What Can You Actually Ride on an A2 Licence?

The A2 licence is the sensible middle rung of the British system, and it is also the one that generates the most confusion in the showroom by a distance. People arrive knowing they are allowed 47 horsepower and assuming that is the whole story. It is about a third of it.

Here is what the rules actually say, what a restriction involves, and which bikes are worth looking at.

The three rules, not one

To be legal on an A2 licence, a bike has to satisfy all three of these at once.

One: no more than 35kW. That is 47 horsepower in the money everyone actually uses. This is the rule people know.

Two: no more than 0.2kW per kilogram. A power to weight ceiling, which exists to stop somebody putting 35kW into something that weighs as much as a bicycle. In practice it means that if a bike makes the full 35kW it has to weigh at least 175kg. Almost everything sensible clears this without you thinking about it, but it is the rule that quietly rules out a few of the lighter supermotos.

Three: if it is restricted, it must not have made more than double the limit as standard. This is the one that catches people. A restricted bike is only A2 legal if the unrestricted version produced 70kW or less, which is about 94 horsepower.

That third rule is why the conversation usually ends badly. Somebody has decided they want a particular bike, has read that you can restrict things, and has not checked what it made in the first place.

What that rules out

Take two bikes off our own forecourt as an illustration.

A Yamaha MT-07 makes about 74 horsepower as standard. That is comfortably under the 94 ceiling, so it can be restricted to 35kW and ridden legally on an A2. At 184kg it clears the power to weight rule as well. This is why it is one of the most popular A2 bikes in the country.

A Yamaha MT-09 makes about 117. There is no restriction kit in the world that makes it A2 legal, because it started too far up. Same manufacturer, same family of naked bikes, completely different answer. A Ducati Hypermotard 821 is out for exactly the same reason.

So the first question is never “can this be restricted”. It is “what did it make before anyone touched it”.

What restricting actually involves

On most modern bikes it is an ECU change, sometimes with a throttle body restrictor or a different throttle tube depending on the model. On older machines it can be a physical washer in the throttle body or an inlet restrictor.

Three things matter more than the mechanics.

It has to be documented. You need a certificate of conformity from whoever carried out the restriction, confirming what the bike now produces. Keep it with the V5. Without it you have a bike that is restricted according to you and unrestricted according to anyone who asks.

Your insurer needs to know. A restriction is a modification, and it is one that changes whether you are legally entitled to ride the thing at all. Declare it. A rider on an A2 licence with an undeclared restriction on a bike that would otherwise be over the limit is in a genuinely bad position if there is ever a claim, and “I had the kit fitted, I just did not mention it” is not a defence anyone wants to be running.

It costs money twice. Fitting a kit is not free, and taking it off again when you get your full licence usually is not either. Factor both ends in before you decide that restricting a bigger bike is cheaper than buying a smaller one outright.

The alternative: bikes that need no restriction at all

There is a whole category of machine that arrives from the factory under 35kW, needs no kit, no certificate and no conversation with your insurer beyond the usual, and can be sold on to the next A2 rider without any of it being undone.

This is the option that gets overlooked, usually because the bikes are smaller and the numbers look less exciting on paper.

A Kawasaki Z250SL makes about 27 horsepower and weighs 148kg. Nothing to restrict, nothing to declare, and it is one of the best first bikes going for reasons that have nothing to do with power. We have written about why buying less bike is often the smarter move.

A Royal Enfield Meteor 350 is around 20 horsepower and is not pretending otherwise. It is a relaxed, low, easy thing to ride and it will do everything most riders need for the first couple of years.

A Honda CB500F, CB500X or CBR500R makes 47 horsepower as standard, which is to say it is built to sit exactly on the A2 ceiling. These are probably the most complete answer to the question if your budget stretches to them, because you get the full allowance with no compromise and no paperwork.

A BMW F 750 GS is a slightly different case: it makes 77 horsepower as standard, so it needs restricting, but BMW sold it with a factory A2 option and the restriction is well understood and properly documented. If you want something bigger to sit on, that is the sensible route rather than a generic kit on something obscure.

How to check a specific bike

If you are looking at a bike and cannot find a straight answer, go in this order.

Find the standard power output for that exact model year, not the model. Manufacturers change output between generations more often than you would think, and a 2013 and a 2017 of the same bike can land on different sides of the line.

If it is over 70kW as standard, stop. It cannot be made legal.

If it is between 35kW and 70kW, it needs a restriction kit and a certificate. Check that a kit actually exists for it before you buy, because for some of the more obscure machines nobody makes one.

If it is already 35kW or under, check the kerb weight against the 0.2kW/kg rule and you are done.

And if you are buying a bike that somebody else has already restricted, ask to see the certificate before you hand over any money. No certificate means you are buying an unrestricted bike with a story attached.

Where A2 sits in the system

Quickly, since this is where the confusion usually starts.

A CBT with L plates gets you a 125cc bike making no more than 11kW, for two years, with no pillion and no motorways. It is not a licence, it is a certificate.

An A1 licence is a full licence for the same class of machine: 125cc, 11kW. No L plates, pillions allowed. Available from 17.

An A2 licence is the 35kW category described above, available from 19, taken as a full test on a bike that meets the A2 spec.

A full A licence removes the restrictions. You can take it from 24 by Direct Access, or from 21 by progressive access if you have held an A2 for two years, which means a shorter test rather than starting again.

The two year clock on progressive access starts when you pass your A2, so if you are 19 now, passing A2 sooner rather than later is worth something in itself.

If you are working out which course you need, our rider training page covers the options and we can point you at an instructor.

The bit of advice nobody wants

Most riders coming up to their A2 want to know the biggest bike they can legally get away with. It is the wrong question.

A restricted 74 horsepower bike does not handle like a 74 horsepower bike. It handles like a heavy bike with the top taken off, and you carry the weight, the seat height and the insurance group of the full-power machine for two years while getting a fraction of what makes it good. Meanwhile the thing you are actually short of in your first two years is not power. It is low speed control, road reading and confidence.

There is a decent argument for spending the A2 years on something light that you can use completely, and putting the money you saved towards the bike you actually want when the licence lets you have it.

Come and talk it through if you like. Have a look at what is in stock, or message us and tell us what licence you are on and what you want to do with the bike. We will tell you straight whether something works for you, including when the answer is that it does not.