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Home Country Identification on Bike? Home Country Identification on Bike?
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Europe Topics specific to Western and Eastern Europe, from UK to the Russian border, and south-east to Turkey.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 2 Nov 2007
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Home Country Identification on Bike?
So what is the deal with having a license plate logo or sticker of the country the bike is registered in...is this the law or something people just like to do?
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  #2  
Old 2 Nov 2007
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It is the law for Europe (an EU requirement) but lots of people forget or ignore it - I have never heard of anyone being pulled over for that violation (now someone will come along who has been!).

Welcome to here BTW!!!!
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  #3  
Old 2 Nov 2007
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Travels in Scandinavia, North and Western Europe, Baltic States and Russia so far. No country logo, no problems. I see no need to have a country badge and shall keep biking incognito.

baswacky.
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  #4  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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i am Turkish and I have traveled from UK to Turkiye with a UK registered bike with no logo (they dont even ask for my passaport until Greek-Turkiye border). I had no problem at all. But in Italy, I have collected UK, France, Switzerland, Italy and a Turkish logo/flag (and Greek in Greece) and sticked them on to my panniers just for fun. I know that it is also compulsory in Europa, even not it is good for the people who wants to interact with you.

I am sure you wont get any trouble wheter you stick you country logo/flag on to your bike.

have fun
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  #5  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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marcussdtaylor-

When/where will be doing your 1 year in Europe? I leave on Dec 5th from NY to do the same, albeit probably a slower pace. Please feel free to contact me to see if our routes/plans coincide at all.
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  #6  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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Trip plans
Mike,

Great looking at your site. I probably won't get to Italy til April or so. I will be heading south to Spain, Portugal and then due east all the way to turkey following the coast more or less then west from Turkey following a more northerly route to Germany.

Maybe our paths will cross somewhere along the line.
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  #7  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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Thanks
Thanks for the responses guys!
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  #8  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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slovenia/croatia
I live on the slovene border in Italy and I've had occasional problems with slovene and croatian police over not having an italy sticker on my italian registered car. I've never actually been fined though, although I came quite close in one case. I'm not much of a fan of national flags, or nationalism in any of its forms, so in principle I refuse to buy such a thing.
to be fair, having no national sticker on my bike has never been a problem though, in this area or anywhere else in the EU for that matter.
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  #9  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marcussdtaylor View Post
Thanks for the responses guys!
You could use the "ADV" version!!! - kind of International!
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  #10  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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Originally Posted by Giacomo View Post
I live on the slovene border in Italy and I've had occasional problems with slovene and croatian police over not having an italy sticker on my italian registered car. I've never actually been fined though, although I came quite close in one case. I'm not much of a fan of national flags, or nationalism in any of its forms, so in principle I refuse to buy such a thing.
to be fair, having no national sticker on my bike has never been a problem though, in this area or anywhere else in the EU for that matter.
Interesting Giacomo; my guess is that those countries are a bit sensitive because you have a common border, + croatia is not in the EU (yet!).
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  #11  
Old 3 Nov 2007
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yes could be that....or just that they don't like italian tourists ( and quite rightly so) ,anyway smiles work wonders, and both of these countries (SLO and CRO) are bikers paradises...with great and friendly people....(and even police sometimes...I've had some great chats about bikes with them too on several occasions)

Safe travels

Antonio (Giacomo)
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  #12  
Old 4 Nov 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marcussdtaylor View Post
I probably won't get to Italy til April or so. I will be heading south to Spain, Portugal and then due east all the way to turkey following the coast more or less then west from Turkey following a more northerly route to Germany
I show up in the UK in May and ride straight to Italy for the Motogiro. The wander around until the Isle of Man GP in August. If you see a guy looking confused on an old Ducati single with California plates, please say hi.

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  #13  
Old 4 Nov 2007
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Officially:

In any European (not talking only about EU) country national identification is compulsory. The reason is that if police has to fine, for instance, a car with a plate DU 582 KJ, they are very happy to know which country the vehicle comes from.
If the vehicle is using an EU plate with the country info on the same plate, it is not necessary to attach the eliptic code on EU roads, while it is not illegal to do so. This is not the case with non-EU contries like Croatia. Still officially, even a car with an EU-license plate has to have also the eliptic country code.

Practically, I've been asked once in Croatia and once in Serbia about the code and put the magnetic one on the back door for a couple of hours. No such problems with the bike.
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  #14  
Old 4 Nov 2007
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the country logo is compulsory for cars but not for bikes.

on the tail of some of them there is no even space to stick a reflector, which is compulsory here by the way.

I was at a friend of mine's bike workshop this morning and a guy came to put a reflector on because he was fined yesterday for not having one, the guy had a street bike, a Ninja I think or something similar with a minimalist tail and we really struggled to find space for the reflector, a country logo would have been impossible...
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  #15  
Old 4 Nov 2007
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marcussdtaylor- Sounds good. Well keep checking on that site because once I get overseas I will be updating it much more religiously as to where I am and where I am heading. So if you see our paths crossing we should definitely meet up. I might be ready for some American company by then.


As far as the country logo is concerned, I will be riding with New York tags, so my understanding is that I should not have a problem with driving without the oval sticker. This might be my NY attitude, but I just automatically assume everyone knows New York.
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