Speeding in Switzerland? £3200 Fine

[EVskij]

I got stopped in Switzerland in June for not having a vignette thingy in the hire car......


Having watched that video I’ll be avoiding Switzerland in future .

Here is a breakdown on Swiss Vignette...

No need to avoid such a great country and scenery if you intend to play nicely, but I must agree that fine was a Monster (equally as but-clenching, as greasy B500 in their previous episode), which makes me think, has it doubled because copper realised they were filming it too and slapped him with “Vollkommener Idiot” tax, which I occasionally think same of the pair.....




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[Tonibe63]

These days I choose the smaller roads, you can sh!t yourself at much lower speeds riding a smaller bike instead of warp factor 10 on a sports bike.

[daveuprite]

Personally I think it's a bit sad. Back in the 90s and early 2000s I was one of those who used to treat European roads as a huge playground. A group of us would take our GSXRs. R1s, Fireblades, Ducatis etc and burn up French/Spanish/Swiss/German/Italian roads like a racetrack. We blasted our way to MotoGP races, the Bol D'Or, the Nurburgring and any other excuse / destination to go off for a fortnight of scratching. Hundreds of thousands of others did too. Any decently surfaced mountain road, gorge or set of sweepers was just an opportunity to destroy knee-sliders and test our bikes almost to the limit.

Some of us, including me, spent our weekends racing or track-daying back in the UK. We were pretty good sports bike riders with experience and high-speed skills. Obviously none of that could prevent a huge road accident if the unexpected came along. We knew that perfectly well and we did our best to anticipate it, but ultimately we accepted that what we were doing was dangerous but also very exciting and life-affirming. Many a night's drinking was spent recalling a day of brilliant riding, beautiful views and close-scrapes. We also lost a friend or two to biking over the years. But we knew the risks.

Nowadays this behaviour is increasingly regarded as unacceptable, as can be seen in some of the comments above. Fair enough. From my own point of view, I have basically stopped road-riding because the paranoia of being speed-trapped ruins the ride. For me now, it's either the track or off-roading only. The road is a hostile place where sports-biking is vilified and punished, with the collaboration of the 'sensible' biking community, all keen to parade their Advanced Rider certificates and Rospa training.

But at least I have some great memories of crazy days carving up mountain roads before the crack-down began. Nothing can take that away.

[johnnyboxer]

Personally I think it's a bit sad. Back in the 90s and early 2000s I was one of those who used to treat European roads as a huge playground. A group of us would take our GSXRs. R1s, Fireblades, Ducatis etc and burn up French/Spanish/Swiss/German/Italian roads like a racetrack. We blasted our way to MotoGP races, the Bol D'Or, the Nurburgring and any other excuse / destination to go off for a fortnight of scratching. Hundreds of thousands of others did too. Any decently surfaced mountain road, gorge or set of sweepers was just an opportunity to destroy knee-sliders and test our bikes almost to the limit.

Some of us, including me, spent our weekends racing or track-daying back in the UK. We were pretty good sports bike riders with experience and high-speed skills. Obviously none of that could prevent a huge road accident if the unexpected came along. We knew that perfectly well and we did our best to anticipate it, but ultimately we accepted that what we were doing was dangerous but also very exciting and life-affirming. Many a night's drinking was spent recalling a day of brilliant riding, beautiful views and close-scrapes. We also lost a friend or two to biking over the years. But we knew the risks.

Nowadays this behaviour is increasingly regarded as unacceptable, as can be seen in some of the comments above. Fair enough. From my own point of view, I have basically stopped road-riding because the paranoia of being speed-trapped ruins the ride. For me now, it's either the track or off-roading only. The road is a hostile place where sports-biking is vilified and punished, with the collaboration of the 'sensible' biking community, all keen to parade their Advanced Rider certificates and Rospa training.

But at least I have some great memories of crazy days carving up mountain roads before the crack-down began. Nothing can take that away.

Well said

I spent a good couple of hols, down to the Bol D'Or on a VFR750 in the late 1990's

Tolls were abolished for the weekend ride, down the the A26 to south of France, Gendarmes supported the antics like wheelying through the toll booths etc and basically it was a flat out ride down the auto route, mad and bad where you were doing 130mph plus........ for mile after mile - basically until the tank ran dry and you had to refuel

Then after the race at Paul Ricard, it was back up via French Alps and Provence

Great days, sad never to be repeated

Bloody PC snowflakes and namby-pamby ism

[Scott_rider]

Very well said, davepurite .
I’m still doing some of that...sometimes, not as much...but I’m still prone to moments of warp speed madness despite being in my 50s. It’s not big and it’s not clever and I know I should know better...but it makes me happy and that’s what biking is all about, to me .

[Oop North John]

These days I choose the smaller roads, you can sh!t yourself at much lower speeds riding a smaller bike instead of warp factor 10 on a sports bike.

Me too, though allegedly when I was much younger I had my Honda Firerstorm flat out on a Spanish road

Still remember that tour more than the rides where I kept exactly 1mph below the limit. Wouldn't dream of doing the flat out on the Firestorm again, doing it on a 125 is much more in keeping with my abilities

[Elmer J Fudd]

Interesting video. Can't help disliking the we'll never com back, that spoiled it sentiment. If you knowingly break the law , any law, in any country, don't complain if you get caught. It was their fault, they should take it on the chin.

Last month I spent 8 days in France on the Tiger and spent 99% of that below the speed limits, it was a relaxed tour and speeding would have spoiled the ability to take in the views etc. Even though the Sat-Nav gives "Dangerous Road" warnings.

When I got home, the next weekend was nice so I had a day out on the Street Triple and the statistic was reversed. Not total lunacy, but sometimes pretty fast (its the induction /. exhaust noise that makes you do it...). You make a choice, so long as you are in control and assess risks, then I don't overly judge (myself or others).

[XF650]

Personally I think it's a bit sad....

But at least I have some great memories of crazy days carving up mountain roads before the crack-down began. Nothing can take that away.

Pretty much mirrors my sentiments exactly. I now have older slower bikes, not only to tame my passion but to ensure I can actually work on them without a friggin computer, but that's another moan lol!

What the "system" tends to forget is that we're all human ie we're not programmed robots. To be human is to err but also to explore and test our limits, to live life to the full, get a buzz from being alive. Sometimes you can only get this by coming close to death or the perception of it. That's life. Without this we wouldn't be going to the moon and back or taking our bikes out for an adventure or three into the unknown. This kinda what sets most, not all, bikers apart from the more mundane complying four wheeled fraternity.

So, some of us will still be punished for bucking the "system" but it's millions of rules and regulations are slowly changing us into obedient little minions who mustn't deviate from the new "norm". Or haven't you noticed?

A suggestion, why on earth don't we, in our super wealthy advanced 21st century living, accommodate such passions and have a few race tracks around the UK where there are no rules, just mutual respect and you could just "go for it" without fear of prosecution? If you come off, tough, it's your fault, learn from it. Err, oh yeah, there's our modern obsession of Health and Safety, this simply will not do, heaven forbid there's a chance we might hurt ourselves!

I suppose what I'm getting at is that our freedoms are slowly eroding away.

1984 anyone?

[simonw]

I'm curious to try to understand how the whole "we're all human, I used to love riding at warp speed even though we knew the risks, the rules have ruined it" sort of line of reasoning squares with running on on a corner (like the chap who threw his sportsbike off the edge of the Cat and Fiddle) and killing or seriously injuring someone in the oncoming vehicle (for example)?

[daveuprite]

What is there to square up, Simon ?

The guy in that video cocked it up. I wasn't there, but from that clip it looks to me like he could and should have flung it in to that left-hander. As with many 'stand it up / run wide' mistakes, the corner is often rideable but the rider makes the wrong judgement of it and doesn't attempt to tip it further, lean off the bike and commit to the turn. Classic sports bike road-rider error. Possibly the fact that he was trying to prove some kind of point to the slower rider he overtook just before didn't help either. Stupid mistake, and as you say, it could have resulted in his own death and those in the car.

You will be able to find other examples of it on youtube I'm sure.

But that video doesn't make the argument for higher speeding fines, lower speed limits or more speed cameras. It makes the argument for better training, more experience, less show-boating and, I would say, more track time learning how to corner properly. You can ride pretty fast and pretty safe at the same time, if you know what you're doing.

As we all know, there is no linear, direct, causal link between speed and accidents. It's more complicated than that.

Personally I've pretty much given up on it now. I know the game's up and my road scratching days are basically over. I actually have a lot of fun hooning about in the dirt these days, and get my kicks that way, but I would defend those who still want to ride fast on the road. 'Fast' and 'totally reckless' are not the same thing.