The officials are incapable of enforcing the laws they have, 1 more won’t make much difference. Especially a law which is virtually unenforceable
It looked to me like they were gonna try and use cameras to do it which would be enforceable… The only enforcement they habe that actually does its job. As some uh, people with attitudes once said, FUCK the police. They’ll ticket me for left turning like a normal fucking human but God forbid they have to go after someone who ran the red or what have you. Bullshit all around.
They have speed cameras also, barely enforcing the law. They might as well just put more speed cameras on the roads and also catch cars too fast in the corners. But they don’t want to spend the money or deal with the results
So now they need to design and pay for new cameras and put them, where, at the corners people need to lean? It’s unenforceable, seems unlikely to be widely rolled out. If it is, there will probably be an app to warn riders of camera locations (ergo, unenforceable)
Well, they might. I see people break that law regularly, often in situations where it is clearly safer to do so. Another law the police don’t enforce
at least they’re generally pretty much equally lacksidasical regardless of what degree of danger said behaviour puts others in. Crime equity.
I agree, although they could totally ruin a ton of great roads with some dumbass speed traps (by that meaning specifically the ones that calculate average speed). Thankfully haven’t yet, but I hope that if this policy actually gets put into place there’ll be some protests. Awful precedent to allow them to put up goddamn speed cameras everywhere - which personally makes me drive less safe, as I spend more time watching my speedo - and continue using that as a band-aid for not actually teaching all the people I see on the street. The distracted driving gogoro chicks are my favorite archtype… the ones who play with their phone until the light changes at which point, hearing the engines, they take full advantage of their electric motor and absolutely fly off the goddamn line despite not having paid a second of attention to their surroundings up to that point, generally swerving lightly left or right off the block. Always pleasant to be around one of those. Although I suppose the ladies riding motorcycles in nothing but a sweater and some short shorts are also a perennial favorite.
I suppose if one knew where those were, they could plan rest stops accordingly…
There was a big kick of in some of the local motorcycle groups about it, they where basically making fun of how ridicules it was, some of the people in the groups are police officers as a lot of them like to ride motorcycles when off duty.
One of the more serious points was that it can actually be more dangerous to force the bike to stay upright, another was that a lower bike with a wider tyre will also maturely lean over more.
The locale biker community’s are really quite active when it comes to some of the more silly restrictions like parking spaces, use of motorways and now this.
Yeah, does that lean angle requirement take into account the level of the road, the angle and radius of the corner, the speed limit of the road, the weight of the bike, etc.?
Of course it doesn’t.
If it becomes a law, which I doubt, they’re going to find a lot of contested tickets
So embarrassing for whoever is pushing this idea. Should be a public servant, right?
Seriously, except for ones targeting weaker engines (I wouldn’t want to be caught behind a scooter incapable of keeping up with traffic on the national freeway), none of the laws in Taiwan make even the slightest bit of logical sense, and probably written by someone who probably never so much as ridden a bicycle in their youth!
I mean, at least open up the heavy motorcycle requirement to those that have a demonstrated proficiency… I rode an MT-03 from Zhonghe to Bali just fine with a little over 3 months of being a licensed rider, and the only adjustment was just getting used to the wind pushing on your chest a bit at higher speeds; being certified to ride anything to going through all these restrictions and having to learn things you already know all over again once you do qualify to take the classes is still a slap in the face though.
Also, it’s such a huge adjustment going down in power; I can get used to going from an almost 300hp V6 to a rental Mitsubishi Mirage with an anemic 3-cyl engine and first-gen CVT, but after I tried but failed to directly exchange my US moto endorsement to a heavy moto license, and with the IDP loophole about to close (e.g. the IDP just has a ridiculously heavy weight restriction, so I can still legally ride a red plate), going back to a 125cc scooter is tough… I spent the entire day on 104 applying for work and needed a break, and that SYM Z1 did NOT come close to alleviating my boredom, even after an hour, when I’m usually wearing a s–t-eating grin 5 minutes on the MT-03 and actively looking for excuses to ride it.
Anyway, I’m also considering the YZF-R15, GSX-R 150, MT-15 or similar bike that looks like its yellow/red plated counterparts, but still legal for a white plate not because I have anything against scooters or trying to be a poseur, but I think I’m just wired for actual motorcycles; not sure how I’d feel about a Wolf as mentioned in this thread, although the name is badass.
Also since you delved into where to hang out, like I touched upon a bit earlier, there’s an awesome spot in Bali called Garage Cafe (AKA Garage 64); I’m not sure if it’s all 2-wheeled vehicles, but they’ll give you a discount if you ride in.
Indeed, how do they account for the camber of the road vs bike position, not to mention roads that are just banked wrong to begin with. A sweeping curve could easily see a 20-30deg variance between bike and road while traversing with zero change of the bike’s attitude.
Traffic cop EDC will start to include levels and protractors… 
I love the idea of it being bike only and therefore punishing counter leaning which is objectively the safest way to take tight corners while leaning off the side of the bike remains ok since that actually keeps the bike more upright. That would be fucking HILARIOUS.
The bikers also want the government to ease restrictions on where heavy bikes can park, and make it legal to maneuver more like four-wheel vehicles on the nation’s roads. They would like heavy bikes to be able to use the inner lane on two-lane roads, and make left turns in the same manner as cars and buses, rather than perform the two-stage left turn as scooters are required to do.
Wait, we’re supposed to use the two-stage left turn boxes!? I’ve always assumed the rules are exactly the same for big bikes as they are for cars, with the exception of freeway access.
Yeah, I think the reporter fucked up here
They want reasonable rules for motorcycles, which includes small motorcycles who have to do those ridiculous left turns
Ah, that makes sense.
on a side note - how do you assess well the number of spare parts left over for any given motorcycle? I’m just curious as I kinda love the DT125 / TT250R (and honestly the VR150 might even be ok if it’s old Hartford) and would love to get one as a cheap weekend offroader so I don’t destroy my new bike, but I do think the parts situation is probably getting tighter for those… Is there any way to get a good frame on that?
Or do I just avoid that money and time pit and keep riding current bike / get a beat up CRF150
I would start by looking what parts are already available and how popular the bike is in Taiwan.
Look online and get a few part numbers, you can then get an idea of which bikes it shares components with, if you can see a lot of aftermarket parts you’re normally on to a winner.
Got the bike booked in next week for some work, so I decided to go for a ride today as it will be off the road for a couple of weeks.
I could feel it running a bit off so didn’t go too far, stopped at some lights on a hill and felt the power drop.
Managed to limp it to my mechanic spluttering and popping on one cylinder, run diagnostics and see the front o2 sensor is flatlined.
He is changing it at cost (due to the other work I’m having done), my dilemma is should I get the back one done as well?
The back one could be on its way out also, or it could last years, there is no way to tell. The cost is reasonable but I could be throwing away a perfectly good part. I ask him what he would do if it was his bike and he said he would take the gamble and leave it, I’m sort of leaning that way mysel, any opinions?
If more than five years old go ahead and replace them both.
How expensive is the part? Might be worth the convenience and peace of mind to just do it now.
I’m a few thousand km short of my 60000km full tune up, but in addition to the clutch problem I told you about it looks like my rear suspension blew a seal. After a camping trip this weekend I think I’ll take it to my guy and just have him check the problems and give it the works now. The timing is convenient, I’d rather leave it just once (easier for both of us), and after that I know it’ll be all good.
But, if that part is more than 5000NTD, I’d probably hold off. Parts for my bike are cheaper than yours!
It’s a modern o2 sensor with heating element normal run 100 000 km or more and had then running on 15 year old bikes no problem. this bike has done Less that 20k ( most of that in the 2 years I have owned it) but it is a bit older.
It’s not too expensive but it is a Harley part 
we had it connected to the diagnostic computer and watched it ticking like a clock, it got a green light all within spec, if it came up with a yellow advisory I would swap it straight away.
Hence the dilemma, do I change a perfectly good part and waist all the resources.
Is it paranoia or just being careful?