Motorcycles and two-wheeled vehicles will not escape mandatory technical control. Starting in 2023, all scooter or motorcycle owners will have to undergo a regular check. A decree published in the Official Journal has just officially confirmed the implementation of the measure, to the chagrin of motorcycle associations.
Last June, the General Directorate of Energy and Climate (DGEC) announced the obligation of technical control for two wheels from 2023. Every two years, motorcycle, scooter, Vespa, chopper or even moped drivers will have their vehicle inspected .
On August 9, 2021, a decree was published in the Official Journal, confirming the implementation of mandatory technical control from 2023. “As of January 1, 2023, motor vehicles with two or three wheels and motorized quadricycles are subject to technical inspection”, explains the Official Journal of the French Republic.
A mandatory technical inspection every two years
This law covers all “Owners of two- or three-wheel motor vehicles, owners of motorized quadricycles”. This new technical control, therefore, concerns all two-wheeled vehicles over 50 cm3 but also unlicensed cars.
In detail, the first verification of a vehicle must be carried out “In the six months prior to the end of a period of four years from the date of its first entry into circulation”. So the inspection must imperatively be renewed every two years, or before any resale of the two-wheeled vehicle. This is already the case for cars. The only exception: old vehicles. “For older vehicles, the period between two technical inspections is increased to five years”, except in the case of resale, underlines the Official Journal.
Vehicles registered before January 1, 2016 will undergo the first technical inspection starting in 2023. Vehicles registered between 2016 and 2020 will wait until 2024 for a first inspection. Finally, two-wheel vehicles registered in 2021 will be inspected in 2025.
A measure introduced one year late
This measure, already in force in Europe, has a long standing rejected by the French authorities, in particular because of the successive confinements that paralyzed the country. Announced in 2015 by the Manuel Valls government, the technical inspection of motorcycles first came into effect in 2022. It was also what a 2014 European guideline recommended.
Also note that many motorcycle associations, including the French Federation of Angry Bikers, the legislation exploded. “It’s scandalous, it’s a real racket, let’s not give up on the case. We are surprised to see this decree arrive in the middle of summer ”, laments Jean-Marc Belotti, from the Federation of Furious Motorcyclists, contacted by AFP.