Is This Really Happening In Europe?

A Belgian chap over on the Speed Talk forum posted this a few months ago:

"The gov here implemented tech inspection every 2 years for oldtimers between 30 and 50, every 5 years when older than 50. The sad thing is that all mods are banned. They may only be original.
Right now about 50 % of all oldtimers here are banned from the road as a consequence. Mine included (for the only reason that I have an ITB fuel injection on the engine - rest is original...)

It sure is a victory for the purists.

I really start to hate the EU which is at the basis of this regulation. It has become sort of a communistic regime..."


Aghast, I asked:

"Does this leftist nonsense apply to motorbikes, as well? And what's going to happen to all those gorgeous performance modded 2CVs in France, and all those gorgeous performance modded VW Beetles, Porsches 911s, and NSU Prinz TTs in Germany, and all those gorgeous performance modded Fiat 500s and 126s in Italy and Poland?


Monsieur Belgian's reply was:

"In 2022 bikes equally will have to pass tech inspection.

And yes the VW Beetles, Porsches etc fall under the same nonsense."


This discourse took place in the Vintag Engine Tech subforum of Speed Talk, so clearly everyone in that thread is very much biased toward pro-vintage motoring legislation. I understand plenty of you reading may not care about vintage metal at all--fine, to each his own, we can still be entirely civil to one another.

What I really want to know is: can any advrider inmates confirm this has indeed become law in the European Union?

It's not a regime you know, people vote to get this stuff.

In Italy (my home country) since forever you cannot change anything on your motorcycle. And same on your car.. Not just for collectors but for all.
Anything you change (turn indicator, mirrors, exhaust, anything) you need to carry the omologation papers with you on the bike and present them when stopped. You cannot change regular brake lines with braided lines, you cannot have any alteration to the engine (like power commander), etc etc.

I've seen COUNTLESS performance modded vintage motos and autos buzzing around Italy, including whole rallies filled with nothing but performance modded vintage motos and autos.

And motorcycles too. Every few years u need to bring it back to standard to pass inspection

And if you ever get stopped by the rangers in Italy (we have a surplus of rangers because corruption and nepotism, so they put them to patrol the roads that cross national parks) good grief, bring lube.

It has been going on a long while, countries like Italy, if your bike came with a 140 wide rear tyre fitting a 150 was illegal, 19" front wheel swap for 21" illegal, Germany you want non OEM stuff like spotlights, it must be TUV approved and often must be fitted in a TUV Approved workshop. All that is happening now is the eternal alignment of the "Euro" Regulations to be the most stringent in the world with crap for bikes like Euro 5.

I am off to our local monthly car and bike meeting here in an hour, a few hundred classics (lots of muscle cars) will be there, coming and going all morning, it will be 24C and dry (other than the bar) at a mile above sea level, rain in summer ONLY so no corrosion, we only need a "tech inspection" on sale, so you keep it 20 years it doesn't need an inspection.

That is for new products, it's a completely different thing, and it's also overwhelmingly positive. I have a Euro 5 bike (suzuki 1050xt) and I have nothing but good things to say about the engine.
If you leave companies to do their thing and don't force innovation they will keep selling you the same thing over and over with like 2 extra cup holders.

Weirdly, in the Netherlands, a new rule just got passed that cars older than 50 years are exempt of any annual or bi-ennial inspection at all starting 2021. Not sure how or why, but for some reason some Dutch petrolheads have been able to give EU nannies the bird.

So most of that is true...

~5 years ago in Belgium, you could register almost anything 25+ years old as an "old-timer" and it was exempt from inspection. It's illegal to use old-timers to commute to work or school but you're otherwise free to drive them as you please. The age has gone up and the every 2 or 5 year inspection is reality now.

Inspections here aren't super-strict on mods even if the mods are illegal--particularly on old-timers where the inspection station often has no way of knowing what was stock. Tire size has to be close to stock, but engine mods are unlikely to be noticed; you don't have to have homologation paperwork like German drivers do.

Inspections on bikes are coming in 2022-23. That was a directive from the European Commission and IMO a solution looking for a problem. Some countries have inspected bikes for decades and others haven't, and there's no meaningful difference in crash statistics. The Netherlands has a significantly lower fatality rate for motorcyclists than Germany even though there's no inspection for bikes and you can even ride with your lights off during the day in NL. Finland and Sweden are comparable despite Sweden inspecting bikes and Finland not inspecting them, etc. etc.

The whole thing is a lot of pissing in the ocean. Road design and driver/rider behavior (particularly alcohol and phones) are what's killing people, not motorcyclists using non-stock tires or car guys putting bigger engines in 2CVs.

That said, EU-wide regulations aren't all bad. Emissions standards are hard to argue with for anyone who's ever breathed air in LA, Denver, Paris, etc., and ABS works. And, as the United States is finding out the hard way right now, safety standards for cars that take pedestrians and cyclists into account save lives. (On the flipside, European emissions standards for cars were a joke until pretty recently and are still less strict than the American standards were 10 years ago. Everyone has something to learn.)

Not to go too far into CSM territory, but nobody voted for anyone at the European Commission. Even the Commissioners are appointed. The Parliament doesn't have to approve regulations and directives like this--it has to take affirmative action to block them. Elected national politicians can't do much about it either, beyond making noise or threatening to be the next UK.

Europe is a big place, Norway is not in EU and no inspections on motorcycles here.

I'm astounded. Norselandia is not an EU member? How did you all manage that?

I still haven't got to the bottom of why my insurance company objected to my putting a Hagon shock on my BMW - I think they're claiming it's a performance enhancement.

We voted no, twice.

You can’t vote out anyone in the EU commission though, you can only vote in or out the MEP’s, and MEP’s are allowed only to put forward topics for consideration by the Commission, as far as I know.

It may not technically be a regime, but it definitely qualifies as a racket.

I'm doubly astounded. Not that I think you vikings were wrong to do so, mind you; as a conservative American I think the EU has become an orgy of oligarchy that impresses even Moscow.

What was the Norge reasoning behind telling the EU, "No means no. Now stop asking."

Actually, the government wanted us in, first time in '72 then in '94 but they didn't dare doing it without asking the people first, so the people was asked to vote yes or no, both times the majority voted no.

Now I'm triply astounded! It was the people themselves who said no, and not just the Norwegian govt?

Why did the Norwegian people not want to join the EU orgy?