I have just been reliably informed (by a magazine, not a friend) that the French have just made it obligatory to have a fluorescent waistcoat with you on your bike. You don't have to wear it until you have an accident or breakdown. Then your first thought is supposed to be to get the waistcoat on as fast as possible to avoid being run over. This is a pathetic bureaucratic piece of legislation, dreamed up in some office by some fool who has never touched a bike in his or her life. Needless to say, I don't intend complying with it. There is nowhere to put a fluorescent waistcoat on a 999, and I don't see why I should be carrying a useless piece of luggage. You will be aware that France is the only European country, to my knowledge, where all bikes are still limited, supposedly, to 100 bhp. You'd have hoped that there would be some Euro harmonisation, but it seems that Brussels is deaf if anyone has managed to come up with any legislation that is more stupid than their own. Anyway, thought I ought to give you a heads up. I can only think that the gendarmerie will enforce the law if you have pissed them off doing something else, in which case they may ask to see your waistcoat and if you haven't got one, give you an additional fine. I'll risk it. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Nope. Just come back in. Last time out, it was to be obligatory for bikers to wear the jacket, but that caused such a fuss that they backtracked. So this time, they are just saying you have to have one. You also have to have one in your car. You are also meant to have two alcohol breath-testers. This is because, you always need at least one, so if you ever used that one, you'd suddenly be illegal - hence you need two. They have sell-by dates, so you can reckon to be making frequent purchases of something you will never use. Once again, will this silliness be enforced? Probably not but it could be. You just can't tell.
It's a classic example of "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" politics. The French government doesn't know what to do about the economy, or can't face doing it, so it introduces pointless legislation like this to give the impression that "we are doing something".
It will no doubt reinvigorate the flagging flouro jacket industry, thus providing the French economy with a very welcome fillip!
Flagging?! Do you not come out of your home? You can't move for some type of hi viz clothing these days..
But there is no penalty for not having the breathalyser, or so I am led to believe. This sounds like an annual story, a bit like spotting the Loch Ness Monster. I am surprise you bit Glidd. A colleague of mine who is French recently told me that the law restricting power to 100 HP was about to lifted providing the bike has ABS.
My neighbor, (multi rider,) also informed me that the French are abolishing the 106 bhp limit next Jan. We will have to see..........
I seem to be signed up to a newsletter from the organisation organising the upcoming bike test rides. It was they who published an article about this new French requirement, a significant one for the French speaking Swiss, as I imagine most Swiss bikers will find themselves in France during the season on at least one occasion. So it won't be an annual story, more like a new law which has now taken effect (unless the bolshy French bikers all demonstrate against it en masse which squashed the obligatory wearing of the fluo jacket - which I wouldn't have complied with either).
You're right about that. There was to be an €11 fine, but it's been scrapped. So if you don't have one, they just tell you you've been a naughty boy or girl and ought to get one. Daft.
I am aware that idiots quote crap on forums and try to persuade others that it is true and then go on to call French legislation stupid, when the stupid ones are the people who believe rubbish like this in the first place. The power limit goes in January, but it is left over from a bygone era, just as the UK has strange legislation that you need an MOT and road tax on a motorcycle, we have neither in France and French riders think it strange that the UK does. There is no need to carry jackets, spare bulbs, breathalyser kits, spare wheels or any other rubbish here. I moved here from the UK ten years ago and my wife and I have four bikes between us. In that ten years I have seen so many stories telling people what they need in France/Germany/Spain etc and all of those stories emanate in the UK! As for Switzerland, why would any modern country ban flexwing microlights? Swiss owners have to keep their microlight in France!
I am aware that forums will inevitably throw up trolls who resort to ad hominem remarks and can't be bothered to check the facts, preferring to brand those views that don't coincide with their own delusions "crap". It's just one of the hazards of posting on forums. So, not "crap" so much as legislation that has been in place for the last 30 years. It's good to know that under pressure from the EU, this measure which has not been shown to have any incidence in reducing motorcycle accidents, is about to bite the dust. You can find out more about this crap here: Fin de la loi des 100 chevaux The French deem that there are other ways of financing the roads, clearly. They prefer motorway tolls, for example, to road tax. It's a choice. MOTs are meant to ensure that vehicles are in a roadworthy condition, with functioning brakes, suspension, lights. etc. The idea being to reduce accidents. France, with a far higher road accident rate than the UK, despite having the same population in more than twice the space, doesn't appear to be the country you'd want to take lessons from on this score. You are clearly misinformed: Sécurité routière : la FFMC pas favorable au gilet jaune (...) - Moto Magazine - leader de l’actualité de la moto et du motard Let me quote: "Côté 2-roues, on retient l’obligation faite aux conducteurs de 2RM de détenir un gilet fluo (sans port permanent) au même titre que les automobilistes et sous réserve d’une diminution de la sanction jusque là disproportionnée », commente la Fédération française des motards en colère (FFMC), membre de la commission 2-roues du CNSR." Le gilet fluo est-il obligatoire en moto pour 2013 ? Équipements à bord d'un véhicule : gilet de sécurité, éthylotest, casque... - Service-public.fr That will be apart from the stories emanating from the French press and appearing on French websites, then. Probably because Switzerland is a small, densely populated country and having people fly very slowly, low over your house, rubbernecking into your garden as you sunbathe, or try to enjoy a quiet apéritif is a pain in the arse. I get the odd microlight doing just that from time to time as the border isn't very far away. It doesn't bother me, but if it was several every weekend, it would. Plenty of room to do that in France where it annoys no one.
As I said, the legislation in all of your links refers to stuff that was proposed 3 years ago and dropped since. Private roads in France as in the UK (M6 toll) do charge for their use but have noting to do with road tax. The power limit was a very real EU proposal back in the '80s and many manufacturers stuck to it. Tell me how fast is a flexwing microlight (forbidden in Switzerland) and a fixed wing group A aircraft - say a Jodel (allowed in Switzerland). You obviously don't know. We were out on the bikes today without all of the rubbish that some would have you believe that you need to carry. With us were two UK registered bikes, visitors, who also do not have any of the rubbish. Don't bother answering as I will not bother with scaremongering.
There are times in life when you feel you are talking to a brick wall. This is one of them. The things mentioned in the links haven't been dropped: you still need breathalysers in your car (although not on your bike, apparently) and you now need a fluorescent jacket on your bike (but don't need to wear it permanently as was originally mooted). If this isn't the case, point me to the information that proves your point. The 100 bhp restriction became law in France in 1985. I don't know of any other European countries that adopted it on a compulsory basis, though I'm not saying there weren't any. Voluntary adoptions are not law. I'm not defending road tax or tolls. Taxation systems have nothing to do with the simple information I was imparting. The Brits choose road tax, the French choose to have motorway tolls. So what? I couldn't care less about the max speeds of different aircraft. All I know is that microlights can fly very slowly and make a lot of noise. The Swiss have decided to ban them. So what? The Swiss allow base-jumping, most other countries don't. What has any of this got to do with the price of fish? Had you read the thread, I was quite clear that I personally wouldn't bother with carrying the fluo jacket, whether it is required by law or not. I don't stick to the French 90 kph speed limit in the middle of nowhere either. The only information I was imparting was what the law was. What you decide to do about it is entirely up to you (and me). Seems to me you are trying to pick an argument (for some strange reason) where there is little to argue about. Perhaps you are just argumentative.
