where can my girlfriend ride

[GaryD12345]

My french girlfriend has a CBT from the uk and a full car drivers license from France, which to my untrained eye allows up to 125cc motorbikes.
i do believe france are/have introduced a cbt style 125 certificate which she does not have

which European countries can she ride in legaly on her 125cc motorcycle please? i'm thinking it might be an all or none answer

[Tourider]

For a six month period she can ride in the UK. She must then pay a £50 fee to transfer to a UK licence. As for the rest of the EU then the answer will be no until she has a full UK licence.

[GaryD12345]

oops! so just blind luckher riding for the last 2 years on our euro tour we didnt get pulled?

thank you, i will speak to her about getting a full license

[Donmanolo]

Should be ok in Italy.... you can ride a 125cc bike down here with just a car license as long as the engine power output doesn't exceed 11kw. If it was obtained less than 3 years ago then speeds are limited to 100kph on motorways and 80 or maybe 90 elsewhere.
No idea if anything changes if you have a foreign license but I wouldn't worry about it. I've been riding since 1997 and l've never been stopped.

[Pongo]

The short answer is that she can not ride a 125cc anywhere. If she is resident in the U.K. she will need a U.K. licence with either a minimum Cat A1 or a full car licence held for more than 2 years with a relevant certificate. In France she will have to take the 7 hr training and test and hold a certificate with her car licence. She will only then be able to ride a 125cc in France.

What surprises me is that she has a French licence and U.K. .CBT. This should not actually be possible, because you cannot use a foreign licence to commence training in another category as licences can not be upgraded outside their own country and certificates can not be awarded to foreign licences holders.

A French licence is valid anywhere in Europe, so is a U.K. licence, but if you want to upgrade your licence to include another category, even if it is only a certificate, the licence must be changed to the national licence where you reside before you can take training, and you must have been resident in that country at least six months before you can apply.

The same laws now apply throughout the European Union.

[Alexlebrit]

Originally Posted by Pongo

The short answer is that she can not ride a 125cc anywhere.

Not strictly true, European member states were allowed to opt out of parts of the Third European Licensing Directive, hence Britain and France having some notion of a basic training requirement plus Category B car license and seemingly Italy continuing to allow 125cc bikes to be ridden on a Category B license alone.

In France she will have to take the 7 hr training and test and hold a certificate with her car licence. She will only then be able to ride a 125cc in France.

Again not strictly true, if you can show by means of a certificate from your insurer that you have ridden a 125cc or under in the five years previous to the 1st of January 2011 (no matter how long or short you may have held said policy) you may continue to ride a up to a 125cc in France without the need for 7 hours compulsory training. See HERE. As the OP's girlfriend is a French license holder there's a chance that this might be the case. Likewise I used to be resident in France and rode a 125cc motorcycle. Despite having now returned to the UK and having had to exchange my French license for a UK one I can still ride in France as I have the required certificate from my former insurer.

What surprises me is that she has a French licence and U.K. CBT. This should not actually be possible, because you cannot use a foreign licence to commence training in another category as licences can not be upgraded outside their own country and certificates can not be awarded to foreign licences holders.

A French licence is valid anywhere in Europe, so is a U.K. licence, but if you want to upgrade your licence to include another category, even if it is only a certificate, the licence must be changed to the national licence where you reside before you can take training, and you must have been resident in that country at least six months before you can apply.

The same laws now apply throughout the European Union.

I have a feeling that this is either not the case or that it's being ignored on a huge international scale. When I first returned to the UK I did my CBT whilst holding a French license only exchanging it as a requirement of the insurance on my wife's Motability car. The same CBT day saw certificates being issued to an Italian and two Poles. Whether any of us should have been given the training or not it happened.

Likewise I know of two UK license holders, resident in France who have done the 7 hours training there and who hold the French certificate.

As far as l know there exists no definitive list of which countries will allow car license holders
to also ride limited sized motorcycles. The simplest way I can think to try and find out would be to consult the ex-pats' forums for the relevant countries. Anglo-Info have a range of sites for different countries and could be a good place to start. You'll possibly get a range of different answers but someone will no doubt point you to the relevant legislation.

[GaryD12345]

thanks you all so much. speaking to her yesterday i would like to add:

she also has a UK counterpart to her french license which she says she needed for her CBT in the UK to be valid.

she has lived in the uk for 8 years and was insured in a UK bike before 1st jan( on her 2nd cbt now so that adds up)but never in france on a french bike just for added confusion, only a motorcyclist in the UK