The technical inspection of motorcycles and scooters, compulsory from April 15, risks forcing many two-wheelers to go to the garage (AFP/Archives/-)
The technical inspection of motorcycles and scooters, compulsory from April 15, risks forcing many two-wheelers to go to the garage.
The more than three million category L vehicles, i.e. scooters, motorcycles, tricycles or carts, have until now escaped the control, introduced in 1992 for cars. They will now have to be checked every three years.
At the headquarters of the Autovision group, in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis), Thursday March 14, a trainer demonstrated to journalists this control which should take around thirty minutes, for a price yet to be specified. This is 82 euros on average for a gasoline car.
– Counter-visit –
Brakes, handlebars, lights, leaks, tires: vehicles must go through 78 checkpoints, a little less than cars.
87 major failure points require a second inspection, i.e. returning within the following two months with the repaired vehicle.
The motorcycle checked on Thursday did not pass the test. This Yamaha MT10 was however recent, and owned by the young president of Autovision.
Brakes, handlebars, lights, leaks, tires: vehicles must go through 78 checkpoints, a little less than cars (AFP/Archives/Joël SAGET)
But the catalyst of the powerful Yamaha had been removed (this increases the performance but also the pollution of the vehicle, and it is illegal), and a damaged and protruding piece of bodywork risked causing injury: it will have to come back.
This is what risks happening during this first visit for certain scooters and motorcycles, never checked until now.
According to a study published in 2022 by the BCA expertise firm on damaged vehicles, 7% of two-wheelers had undergone modifications making them “non-compliant and dangerous” (before the accident). And 8% of mopeds were notably considered to be in a “dangerous” condition.
The 6,700 technical inspection centers will not accept all category L vehicles because this requires specific equipment and particular training.
At Autovision, half of the 1,000 centers are ready to welcome two-wheelers. The majority of inspectors already had a motorcycle license, which accelerated the training. The Dekra network has trained 1,200.
Control of noise but also of vehicle restraint, often bypassed by scooters, will not be effective until summer 2025.
– Call for boycott –
Vehicles registered before January 1, 2017 are the first to undergo inspection, before the end of 2024.
It took ten years and numerous appeals to enforce this 2014 European directive in France, already implemented almost everywhere on the continent.
A first implementing decree was taken by the government in 2021 before Emmanuel Macron buried it the next day, anxious not to “annoy the French”.
The only exceptions: very old motorcycles (before 1960) or used in sporting competitions such as enduro or trial.
The Federation of Angry Bikers (FFMC) calls for a boycott of this technical inspection which it considers expensive and useless, because it is mainly visual (AFP/Archives/Joël SAGET)
The measure remains contested by many bikers in France, a country particularly fond of two-wheelers.
The Federation of Angry Motorcyclists (FFMC) calls for a boycott of this technical inspection which it considers expensive and useless, because it is mainly visual.
Accidents are generally not due to the condition of the vehicle, well maintained by the bikers, but rather to the state of the road, insists the general delegate of the FFMC, Didier Renoux.
Furthermore, the control would not reduce noise or pollution, because “anyone who knows he is at fault will do everything to hide or comply when he presents his machine”, by putting back an exhaust pipe. of origin, for example, according to Mr. Renoux.
Drivers without up-to-date technical inspections risk a fine of 135 euros or immobilization of the vehicle.
The FFMC called on motorcyclists to denounce centers which carry out technical inspections of motorbikes and to boycott them also when they have a car.
The association is planning demonstrations on the eve of the entry into force of the control. And the Council of State must still examine the merits of an appeal filed by the FFMC against the system.
© 2024 AFP
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