Germany Wants To Ban Bikers.....

[MrLongbeard]

Everything has to be TuV approved in zee Fatherland as far as modifications to vehicles goes.

[PitaNaanRoti]

Im sure i had another post in this thread.

You used capitals - was too loud.

[crust]

They've always had a thing about noisy motorbikes on Sundays, noisy anythings. The area near where I lived in Frankfurt had a ban on lawn mowers, strimmers etc on a Sunday.

The road up to the television mast on top of a large hill/mountain outside Frankfurt had a Sunday speed limit. The loved me I had an Alfa 4>1 on my 750 and a failure to understand the concept of a Sunday speed limit or any speed limit on that road. Even the local bikers hated me, I had to park on my own on the other side of the car park.

If the UK Peak District National Park have their way they'll have one as well.

[Tomcat]

They've banned lorry movements on Sundays since years ago (except essential time critical supplies, for which you need to hold a special permit). If you're sat outside a bar on a Sunday night at 10.00 you can hear them all starting up and watch the procession restart. It's not so much a noise thing, like somebody said, they are very strict on TuV approval so noisy pipes are right out. It's more of a Catholic thing really, Sunday being a day of rest whether you like it or not. Whether they'll ever get round to banning private transport is another matter of course.

[The Spin Doctor]

Don't panic... actually, they don't - although it's been proposed by some of the states within the German federation, it isn't supported by the federal government. I covered this on my webcast back at the beginning of the month.

In May, several federal states publicly announced a proposed plan to limit the amount of noise created by motorcycles and in mid-May the German Bundesrat (literally ‘Federal Council’) called for stricter regulation of motorcycles, calling for 'urgent action'. The Bundesrat then called on the Bundestag - the Federal government - to adopt the motion and formulate relevant laws.

Motorcycle advocates, including the transport policy spokesman of the pro-business FDP party, say that such a ban is not necessary.

"Instead of prosecuting a few black sheep in the motorcycle community, these tighter controls would put us all under suspicion," Oliver Lukisc said.

Federal officials will consider the proposals in the coming weeks, but federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer has already voiced his opposition to the plan.

“We have sufficient, existing rules,” said Scheuer. “The bikers show up at the protests, their attitude towards trying to enforce bans. This is also my attitude. I’m not going to implement the decisions of the Federal Council, the Federal States.”

Scheuer had previously made it clear that he is against further restrictions for motorcycle riders.

[Supermofo]

Looks like Paris wants to join in too

[Hot_Air]

Don't panic...

While I'm not panicking, I reckon noise limits will be like speed limits: we'll have slowly creeping reductions.

I dislike loud pipes and find them counter-productive to the health of motorcycling. All noisy pipes achieve is to annoy people, and encourage anti-bike sentiment. And I wouldn't be surprised if anti-noise reactions creep - eventually - into anti-bike measures by local politicians in Germany or the UK.

Many of my local roads used to be National Speed Limit, and I would never have imagined they could be lowered: why would you lower a long straight road, with no side turnings, and few hazards? Now they are 40 limits. These things creep in, imperceptibly, and anti-noise could become anti-bike before we realise.

[weeksy]

Don't panic...

While I'm not panicking, I reckon noise limits will be like speed limits: we'll have slowly creeping reductions.

I dislike loud pipes and find them counter-productive to the health of motorcycling. All noisy pipes achieve is to annoy people, and encourage anti-bike sentiment. And I wouldn't be surprised if anti-noise reactions creep - eventually - into anti-bike measures by local politicians in Germany or the UK.

I'm perfectly fine with it... All bikes, standard exhausts, all day, every day, all good.

[Hot_Air]

I too am perfectly fine with standard exhausts, and I have a standard exhaust on my bike. But I'm not fine with the possibility of it leading to banning bikes from certain roads or on specific days.

[weeksy]

I too am perfectly fine with standard exhausts, and I have a standard exhaust on my bike. But I'm not fine with the possibility of it leading to banning bikes from certain roads or on specific days.

Why ? What's the odds of you being in that location at that particular day ? Surely as long as you know in advance you can plan accordingly ?

[crust]

Don't panic...

While I'm not panicking, I reckon noise limits will be like speed limits: we'll have slowly creeping reductions.

I dislike loud pipes and find them counter-productive to the health of motorcycling. All noisy pipes achieve is to annoy people, and encourage anti-bike sentiment. And I wouldn't be surprised if anti-noise reactions creep - eventually - into anti-bike measures by local politicians in Germany or the UK.

I'm perfectly fine with it... All bikes, standard exhausts, all day, every day, all good.

It would kill your threads stone dead

[Hot_Air]

[The Spin Doctor]

The point I was really making was that it's not 'Germany' but some local politicians in some of the Lands, not the federal government.

I do agree that we need to remain aware, but you may remember Martin Bangemann, who was going to ban bikes apparently... and AFAIK the first campaign in the UK to ban motorcycles was orchestrated by the Womens' Institute in about 1950!