How long does it take to learn to ride a motorcycle?

A couple of days to learn the basics; a lifetime of constant improvement.

Learning to ride a motorcycle PROPERLY and SAFELY can take quite a while. But there's no way to tell how long a particular individual will take to learn. For sure, take the Motorcycle Safety Course available in your area. In most places it's a requirement in order to gain your motorcycle endorsement. It will give you only the absolute bare basics on how to ride and handle a bike though. After that there's no way around time in the saddle to build your skills and confidence. Find some friends to ride with. Start out in big open areas with little or no traffic, like a parking lot after business hours and practice starting and stopping, left and right circles, and figure eights. DO NOT start out on a sport bike. Get yourself a nice little cruiser and take things slowly as you improve your riding skills. And buy a used bike to start out on because you WILL drop it, and you won't be so pissed off about dropping a used bike as a new one. Best of luck to you. Riding is great fun and great therapy.

There are three things you need to know: 1. The Traffic Code. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic#Rules_of_the_road 2. Road safety. 3. How to control the bike. The first two you can learn at home but learning to control the bike requires hands-on experience. Starting on a 125cc motorcycle (geared), it takes about two hours to learn how to handle the bike. After about four hours of safe off-the-road practice at a training center you'll be ready to start riding; maybe not on busy roads but it's enough experience to start riding on quieter roads. After a total of about 8-10 hours of practice, you'll be feeling fairly comfortable and confident; after that it'll take around 6 months to get to a point where you are near-enough fully competent. But as James said, you never stop learning.

It just takes a few hours or days to learn how to ride it..but it takes time to adjust with the traffic...i have successfully did it in 1 month which you too can do...if you think you can you can..

You never stop learning when you ride a bike. You come across new situations everyday and have to use the knowledge you gain from previous experiences.

take a motorcycle safety course (MSF) they will teach you alot, im going to be taking myn this year and SEE if i want to ride motorcycles, if i do ill go buy one the day after :P

easier if you know how to ride a bicycle, coz u just need to know balancing, just that you don't need to pedal at all, 2 days would be enough

If you can ride a bicycle, about 10 more minutes. But that's just barely riding. A very long time to get the automatic reactions you need to really be safe.