Who says a 250 is too slow for the Freeways?

Life Cars & Motorcycles
21

Just an update:

Yesterday the Taiwan legislature completed the three required readings of a slightly different proposal regarding >250cc motorcycles drafted into law. This is slightly different than what was being proposed by the Ministry of Transportation. As I’ve been told, the only thing now is for the president to sign it off for it to really become law.

So what that will mean now is that basically all >250cc bikes will be treated more like a car for practical purposes, and allowed on all roads/lanes with cars with one exception – 550cc or less cannot ride on the freeways and cannot use the same toll-collection lanes as cars (are there any toll-collection points in Taiwan besides on the freeway?).

A timeline is also mandated that the Ministry of Transportation:

  1. Implement all except allowing >550cc motorcycles onto freeways within 6 months.
  2. Implement >550cc motorcycles being allowed onto freeways within 2 years.

One other addition was made: >550cc motorcycles will be required to display a front license plate.

22

[quote=“peanut”]Just an update:

Yesterday the Taiwan legislature completed the three required readings of a slightly different proposal regarding >250cc motorcycles drafted into law. This is slightly different than what was being proposed by the Ministry of Transportation. As I’ve been told, the only thing now is for the president to sign it off for it to really become law.

So what that will mean now is that basically all >250cc bikes will be treated more like a car for practical purposes, and allowed on all roads/lanes with cars with one exception – 550cc or less cannot ride on the freeways and cannot use the same toll-collection lanes as cars (are there any toll-collection points in Taiwan besides on the freeway?).

A timeline is also mandated that the Ministry of Transportation:

  1. Implement all except allowing >550cc motorcycles onto freeways within 6 months.
  2. Implement >550cc motorcycles being allowed onto freeways within 2 years.

One other addition was made: >550cc motorcycles will be required to display a front license plate.[/quote]

Holy shit… am I dreaming? Is this a practical joke? Has something been drafted that actually makes sense? :astonished:

23

looks like the Taiwan Govt is softening up on BIG BIKES

taipeitimes.com/News/front/a … 2003344708

24

all good… except for that part about displaying a licence plate on the front :o that kinda sux… how stupid would that look? and where do they expect you to put it?

25

If you read the article, it’s says jack-all about letting big bikes on the freeways. So, what they’ve done here is actually tighten the noose slightly while making the appearence of “softening the stance on big bikes”

What are the giving us exactly? Expressways, Provencial highways and all National roads. Whoopie shit, we’ve got that now. You can bet the expressway riding will still be restricted only to those that don’t directly connect to either the first or second freeway, which leaves us with the same two (68 and 72) we already have access to.

If you own a 400cc Honda then you are utterly screwed.

No improvement here. Just the perception of one. I just got back from a ride around Shrmen dam and the bloody law was EVERYWHERE! At one point on the 3 heading north from Kuanshi there were at least 20cops on the side of the road pulling over every big bike they saw.

26

Can send you some pics of my bikes in Singapore if you want. It would look exactly like that.

Ugly? Yup.

But allow the guys to catch you for speeding…

Lev

27

Sucked in… I went up for a ride along the 3 yesterday morning… From Taichung, up to the 6 (near MiaoLi)… only cop car I saw was one stopped outside the station. On the way back, when I got to the point where the 129 and 21 meet, saw two cop bikes coming out of the 21… but that’s it~

This frontal number plate thingy is quite annoying… not only will it be ugly and allow them to catch you for speeding easier… but I can’t imagine it being good for the bike either. It will either a) obstruct vision if it’s in the windscreen, b) restrict airflow if it’s on the fender or where the ram intakes are, or… well… I can’t imagine it being good for the bike. If bikes were supposed to have front number plates, they would’ve been designed that way.

All the more need for me to buy that radar/laser detector first thing on the new bike. While I don’t do stupid-fast speeds anymore, I will still sit slightly above the limit. (say 80 in a 70)

28

Like MJB said, it seems like they are just re-wording the current law and will still force limited access to “expressways” because many of them connect to actual Freeways…and god forbid any biker would make the mistake of getting on a Freeway! :loco: …

…and it seems like they’ve pulled a classic “politics” trick on riders by pretending something is being given (or approved in this case) while they slip in a a new requirement, the front license plate…now how is that supposed to work? None of today’s production bikes have license plate brackets on the front, nor are they designed to accomodate such a “device”…I see this as another underhanded attempt by the Govt to keep putting people off of owning bikes with all of these complications…import duties, EPA restrictions that are beyond Euro 3 and California emissions regulations, lots of discriminatory police action (constant "big bike only road checks), no freeways and now a front license plate!

Not much gained at all!

29

Taiwan is the worst place on Earth to get and ride a big bike… And I’m really a big bike fan, always had at least one, usually two, riding pretty long distances, going to the track, commuting, etc… etc…

When I arrived in TWN I was considering importing my TL1000S - I realized very fast that it made no sense and would cost me an eye…

Then we see some restrictions eased a bit, and the importers bringing in stuffs which make absolutely no sense here. First the big cruisers - BM, Hayabusa, ZX-12. Where the Hell do you want to use that?!? Except parked in front of some bars to show off one’s squared tyres?

Then the sports bikes. Same question, same answer. One place in TWN where one can go to 3rd gear on a R1 or 1000Gixxer? Meyou.

Pricing was (and is still) quite funny, too…

IMHO the only stuff which could make sense here is a Supermotard - Husqvarna, KTM, Yam… That’s easier and more usable than the sports bikes in the city, more fun if not faster on the twisty mountain roads, and it would take the bad road conditions here much better, too…

Anyway, for the front licence plate, since I had one on my bikes, it’s pretty easy - It’s either a sticker on the windshield, or a plate on the front, fixed on the mud guard or on the fork itself. It’s ugly, but does not really matter in terms of safety / performance, I think.

That’s the funniest of all parts - We’re in one of the most polluted city in the world, where there seems to be no control whatsoever on the scooters, lorries, cars, bus, etc… which are burning more oil than fuel.

Funny.

Lev.

30

I haven’t heard that they will have this restriction. The proposed law is actually reclassifying “large heavy” motorcycles to be equivalent to cars. (The Ministry of Transportation can make “exceptions” though…)

So although the freeway/expressway will be of only marginal benefit to me, it does means that I will be able to legally use all lanes of the roads as a car does (i.e. pass on the left, etc.), make normal left hand turns, and use all the roads/bridges that cars can. The only broad restriction so far is <550cc may not be allowed to use the freeways.

It does, however, imply that we will no longer be allowed to use scooter lanes or filter our way through traffic to get to front of an intersection/traffic light. This would make for a more miserable drive through the Taiwan cities in the mid-summer heat / stop-n-go traffic.

Anyway, if anyone can translate from Chinese, the original report/proposal is here (scroll half-way down):
http://motocity.com.tw/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=76651

That may be able to help clarify what will really happen.

31

plates on the front of bikes is just plain retarded, practically no other country on earth requires them for obvious reasons, but that smacks of a Taiwan govt decision, they have no idea about that facts, what they are talking about or the law in the rest of the world, but they know that if they’re going to allow these things on the freeways they want to make money off front facing speed cameras, so the legislators are like “I’ve got it, plates in front, done, let’s take a long lunch… we can take my Jag…”

but that’s great… all we have to do is make a fuss about how the only other country that has front plates is… China… boo, hiss, oooh etc… and that if Taiwan is prepared to go against the entire world and have an arsebackwards pinyin system all in the name of not being the same as China, then they should really reconsider this front “commie plates” idea, I mean what would people think?..

Hopefully the industry will lobby govt over this too… It’s not hard to see how this would effect sales… I mean…

32

Obviously! Fair enought, though… And I’m still a fairly decent contributor to TWN Govt budget despite having bought a few radar detectors over the past few years…

Could work, but not quite true. You have front plates in most of Asia in fact!

The front plate is obviously smaller than the back one… And display only the #, on one line. Can get a good idea of what it looks like in the Classified of Yahoo! Singapore.

Lev

33

here’s an interesting read that I found::

seems that the victorian (aus) government is pushing for it too~
http://www.fireblades.org/forums/australia/10930-vicroads-pushing-for-front-number-plates.html

by the way… if this goes ahead… screw that… I’ll stick with an under 550cc then~ the new Cagiva Mito sounds good :slight_smile: I don’t have much intention for riding on the freeway (would probably only do it once a year if it DID come into effect) and love the more twisty roads of the 3 etc. I don’t want a frontal number plate~

btw. reading that article, did anybody notice also that the 551cc+ plate colour will also be changed to RED with WHITE LETTERING…??? :o

34

Was there anything in the new law stating how many wheels you have to ride on when you’re on the freeway?

Read my plate now Mo Fo!

35

I think there limit should be 120cc, 15hp and manual gear.
I say manual gear because I’m not prepared for the gore party it will become iff all the scopters in Taiwan all the suden started to drive slalom betwen the buses, takis and trucks at spees’s 70++

There is enough 15hp 125 that can out acelerate a some cars and keep the speeds 90-110 and stoll have 20km/h extra.

Ragardless too cc you should be beholder off a national or international big bike license to be allowed to ride on the freeways and highways.

The two step left turn don’t make anny sence too me for anny cc and I seldom do it unless my GF is riding with me.

36

[quote=“Stian”]
The two step left turn don’t make anny sence too me for anny cc and I seldom do it unless my GF is riding with me.[/quote]You were expecting the traffic rules to make sense? C’mon lad, wake up and smell the coffee. :wink:

37

I am not a motorcycle driver, so please bear with me.
Isn’t stability a key factor here? Face it, it is not all trucks and buses who keep the speed limit, and the draft from one of those passing you at 130-140 kph with 30cm margin, when you are driving at 90 kph on a flimsy 125cc could be enough to make you swerve, or even lose control. No?

38

[quote=“X3M”]I am not a motorcycle driver, so please bear with me.
Isn’t stability a key factor here? Face it, it is not all trucks and buses who keep the speed limit, and the draft from one of those passing you at 130-140 kph with 30cm margin, when you are driving at 90 kph on a flimsy 125cc could be enough to make you swerve, or even lose control. No?[/quote]
I used to commute on a Honda 250 across the Forth Road Bridge twice a day. I wouldn’t do it again. Even riding “The Pig” (1000cc Laverda) the air disturbance from a fast container truck could sweep you across two lanes of traffic in the blink of an eye if you weren’t careful. Scary shit.

39

As a frequent freeway commuter (with car), I would prefer not to have to deal with motorcycles swerve in front of me at high speed. It is difficult enough to avoid them on the normal roads at lower speed.

40

getting buffeted by an artic (heavy transport truck) is an issue on a bike, but as sandman mentioned, mostly only on 2 lane roads where the oncoming truck is centimeters away from you, going to opposite direction and pushing a big curtain of air at a closing speed of well over 200km/h… On a freeway where everything’s going the same direction even a truck coming past well over the speed limit won’t do too much to a bike… a scooter or flimsy moped might not be too much fun, but they’ve already been ruled out by govt. so…

freeway car drivers won’t have to worry about avoiding big bikes on the freeway, at freeway speeds a bike can negotiate a column of cars and avoid/predict their (comparatively) glacially slow speed and direction changes like a humming bird flying through a forest…

this big bikes on the freeway/expressway thing has been way over dramatized, it happens every day in 95% of countries all over the world, probably in the countries we’re all from… even with the piss poor Taiwanese driving skills thrown into the mix, I still don’t see the bloodbath and whole scale lemming like carnage most folks seem to be predicting… any way you slice it a limited number of big bikes on the freeway is a hell of a lot safer than the teeming millions of scoots and cars on the much more crowded and often just as high speed surface roads… storm in a teacup IMO…