If you’re going out for a ride in British Columbia’s Comox Valley, try to keep a low profile. The area’s RCMP detachment is threatening one of Canada’s toughest motorcycle crackdowns yet.
The coming crackdown takes aim at noisy motorcycles, unsurprisingly; municipalities across Canada have been battling loud bikes this year. Comox Valley RCMP are setting a noise limit at 91db at idle, or 2,000 rpms, but they are also are handing out $109 fines for motorcycles with the exhaust pipes cut, or the baffles removed – and they’re towing those bikes, too.
Exhaust pipes aren’t the only equipment the Comox cops are looking at. If your license plate isn’t mounted horizontally, if you can’t reach your footpegs without stretching, or if you’ve got ape hanger handlebars, they’re also threatening fines. They’re also cracking down on unlicensed riders and unsafe helmets, but that sounds like a good idea.
Don’t plan on cracking your throttle to ride your way out of trouble, either. If you’re caught speeding 40 kph or more over the speed limit, the RCMP say they’re going to hand you a minimum of a $368 fine, penalty points on your license (including a possible driving suspension), and impound your motorcycle for at least seven days. Ouch.
I live in Grande prairie Alberta and rode to the coast for ten days to be a tourist. I get to your Vancouver Island and get pulled over 3 times in one day, thanks RCMP. I spent 5k on hotels, fishing trip, wine & dining and I will never come back to a place were the cops are out to get bikers wasting your tax dollars. Time to wake up, who cares if my bike has apes, nobody. Who cares if someone’s house or car is broken into, everybody. If we could get every biker in your province to vote things would change.
Man im tired of all this legislative crap, we are becoming so regulated a man cant even go out for a ride on a bike HE built to a pub for a soda without having to do a 30 point inspection to make sure the MAN isnt upset or looking to take some loot out of his pocket. When did we lose the war and when did the government decide it was going to erode every piece of freedom that good hard working people fought to secure. Complacent sheep is what we have become, and its becoming embarassing…..
In B.C. the book for level 1 mechanical inspection wants amber lights facing forward amber or red lights facing rear for turn signals. Your licence plate can be mounted horizontally on the side but must have an illumitation light and a clearance light on the oposite side of the frame. The ape hanger law wants your hands to not be above your sholders.
In addition to the horizontal license plate (directed at custom bikes I guess) how about plates that are mounted way up in front of the rear tire, or tilted so much that only passing planes could read them. Also, enforce minimum separation between rear turn signals.
Feet sticking way out to the front and the sides… arms straight up in the air. I ask you, who (in their right mind) would want to ride that way? It’s taking everything that makes a motorcycle great… and throwing it out the window. Finally! It’s about time they criminalized stupidity.