Adventure Bike Rider Forum

I've never been able to ride a bike without gloves, just doesn't feel right.
The French are big into labels so if anyone did check they would be looking for the label not thebrand or the quality.
You may risk being pulled if you're not wearing any gloves but assuming you are wearing something (woolly mittens forexamle) the chances of being stopped are virtually nil. If you're nicked for something else they may want to throw the book at you so always best to have your papers with you.
In Belgium you must also cover your limbs, so no T shirts or shorts!

bensandman wrote:We had a 3 week holiday on the bike not long ago and about 2 weeks of it was spent in France (mostly south). The poilce ride round in t-shirt and no gloves, I doubt it very much that you would ever get stopped. We rode a fair bit without any gloves and were never stopped anyway

On ile de Re 2 weeks ago, plod were stopping every bike and scooter if no gloves were being worn. Came as a surprise to me as they don't normally seem to bother.
Of course, shorts, t shirts and sandals seems ok as long as you have gloves on hmy:

I tend to cut the labels out of gloves as they always stick out and annoy the hell out of me.
Wonder what happens then?

Honestly if folks are so concerened just cut a ce kite mark label out of a cuddly toy and sew it in the gloves...
See.simple answer ...

[rantmode]What a load of bollox.

A bunch of tossers on a couple of hundred grand a year each sit around all day inventing meaningless crap like this.

FFS.... you can buy CE labels, sew on, stick on whatever you like on ebay.[/rantmode]

Hear hear earth worm....don't worry about it. ..just ride (thumbs)

I hate it when these things are made compulsory.
Ok fair play in a work situation where employers and employees need protection from each others bad practices.
BUT, in my private life I want to be able to ride without gloves or with some light weight easy dying motorcross gloves on without some tosser being able to dip his hand into my wallet because he doesn't like the cut of my jib.

So I've been looking at gloves online and can I find any that are CE APPROVED? doesn't seem like it, the new motorcycle clothing approval has to show the pictograph of the bike and currently I can't find any UK sellers who indicate that the gloves are CE approved.
Note that you need to be looking for approved as they are the ones that have actually passed the tests, from what I've read so far even some of the french manufacturers can't claim CE approval!
Looks like I'll have to get off my arse and ride to a bike shop, trouble is there isn't any near me with a decent range to look through, and yes I know it's bollocks, my leather Ex race gloves are 10 years old and still look fine with no burst stitches or worn areas so these will be what I'll be using on my upcoming Euro holiday.
Steve

Another law the French will ignore while British tourists will stress about it before going on holiday! :laugh:

None of us like all this regulation but the French civil servants love to create this stuff, possibly to justify their existance.
The last two rules that have been introduced - hi viz in the event of a breakdown and wearing gloves seem quite sensible to me.
If you're looking to have a stress free trip to France just make sure you have your papers (log book and insurance for the bike and passport for you), wear gloves, carry your hi-viz, so that in the extremely unlikely event that you're stop by the Gendarmes you'll be fine. Not too much to ask in my view.
I get stopped often on trail bikes but I do about 10k road miles a year all over France and have never been stopped.