[cmonstanley]

just heard the european parliament are i know ive pasted it but all modifications are going to be illegal and flourescent jackets compulsery
real European issues that we stillneed to draw attention to are:

The Anti tampering Regulation: Specifically Article 18which wants to stop all modifications to complete power train, from airbox tocontrolling the rear tyre profile.
Compulsory ABS. If we can't stop this, we must get aswitch so that we have an option in difficult conditions where ABS doesn'tfunction well.
Automatic headlights on- passing the blame for poorobservation on to us.
OBD. On Board Diagnostics so that easy roadside checkscan be made of our emissions and so that constant readouts of engineperformance can be obtained. Expensive, complicated and with the threat, ratherlike a tacho, of identifying past riding style...
RMI. Repair and Maintenance Information. Rather thankeeping it hidden and available for huge expense, there is a chance thatmanufacturers will be forced to provide ECU codes etc for a fee. What that feeis remains to be seen.
The very worrying article 52: "If systems,components or seperate technical units on a list in a delegated act to thisregulation, have a dual use, for vehicles intended exclusively for racing onroads and for vehicles intended for use on public roads, they may not be soldor offered for sale to consumers" So if your K&N filter can fit a CBRrace bike and a CBR road bike, the best way to police that, is to make itillegal to sell the filter in Europe.The Delegated Acts are the most scarything, as they are the lists and details drawn up by the unelected and we won'tget to see what they are including until after the Regulation has been passed!
In solidarity with the French we need to be drawingattention to their recent government proposal to ban all bikes over 7 years oldfrom an urban area and to make the wearing of day-glo/ reflective clothingcompulsory.
Full sleeve day-glo clothing for riders and passengershas been proposed in the Irish Parliament too.
All these issues lead to the same thing, that we musttake the blame for the incompetence of other road users. And while the emergencystop has been removed as a compulsory element of the UK car driving test, weare jumping through hoops with ill-judged UK interpretations of EU licencingdirectives.
Another EU licencing Directive is on its way (3DLD) tostep the bike licencing system still further and the DfT and DSA still haven't sorted the consultation process, even though it is meant to be in law by nowand enacted January 2013.