I hope I’m not repeating someone else’s post here, I looked for the topic but couldn’t find it, so sorry if you are already aware of this, But…
There is some scary legislation on the way from the EU. There is an epetition on the direct gov. website which you can sign to try and ensure that this gets at least discussed in the commons. How long would your commute be if the EU banned filtering?
This legislation could make biking a very expensive hobby and a lot less fun, details copied from the petition below.
Reject EU (Motorcycle) ‘Anti-tampering’ legislation, this included Art 18 & 52, that will prevent owners customising their bikes and/or using after market parts’Responsible department: Department for Transport
This will automatically become UK law soon and it means that bikers will not be able to customise their bikes in anyway or use cheaper (still safe & approved) ‘after market’ parts making it too expensive for the average rider – None of these directions make any sense at all and will not improve safety in anyway; just line the pockets of the large foreign bike manufactures.
Bikers wil be singled out by the police and stopped and emissions checked; this is discriminatory.
They also propose to ban filtering through traffic, which would be dangerous for air-cooled machines that could blow up in traffic and is the extreme of nanny state interference.
Banning of motorcycles over 7yrs old in Urban areas.
Clearly the EU intent to eradicate ALL motorcycles in the future and this is the thin end of the wedge…nanny state at its worst and it must be stopped right now!
This EU legislation must be rejected by the UK government
It’s about the worst bit of potential legislation to ever come out of the EU.
Ponder:
No aftermarket parts allowed.
Bikes will have to remain as “manufacturers stock specifications” throughout their life. (Even tyre make/type, luggage, lights, handlebars, brake lines, everything.)
Any change from “manufacturers stock specification” will immediately render a bike un-roadworth.
Interestingly, no one knows where this piece of potential legislation came from. It seems to have been dreamt up by non-elected EU officials in Strasbourg or Brussels. (Sarkosi fired his EU transport rep. when he found out what was going on after a few thousand French bikers petitioned him.)
THIS IS ONE PIECE OF POTENTIAL LEGISLATION THAT WE JUST HAVE TO FIGHT.
As usual, this petition is based on misinformation. I suggest people read the EU proposals and not MAG propaganda and the MCN articles. If your bike is legal it won’t affect you. If it is modified to make it illegal, it might. There is nothing in the proposals about never changing tyres or brake hoses. You can even change the profile of the tyre. What you can’t do is change the tyre to one that would never had got your bike through type approval in the first place.
Thanks Julian, a well reasoned reply which saved us an hour of trawling back to find your last well reasoned reply which saved us researching EU “law”.
Will the forthcoming Greek default and exit from the Euro have any effect on this?
Is MCN run by the Murdochs?
Are the Olympics really coming to London and will we still be able to buy tickets with Euros?
Will Angie Merkin shave her chest?
Can Sandy save BB 2.5 ?
Will the Neosarexa Gold we have ordered on Amazon prove effective?
Is god willing?
Will I complete the LAA half marathon in under 1hr 50 min?
Please help Julian, (NB: 42 is not the answer to any of the above) we wait with baited breath.
One of the interesting proposals I’ve read as part of this is to make ABS compulsory for learner bikes (125’s). I think that’s a good idea - they are the ones most likely to kill themselves, so ABS might help…
He is not right though Jets, well reasoned it might be, but correct it is not.
For instance:
“If your bike is legal it won’t affect you.”
Yes because the introduction of more legislation has never affected businesses, availability of parts, small businesses.
The introduction of a set of burdens onto small businesses and distributors won’t possibly affect them as they bring in parts and find out that because of their lack of conformity they are unable to sell them, not because they are dangerous, not because they present a potential risk, but simply because they have not been stamped by the correct office.
The cost to manufacturers of keeping up, of small businesses and distributors in keeping up…none of that will effect motorcyclists, cause it isn’t like we have seen the closure of a number of businesses over the past 3 years, not as if in my local area alone 4 different motorcycle businesses have gone out of business.
No I am sure the implementation of yet more red tape will have a beneficial effect on us all.
Good points. Certainly not defending unnecessary bureaucracy, or indeed supporting this proposed change, but I don’t think it helps to campaign based on imagination rather than fact. It simply allows the bureaucrats and politicians off the hook by allowing them to discount the arguments where they are valid because they are drowned out by arguments that are false.
Why is the DfT being petitioned? Surely the people to petition are the MEPs, and more specifically the Committees on Transport and Tourism and Internal Market and Consumer Protection who are actively considering them? (interesting to note that both are chaired by British MEPs)
If these proposals - which incidentally I have been unable to find in their entirety despite trawling through the European Parliament website for more time than I would have wished to - become EU law, then HMG/DfT will have no choice than to incorporate them into UK law otherwise the EC will take proceedings against it under the EC Treaty.
Remember those days when we used to live in a democracy? They have long gone now, unfortunately.
