Bollocks has it. -- Champ ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle To email me, neal at my domain should work.
Frankly Champ is talking through his arse. Get caught by French Plod now doing 1XX MPH on British plates and they can make you *very* sorry. Cab might like to comment on this. Didn't stop a bunch of us doing 135 on Tog tour from Calais but I was aware of the potential consequences and quite prepared to evade capture if shit happened.
The "Gendarmerie" got several Subar Impreza WRX two or three years ago: http://blog.kornemuz.com/?2006/03/23/104-livraison-de-subaru-impreza-a-la-gendarmerie
Can != Do. They've had wide-ranging powers for quite some time now, but like the UK plod's ability to confiscate and crush your car, it's very rarely applied, AFAIK. -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com) \`\ | /`/ `\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10 `\|/` `
You're missing a couple of points. d) There are quite a few speed cameras on N and larger D roads, e.g. http://www.controleradar.org/alsace.html One of them's very close to us and I've been flashed by it a few times, although I generally try to avoid it these days, just in case they ever decide to follow-up the Swiss plates. e) Also you'll often find the mobile units in smaller villages with unrealistically low limits. The road at the bottom of our drive used to be a 70kph limit, between two villages, but a couple of years ago went to 50, as they'd built some new flats along it. Clearly it still feels like a 70, so there's a great opportunity for plod, and there's also a couplf of pull-off areas they can semi-hide in, with just the man and his tripod-mounted speed gun in view. These guys will levy instant fines and escort you to the nearest cash point if you haven't enough readies on you. f) There are a few unmarked cars around with cameras mounted in their rear tailgates or similar. One around here is a crappy little Renault Clio, but they use it in conjunction with other units who will give chase if necessary. -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com) \`\ | /`/ `\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10 `\|/` `
I don't know about confiscation, though I realised it was a possible but: Speeding by more than 50 km/h Fine : 1500 euros Second offence speeding by more than 50 km/h Jail : 3 months Fine : 3750 euros Now I don't think Champ would consider a £1200 fine a matter of no consequence, and you are going *nowhere* until you pay up. If you cannot pay up they will hold you locally until you do. Of course the Gendarme has discretion. What do you think they would have decided on had they pulled (say) 5 of us for 88 km/h over while generally hooning and white lining.
Well *obviously* I wasn't on a bike registered to myself or anyone in particular. I might be a **** but I'm not a stupid ****. That only takes care of cameras. Had they got me into a dead end or out of juice my passport would have done the talking.
**** me, Kiran & I did significantly more on the way back, imagine they prolly couldn't have caught us anyway
For tuned R1, they got phones and radios. Oddly, they used the WRX on motorways rather than twisty backroads.
As can British police. But it hasn't changed your behaviour, and it wouldn't change mine. -- Champ ZX10R | GPz750turbo | GSX-R 600 racer My advice as your attorney is to buy a motorcycle To email me, neal at my domain should work.
In 1981, I went to my first Bol, on my XS650, with Niall on his spankers new 350LC. We did the Route Napoleon through the mountains south of Grenoble. And overhauled three LePlods on their BMW R80RTs.... And they were doing a legal 90kph. And we droned behind them for a few miles, and then I got bored, cogged it down, and blasted past. Niall said later he thought I'd gone mad, and waited for the blue lights and sirens. But LePlod turned up the wick as well. And we had a *fabulous* thrash for about 20 miles. When it came for us to turn off for the road to the Bol, they all tooted and waved.
That's me up against a challenge then because I'm taking my wanky old K100 over there in a fortnight. They're welcome to have a go and it'll be evenly matched bikes so may the fastest rider win.
Same rules as in any country, I'd have thought. As is with everywhere, it depends upon the mood of the copper, the riding conditions, the time of year (holiday rush - start and end), etc, etc. On the outside, yes, they can confiscate your bike and bang you up. There have been a few cases of this, but I believe the ones reported are extreme.
That's the rule in general. I think it's wrong to have them on the autoroutes though. Especially as they're touted as "for your safety" and it's on a nice long straight. Don't count on it. During the holidays, they're like flies to a piece of shit. Especially on the nationals. Again, don't count on it. You may see them less, compared to the UK, but the buggers are there.
Plod may not have, but they've got much more in the way of tools to do their job on the roads. On the run up to the French run [1], I stopped off to fill up. For the next 15 mins, I counted at least 7 bike coppers pull into the service station with cages following them. Each cage went up to the police van to be processed and the bike coppers fucked off to do the whole thing again. All but one, where foreigners (most were Belgian, with at least one UK plate). [1] I counted 3 fucking radars on the A1 (two new).
Bugger, let's try again. Especially as they're touted as "for your safety" and they're generally on nice long straights.
Yay, **** 'em. I've been here three days and, today, had to do my first emergency stop in fucking years. I suspect it may be the first of many.
Two came past us on the road up to Valcarlos a couple of years back. A cheery wave, and then they fucked off at a fair old lick. Just two bikers out having fun, to all intents and purpose.
