Several tens of thousands of motorcyclists protested the implementation of compulsory technical inspections for motorcycles, scooters and quads from Monday. In Paris, 10,000 bikers demonstrated calling for a boycott of a measure deemed “unfair” The more than three million category L vehicles, i.e.
scooters, motorcycles, tricycles or carts, have until now escaped the controls introduced in 1992 for cars. They will now have to go through 78 checkpoints, with 87 major failures requiring a second inspection. But the control of noise or vehicle obstruction, often circumvented by scooter, will not be effective until summer 2025, according to the French Council of State. The measure remains contested by many bikers in France, who consider the operation expensive and useless, because it is mainly visual. The first vehicles to pass the test are those registered before January 1, 2017, and they must also pass in the event of resale. This measure has already pushed many motorcyclist to resell their machine before the deadline, helping to boost the second-hand market in the first quarter of 2024.