anyone owned a bike in switzerland?

Anyone have any experience with loud cans?

They love them--especially in the little tranquil valleys and smaller mountain pass tunnels.

Swiss police can be very funny about things we accept as normal and if you are really naughty the keep you for the weekend and make you wash their road signs to earn your dinner

Cans and speeding

I once read that a TVR Griffith with a stock can broke the Swiss noise limits and had to be stuffed with cotton wool (maybe not true) before it could come in the country!

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by GeeMac

I once read that a TVR Griffith with a stock can broke the Swiss noise limits and had to be stuffed with cotton wool (maybe not true) before it could come in the country!

I would have thought TVR's would be fine going into Switzerland - they'd be on the back of a recovery truck long before they got to the border!

Memory fails me but didn't Clarkson have a problem with a car---may have been above

[Spanner Man]

Good afternoon all.


Some years ago I worked on a GSX750 that belonged to a Swiss gentleman, who had broken down whilst on holiday over here.

There was so much emission related stuff on the bike, it made California imports look pretty simple. Anything that could possibly vent fumes, had breather pipes & charcoal cannisters, plumbers nightmare indeed.

He mentioned that in Switzerland you're not allowed to fit an aftermarket exhaust, when ones exhaust is due for replacement. You have to fit a genuine one. So I would imagine the Swiss Fuzz take a dim view of loud cans.


Cheers.

[Sid Squid]

Some years ago I crossed the border into Switzerland on a Suzuki GSX750 which had an aftermarket exhaust, (less said about that bike the better - a triumph of engine over chassis).

They wouldn't let me in, stating, in pefect English naturally, that 'your motorcycle is illegal here'.

I have been back, it's very nice in Switzerland, but they don't like loud pipes, and they really, really don't take kindly to speeding. As in Austria, they will prosecute at just a few kph over the limit, and it's expensive.

[Red Herring]

We spent a few days a couple of summers ago blatting round the Alps on our Supermoto bikes. The French were fine, the Italians brilliant, but we didn't make it into Switzerland. Having said that there wasn't a legal can amongst us, practically none of us had any lights that worked, and several were running full slicks... Can't blame them really, I wouldn't have let me in!

[embee]

Remember Switzerland is not part of the EU, they make their own rules. Satnavs with Swiss speed camera databases will be confiscated!
National speed limit on normal roads is 80kph. Speeding fines start off at reasonable amounts for a few kph over, but get very steep very quickly.
Motorway use requires a vignette, they are annual and run from Jan to Dec regardless of when you buy it (fixed cost).
Behave yourself and be courteous and responsible and you should be OK. I've not had any problems in Switz apart from an over enthusiastic border guard many years ago who made me unload my BMW completely to inspect the contents of the panniers.
Avoid Zurich is my suggestion, the motorway enters one side, and exits the other, and in between is.......city traffic. You get the picture.
Nice place generally.

[the_lone_wolf]

So it's a bit like Nazi Germany then???


Just without the snazzy uniforms...