Son and friend have decided to go to Paris this weekend, one has an aprilia rs4125 the other one a cg125. Do you have any essential advice for them that I could pass on? (I’m a newbie myself so not best place for advice)
Tell whoever is on the aprilia to make sure they have breakdown cover
If they are riding on L Plates in the UK, they will need to check whether they can ride in France at all under their license (it used to be a no, might have changed). Even if they can they may find insurance doesn’t cover abroad (if they are l platers) and they also may not be able to use the main route from Calais to Paris (A26 and A1). All in all, I think the answer will be “non”.
Good call on the Breakdown cover
Just assuming here because they’re on 125’s but they do have full UK Driving Licenses?
L-plate riders aren’t insured abroad on UK insurance - this has been on before.
if i recall, no. L platers can not ride their bikes abroad
Hire a trailer?
Avoid Paris at all cost, find somewhere nice to go. 
When riding or driving abroad you can use any full entitlements you have on your license. No country accepts another country’s provisional entitlements so you can never ride or drive abroad on L plates. The fact that French drivers can ride a 125 is irrelevant as it is the full entitlements on your license that matters, not some hypothetical entitlement based on a license you don’t have issued by a country you are not resident in.
I don’t think you can ride in France on L’s I remember something about. I could be wrong.
Even though Carole Nash thought it would good to tell me I had free European breakdown cover!
But good luck whatever they do
At top of all licence issues the thing to remember or to know is that France had added some required hiviz additions to the driver details here
Hope it helps.
R
That seemingly has changed…
“January 2013 - the French government announced that the law that made reflective equipment compulsory for motorcycle riders and passengers in France from 1 January has been abolished.”
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/driving-abroad-whats-new-2012.html
Licensing aside riding all the way to Paris in the current conditions on a 125 will be miserable. I rode to Holland one evening (set off at about 21:00 UK and got to my parents house at 5am Dutch time having ridden all night) in the rain and it was just an endurance test. It certainly wasn’t fun.
Did you read the article under my link? Guess not.
French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, had decided to scrap his predecessor’s ludicrous proposals for all motorcyclists to wear any form of reflective clothing while riding their motorbike or scooter. Unfortunately, there has been for some time another (stupid) piece of legislation forcing all bikers in France, whether residents or visitors, to wear a helmet with reflective stickers on, and this one has not been scrapped.
20 odd years ago I was returning to London on my Z550 one very cold day after Xmas & was using the hot water & a hand drier at Toddington service to try & defrost my numb hands & got to talking to another biker doing similar. He said he was also heading back to work after spending Xmas back home with his folks & he’d set off from Manchester a few hours earlier that day on his CG125. I presumed he was likewise heading back to London so said “well at least you haven’t got much further to go then” He laughed & said he was working for DEC & was based at Sophia Antipolis on the South coast of France!
The helmet reflective thing has been nominally a legal requirement in France for a number of years, but I’ve never yet seen anyone with the reflectors fitted to their lids, helmet manufacturers don’t even fit them to lids sold in France.
Guessed correct :doze: And glad you pointed out that the AA website is not clear.
So to avoid “a nasty policeman in a bad mood” while visiting France one needs reflective stickers that cant be removed without destroying your helmet…
Got any source for said stickers?
My ‘essential’ advice for a 125 is
a) stick to the slow lane on the dual carriageways ie the rightmost lane, and don’t bother trying to overtake lorries as they will probably catch you up on the hills
b) use your mirrors before leaving the slow lane as there is zero patience for being held up on the continent
c) if the vehicle behind you is indicating left, they want to get past now and you’ve already made the mistake of not doing b)
d) if you’re taking a ferry use a glove to protect the seat when it gets lashed down to the deck by straps.
Have they done any longish runs in the UK? If not, why not suggest they test out the bikes, riding gear, luggage, their ability to do long runs - on a weekend trip say to Newquay? Getting it wrong in the UK is a bit easier than getting it wrong overseas. Do a couple of such trips and then when they have learned what they need to learn (Including proper wet gear / how to use bungees / under layers / decent gloves etc)…Paris next, then Morocco, soon they will be doing a London to Sydney trip