Threat to specials and off-roaders

Some unusual and imported bikes could be outlawed from being ridden on the road – or at least face an extra £150 registration fee – when new European rules come into effect next June.

Under new construction standard regulations, bikes like Suzuki’s DR-Z400E would no longer be eligible to be road registered because they are intended solely for off-road use.

The rules could also spell trouble for specials builders and importers of any other bikes not on a list of European approved bikes.

The government is looking at three options to deal with the impact of the changes.

OPTION ONE: Do nothing. Every bike imported for sale in Europe would have to be a fully-certified model before a registration can be issued. For Honda or Yamaha this is not a problem, as the current £30,000 certification fee per model is affordable to a large firm expecting to sell thousands of examples of any given bike. But a specials builder or importer of non-approved bikes would be priced out.

OPTION TWO: Every non-certified bike imported would essentially face an extended MoT before a decision could be made whether or not to issue a registration. This would be called the Basic Single Vehicle Approval (BSVA) and would have to be carried out on every single non-approved machine requiring a registration. It would cost around £100 to £150 per bike.

OPTION THREE: Similar to option two, as all non-Euro standard bikes would again pass through BSVA, but importers of larger numbers of bikes – probably 10 or more – would have to put each unapproved model through a more extensive additional test, costing around £7000, on top of the cost of the BSVA on every machine. This is the current situation for car importers.

The Government has until August 14 to decide which option to pursue, and the scheme will have to be in place before June 2003.