The new laws have the potential to alter the motorbike domain in the United Kingdom. If you need a refresher on the details, check out this article. Stay tuned if you haven’t already.
Anti-tampering legislation in the United Kingdom are:
The suggestions could create new offenses for tampering with a system, part, or component of a vehicle designed or adapted for use on the road. That definition alone appears to have open nodes. Even simple acts, such as switching to LED indicators, violate the law. That doesn’t seem to be the case. Yet, with such open-ended and ambiguous definitions coming around, it’s easy to see why people are concerned.
Offenses will be to deal with riders who disable a system on their current road legal motorcycle. Things include:
- Removing the catalytic converter.
- Disconnecting the lights and using a daylight MoT (a grey area in and of itself! ).
- Unlinking the brake system on your Honda VFR.
These might all consider illegal under the proposal’s wording.
There will be a prohibition for firms from advertising, supplying, or installing what is referred to as a “tampering product” under the anti-tampering rules. It doesn’t take a market expert to see what this will mean for many of the UK and European aftermarket accessory companies. Still, widespread decimation would be a decent place to start.
What is the purpose of these laws?
The primary motivation for this piece of law is the influence on the environment. The government has no intention of outlawing any modifications to any and all motorcycles. They want to stop riders from removing electronics from their bikes that increase the amount of pollution.
The Department for Transport clarified that the intentions of the anti-tampering legislation aren’t to completely ban motorcycle customization. Unless the alterations and adaptations harm the motorcycle’s environmental performance or speed. That appears to be clear, but this open-ended speech is ripe for misreading down the road.
Even if the legislation’s breadth is taken into account, there are still many daily changes that could become illegal in the future. This has a significant impact on the aftermarket parts industry, and it could force people out of their jobs. We can only hope that the consultation survey has been open for a few weeks and the message has reached out to MPs.
We at BikersInsider hope this won’t hurt the biker’s enthusiasm for motorcycling but it will take time to observe the effect after implementation.
