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Riding conditions in Canada

RJVB

RJVB

GT Reference
Joined
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Messages
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Location
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I'm reading a French forum here (which all of you officially bilingual Canadians should be able to read if not understand :silly:), and I'm wondering how much of what's being said is true...

Is there really a big effort being made to irradicate PTW from circulation with prohibitive costs and specific rules like parts of cities off-limits to them at night, etc? Is that exclusive to Québec?

I'm still counting on returning to Canada in a (very) near future, and then I'd love to rent a bike at least for a couple of days. But if this info is correct, rental price and conditions might be desuasive ...

BTW, whatever happened to Kai (Norgista from Montréal)? Someone remember his pseudo?
 
Can't say about Quebec, but in BC there's no problems.

RJVB wrote:
I'm reading a French forum here (which all of you officially bilingual Canadians should be able to read if not understand :silly:), and I'm wondering how much of what's being said is true...

Is there really a big effort being made to irradicate PTW from circulation with prohibitive costs and specific rules like parts of cities off-limits to them at night, etc? Is that exclusive to Québec?

I'm still counting on returning to Canada in a (very) near future, and then I'd love to rent a bike at least for a couple of days. But if this info is correct, rental price and conditions might be desuasive ...

BTW, whatever happened to Kai (Norgista from Montréal)? Someone remember his pseudo?
Click to expand...
 
Hi, car j'suis un canadien bilingue j'ai lu la page affixee... :cheer: In Canada, traffic rules vary considerably from province to province. I'm not aware of the specific street restrictions etc that you mention, but there are a number of rules that are specific to Quebec that you won't find elsewhere. Insurance costs for motorbikes varies tremendously - some provinces have provincially-owned insurance (Man, Sask & BC I believe) and insurance isn't too bad, but in Alta, Que, Ont and NB it's really high... Regarding rental bikes, that can be hard to find in most Canadian cities (Vancouver may be an exception?) - I'm heading east to Ont for a 25th reunion of my Eng. School class and wanted to rent a bike in Toronto and I've been able to find info on renting a Harley or Ducati or rice-rocket but nothing else... Remember that in most of Canada, our riding season is mid-late april until mid-october only. I saw a guy on a 2wd Ural in Saskatoon at -25C in a blizzard, but that's not for most of us. It's a balmy -22C this morning and we had 20cm of white fluffy stuff last night... no worries, in July it'll be +35 and way too hot... Ian
 
Hi René,

Yes I'm still a Norgista, finally got around to re-registering. (thanks Todd).

Ah, convoluted rules and regulations are our specialty here in Québec anyways, can't speak for the rest of canada.
Our most recent jewel is the snow tire law. Vehicles must be equipped with snow tires from 15 december to 15 of March, and of course this past sunday was beautiful weather and police officers were writing citations to motorcyclists for not having winter tires mounted:blink: :blink:

They discourage us from being on two wheels. Tags were $470 last year, I haven't received this years registration yet. Drivers licence is an additionnal 100$/yr for riding anything over 50 cc, if your motorcycle is classified as a superbike or a supersport, tags will cost around 800$/yr. Scooters are not expensive to licence, not sure of cost. If you wish to cancel your motorcycle class on your dirvers licence, they charge you 13$:laugh: :laugh:

Cities and towns have legislated motorcycles off-limits in some parts of their respective cities, such as Quebec city (old town), my home town Terrebonne (old town), this is due in part to noisy motorcycles, and noise enforcement laws which are hard to enforce, so it's easier to legislate the access.

That being said, there are around 130,000 motorcycles registered in Québec and many more passionate riders, motorcycle rental is not a problem, I would contact the rental dealer to find out what is required (formalities I'm sure) check www.monettesports.com for rental info.

Of course let me know if and when you're around, I'd be glad to show you around.

Cheers

Kai
 
So at least some of the info was correct ...

With 130000+ passionate and/or registered riders, don't have something like our FFMC — you have reasons to be enraged, it seems — to try to "beat" some sense into the regulators? Seems there's some sort of discrimination going on...
 
baloches wrote:
Ah, convoluted rules and regulations are our specialty here in Québec anyways, can't speak for the rest of canada.
Our most recent jewel is the snow tire law. Vehicles must be equipped with snow tires from 15 december to 15 of March, and of course this past sunday was beautiful weather and police officers were writing citations to motorcyclists for not having winter tires mounted:blink: :blink:
Click to expand...


Hmm.

We got the same regulation here; winter-tires from November to April IF the roads are snowy or icy. Policemans decision.
Also this doesn't go for motorcycles, as no sane person is expected to drive under such conditions.
 
ditto here. BTW, winter tyres, would that include spiked tyres? They're forbidden here, but if they insist, I presume you Québecois wouldn't mind stirring a bit of clean asphalt with obligatory spikes? ;)
 
Yes René, we have the riders rights associations, massive protest rallies at about 35,000 riders, but in the end the government does what it wants.
We've had transport commissions pertaining to road safety, associations presenting memoirs, etc. but I find that the motorcycling industry had their head in the sand for too long, and just didn't believe they'd go through with this so-called "reform"
I've seen fines have increased everywhere, and the Man is really cracking down on all forms of unruly conduct, sign of the times, I guess.
I was out riding on a warm day a few weeks ago, clear roads etc. and it didn't even enter my mind that the police would apply the tire law, in fact I was joking about it with somebody, I was sure it didn't apply to motorcycles. I crossed paths with the police, but I guess common sense prevailed.

In societies where the state covers medical care, them wild bikers are seen as a menace to our ever-diminishing take-home pay. As a whole we end up paying for the "freezin' iceholes". I've participated in some rallies, and sure enough many riders are glad to show how nice their new straight pipes sound to the rest of the city, and then they moan about not having access to some towns. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Some good will come out of this, such as ridding the road of the poseurs and squids, but it's making motorcycling as a whole very prohibitive.

Thank god I own a Guzzi!
 
Any riders have info on what specific documentation I need when I ride from Richmond, VA, to Toronto, ON, this September? What things should I watch out for on the ONT roadways, too?
 
Mojo: When you ride in Ontario, be on the lookout for IDIOTS, we have an ample supply of them in every colour, shape, size and persuasion. You can tell they are an idiot by the behaviour they exhibit behind the wheel. Applying makeup,reading books, watching Tv ,cellphone ,texting, doing the same speed as you 6 ft. behind your rear wheel,and on and on and on. Keep your head up or they'll kill you.
FBC
 
FrostBittenCanadian wrote:
Mojo: When you ride in Ontario, be on the lookout for IDIOTS, we have an ample supply of them in every colour, shape, size and persuasion. You can tell they are an idiot by the behaviour they exhibit behind the wheel. Applying makeup,reading books, watching Tv ,cellphone ,texting, doing the same speed as you 6 ft. behind your rear wheel,and on and on and on. Keep your head up or they'll kill you.
FBC
Click to expand...
So it's the same as the UK then.
 
Brian: I guess so, also Mojo watch your speed , you get nabbed doing 50 over the limit ( not hard to do on highways) and your bike is seized, license suspended for a week and a huge fine. They OPP actually did it to a couple of regional cops! last week.
FBC
 
50km/h (?) over how much?

> They OPP actually did it to a couple of regional cops! last week.

Oh, that's just great. Would never happen here, despite the fact that cop impunity doesn't exist theoretically...!

You taking a trip, Frosty? ;)
 
50 km over what ever the limit happens to be, on highwaays 100k. and yup they hit a couple of regional cops who were doing more than 50 over. Impounded there unmarked cars and suspended their licenses for a week. Taking a trip, I have to get my bike back from the dealer in one piece first RJ.
FBC
 
100km/h on highways in a country the size of Canada seems low ... but then I'm perfectly happy at 110km/h (fast enough for the long stretches), and past that, mileage goes down and emissions up drastically, both with the square of speed. So for the long term, it's better that way ;)

As to taking trips: have a look at your avatar and reconsider my question! ;)
 
The 401 (ie. The King's Highway 401) is the busiest in North America and among the busiest in the world. Traffic gets very crazy most of the time and watch out for all types of trucks. The official speed limit is 100Km/h but you'll find that traffic flows more like 120Km/h with the occasional driver doing 140-150Km/h.
 
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