it registered fast this is one place you can save some money.
The small ones. Some pit bikes already have a brake light, so you’ll just need to buy a kit that has a blinker switch and blinkers. Some states require you to have a license plate light too, and of course you’ll need a way to mount your license plate where it’s visible, so you will need a white automotive LED and a license plate bracket as well.
The rest of it. Take the money you saved and buy yourself some wheels and tires, a wheelie bar, an exhaust, or a wrap to make your street legal pit bike stand out. If you plan on riding it often or at night, I suggest buying a higher-quality headlight, tail light, blinkers, horn, and mirrors from us, from eBay, or from your local speed shop. That way those legal bits will actually keep you safe, too.
Wheelie Fail!
It’s Hard to Title a Pit Bike
This is where most people skimp, and that causes problems.
See, riding on public roads with no license plate is asking for trouble, but getting a license plate and registration for a street legal pit bike isn’t easy. But it’s not actually street legal without them… you see the problem here. And as you might expect, getting one titled is a PITA.
The state might call it a moped. Clearly a pit bike is not a moped because mopeds can’t do sick stunts. As obvious as that may be, some states require any bike under a certain CC size to be registered as a moped. They may put speed restrictions on them, too, and since you’re actually riding a street legal pit bike those rules don’t make a lot of sense for you.
Even though you know dang well that your SSR 125 is NO moped, the DMV has no idea.
The DMV might take all day. If you title a pit bike yourself, be prepared to get the bike inspected, take your bill of sale to a DMV office, fill out registration paperwork and forms, prove you live in your state, give them your most recent tax receipts, show them pictures of the road-legal parts you installed, and then argue with them for 20 minutes over whether your pit bike is actually a moped.
As if that wasn’t enough, most local DMVs don’t have the ability to do that kind of thing in-house, so that either means driving all the way to your state capital or waiting for snail mail to deliver the paperwork for you. Some states like Minnesota even require you to drop by the Department of Natural Resources before going to the DMV so you can fill out even more forms. Holy cow…
That’s all not counting the time invested in finding the right forms, fees, and rules to follow in the first place.
Forget the DMV. Go Ride Your Street Legal Pit Bike!
Take the easy way instead. If your bike has an off-road title, MSO, or just a bill of sale, we can make a pit bike street legal and even register it for you! You don’t have to go to the DMV or even get an inspection.
We know your time is worth money.
Instead of messing with all that yourself, give Dirt Legal a call when you’re ready to get on the road. We’ve been doing this for a long time and our process is the quickest and most painless way to make a pit bike street legal. That’s backed by our 100% Money Back Guarantee – if we can’t make your pit bike street legal, you get a full refund.
You know those guys who get together on their pit bikes and run the streets? You know how they’re always worried about getting pulled over because their bikes aren’t legal? Not only will you be able to show off your sick stunting skills on your pit bike, but you won’t have to worry about Johnny Law raining on your parade because you’ll be riding a street legal pit bike.
Use your noggin: legalize your pit bike today with the help of Dirt Legal.
About the Author
As an automotive journalist, motorcycle racer, SCCA member, and collector of anything with wheels, Justin Dake makes a living out of being a professional car nerd. As a former employee of the State of Missouri, he knows how complex and convoluted state processes can be, and that experience underlies his role as the Editor of Dirt Legal.