Touring the EU on a provisional

eldon

Hello all

I am in the initial stages of planning a trip around Europe, I only have a provisional licence and so I was wondering is it permitted to travel outside of Ireland on such a licence? Would my insurance be valid?

I haven't purchased my bike yet but have been looking at a BMW R65, does anyone have any experience riding one of these on a provisional?

The listed power of the bike is 48.00 HP (35.0 kW)) @ 7250 RPM

I appreciated that I would have to get this restricted but seeing as the bike I'm looking is 19 years I assume that the bike's power has naturally depreciated, does anyone know where I could get it dyno-ed? how much that would cost?

I am hoping to execute this plan in the next 3 weeks so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I haven't purchased a bike yet so if anyone has any better ideas please let me know, my criteria is something inexpensive, suitable for someone on a provisional, good reliability and that is common so that parts and expertise for repair would be universally available.

all advice is hugely appreciated

thanks a million

eldon

KTRIC

Bad news for you....


You are not allowed to leave the country (ROI) with a provisional licence and your provisional would not cover you for that bike.

MrPudding

eldon wrote:

Hello all

I am in the initial stages of planning a trip around Europe, I only have a provisional licence and so I was wondering is it permitted to travel outside of Ireland on such a licence? Would my insurance be valid?

I haven't purchased my bike yet but have been looking at a BMW R65, does anyone have any experience riding one of these on a provisional?

The listed power of the bike is 48.00 HP (35.0 kW)) @ 7250 RPM

I appreciated that I would have to get this restricted but seeing as the bike I'm looking is 19 years I assume that the bike's power has naturally depreciated, does anyone know where I could get it dyno-ed? how much that would cost?

I am hoping to execute this plan in the next 3 weeks so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I haven't purchased a bike yet so if anyone has any better ideas please let me know, my criteria is something inexpensive, suitable for someone on a provisional, good reliability and that is common so that parts and expertise for repair would be universally available.

all advice is hugely appreciated

thanks a million

eldon

You can't even tour the whole of the island of Ireland legally on a provisional, let alone Europe.

If you look at yuor provisional it states that it is only valid in the state.

If you next question is "should I risk it?" The answer is no. Please to not make the mistake of thinking the lack of enforcement of rules you see in Ireland is a European trait. Believe me it is not.

I would say that in general the chance of you getting stopped and asked for your licence is probably quite slim. I rode from Calais to Brussels to Utrect(sp) to Luxenbourg and back to Calais without seeing a single cop, on a full license. The problem is, if you are stopped it will be a very unhappy experience.

MrP

Del2005

Your insurance would also be invalid.

So you'd be riding a bike you have no licence or insurance for and no experience.

As said above. Don't do it.

galwaytt

you are, as they say, toast.

Dr Pepper

While we're on the subject.. What about a (restricted) Full Licence?
I passed the test in March last year so I'm still on the 2 year restriction. Was thinking of doing a bit of touring this September.

PS - Hi MrPudding! Hope you're doing well since WWR. I can now read your posts with an accent and a face to go with them

murphaph

Dr Pepper wrote:

While we're on the subject.. What about a (restricted) Full Licence?
I passed the test in March last year so I'm still on the 2 year restriction. Was thinking of doing a bit of touring this September.

How do you mean? You can ride any bike that you can ride on your restricted licence abroad too. Restricted licences aren't restricted to Ireland.

Dr Pepper

Thanks, just wondering if I can ride abroad at all. So, the answer is yes. I assumed the same power restriction would apply abroad too.

murphaph

Dr Pepper wrote:

Thanks, just wondering if I can ride abroad at all. So, the answer is yes. I assumed the same power restriction would apply abroad too.

Yep. Whatever you interpret that restriction to be because the law is far from clear Your licence was issued under irish law so any foreign police force/DPP would only be able to prosecute you if you were in breach of irish law vis a vis licencing. They couldn't, for example, say "well in the UK the power to weight restriction means...." because that is irrelevant as far as an irish licence goes because the irish licence was issued under our laws, even though they are supposed to comply with the same EU directive (the 2nd driving licence directive). Because of these complexities, I would imagine you might be delayed by cops abroad if stopped but not prosecuted as they's have to go off and look at our law governing your licence and once they saw how loose it was they'd have no choice but to let you go.

I do this myself by the way, I'm on a restricted licence for another 9 or so months too but I will take a bike above 25kW abroad and I'll certainly ride one here until I hear of folks being prosecuted for it and let's be honest, in a country where a 19 year old can hop in a Ferrari and drive it untested and unaccompanied quite legally I can't see any bikers who've passed a test being done for the restriction for a while yet.