teuchterpete

I shall be travelling through France this summer to retire in my Spanish Home. I intend bringing two bikes with me on a rear mounted carrier ( car is a 2009 fiesta)
Any advice regarding regulations with respect to the french police would be appreciated.

cjm

Can't see why you feel it may attract attention. Used to do the same on a 4x4. If they don't overhang side or restrict vision, doubt you'll be talked to. See French cycle fans with bikes using rear carriers.

teuchterpete

You know the score. No matter what country you live in, horror stories abound about traffic police picking on "foreign" turists. Just thought somebody may have a few ideas of what the gendarmes may be looking out for, and what to avoid.
Pete

cjm

I suppose I'd look at it from the view of an addicted cycling nation. We encounter single and groups cyclists on a daily basis, at least four or five instances yesterday in an hour drive south to La Rochelle shopping. If Gendarmes started picking on cyclists by association with car transport, French reaction would be strong.

But, with no personal experience of any problem, I can only comment in general. Other velos lovers may have more to share...

dmu

Hi, no personal knowledge, but a google search found a French forum announcing that the bikes mustn't conceal the number plate or the rear, indicator and brake lights, mustn't overhang on either side, and can only overhang to the rear by 1 m.
Check that you don't put too much luggage on the roof - the Gendarmes have sharp eyes for overweight...

EuroTrash

I believe Spain has more regs than France - don't you have to have a reflective thingy on the back of your load? And 2 warning triangles?

So if you're OK for Spain, you should be OK for France.

Peabrain

Exactly. Many French drivers that transport bikes on the boot have an extra number-plate to fix onto the bikes. It would seem that the visibility of the number-plate is important, as if you go through a radar speed trap, the police camera has to be able to identify the car

As for the French police "picking on" foreigners, it may be true although I doubt it, but if it is, the jails over here must be stuffed to the gunnels with all those law-abiding Germans who never go over any limits on the autobahn but who don't seem to understand the meaning of the 130 kph signs elsewhere.

Novocastrian

I think it's still the case that outside of densely populated areas and construction zones, most Autobahns don't have any mandatory speed limit. There is a 130km "advisory" limit these days but this is routinely ignored by the Merc/Porsche/BMW/big Audi "Schnellfahrer"s.

Peabrain

I haven't driven in Germany for a few years now but was always struck by the long stretches of autobahn that did have speed limits, particularly the older ones, built heading west before the war.... . Before going I had been labouring under the impression that there was simply no speed limit on German motorways. What also struck me as a "French" driver was to see the way people actually braked on arrival in a speed-restricted zone. That's discipline for you.

Novocastrian

You're quite right. It's only about one eighth of the whole autobahn system that is unrestricted, but some of this is on routes I used to travel often such as Frankfurt to Munich via Augsburg and Frankfurt to Basel via Freiburg.

20 years ago (when I left) all of the a-bahns in the former DDR were in terrible repair and highly restricted. They'll have been reconstructed by now I'd think.