Helping the Spanish economy

[lew600fazer]

Good ride out this morning sadly spoilt by the €100 fine I have to pay for filtering at the lights, there reasoning is I either crossed a solid white line or failed to allow a distance of 1.5 mtrs between me and the cars I was passing, even though I was just about moving, feet down etc! Okay I was in the wrong but come on tell me this is not all about making money. One good thing out here is if I pay within 20 days I get a 50% discount, Anything to help the Spanish economy lol. 

[VNA - BMW Wank]

You know, you would think they would just give you a good talking to if they were not happy.

I mean if they start fleecing folks right left and centre, well folks might not bother going.

It always puzzles me when coppers hand out fines for minor traffic infringements to foreigners.

[Fazerider]

1.5 metres? Glad we don't have rules like that in the UK, most bikers in London regard 1.5cm as ample.  

[adeejaysdelight]

1.5 metres? Glad we don't have rules like that in the UK, most bikers in London regard 1.5cm as ample.

 

[seangee]

1.5 metres? Glad we don't have rules like that in the UK

Each side! That's a total of 3 metres. Try that in London and you'd probably have a scooter squeezing through either side of you.

[Chillum]

You don't happen to have a GB sticker on do you? They're a bit touchy about us at the moment.

[lew600fazer]

You don't happen to have a GB sticker on do you? They're a bit touchy about us at the moment.

No GB sticker I live here now and the bike is on Spanish plates,
Lew

[lew600fazer]

Good ride out this morning sadly spoilt by the €100 fine I have to pay for filtering at the lights, there reasoning is I either crossed a solid white line or failed to allow a distance of 1.5 mtrs between me and the cars I was passing, even though I was just about moving, feet down etc! Okay I was in the wrong but come on tell me this is not all about making money. One good thing out here is if I pay within 20 days I get a 50% discount, Anything to help the Spanish economy lol. 

Went to pay my fine this morning , asked how I wanted to pay, cash I says so popped a €50 note on the counter. She says you need another €50. No I says all full of myself. As I am paying within the 20 days I get 50% discount. Yes she says , read the ticket so I did, the fine was €200.00 and seeing as I was paying with in the 20 days now only €100.00. Fecking livid I was since I moved out here to Spain in march this year the bastards have had €250.00 of me in total. I got done for speeding in the car on the AP-23 110kph in an 80kph zone. The crafty bastards had a speed camera right behind the 80 sign, I would not mind but I was slowing down .
If you are coming out to Spain anytime soon just be aware it is hunting season for motorists and bikers alike, slightest infringement and they will do you. I nearly got done for parking she was in the process of writing the ticket when I came back to the car to put the ticket I had just bought from the machine on my windshield. She said I was to long away from the car. I pointed out that the ticket machine was nearly 100mtrs from the car and as I walk with limp I am not the fastest on two feet. She continued to issue the ticket and when she handed it to me to sign, I started laughing, the ticket I had bought was time stamped 11.54 and the time she was booking me for 11.57. I was actually going into see my Abegado /Solicitor on house business when he appeared at my side. He looked at what was going on and I do not know what was said in Spanish but she put the book in her pocket and buggered off.
Just milking it for all they can get.
Lew

[Chillum]

Well their economy is in the crapper so I suppose they have to try and get cash somehow. A bit like we do here in blightly really.

[imax]

If you are coming out to Spain anytime soon just be aware it is hunting season for motorists and bikers alike, slightest infringement and they will do you.

Not just Spain unfortunately 

[Motorbreath]

Which city it was?

I'm from Spain and I've never been fined for filtering, and only once for speeding  . Filtering is a grey area that depends on how hard the city's council tries to get money, if it happens that somebody there hates or likes bikes and how dangerous the action seemed to the police. It is not a good idea to filter on a solid line anyway.

In cities like Madrid and Granada you have advanced motorcycle stoplines. I think that nobody is going to fine you if you filter to reach them if the cars are fully stopped and you do it slowly even if you do not leave the 1'5m.

Parking on the sidewalk is allowed in some cities and forbidden in others, so when you travel it seems you have to study each council's local rules. Radar where the speed sign changes are increasing. It is a theft. They mostly control speeding at the sorrounding of towns or at the end of descents. Never where the traffic is very light -no matter the accidents, according to the former chief's words-. The 50% discount is very embarrasing and for many law experts it is considered actually illegal.

[lew600fazer]

Which city it was?

I'm from Spain and I've never been fined for filtering, and only once for speeding  . Filtering is a grey area that depends on how hard the city's council tries to get money, if it happens that somebody there hates or likes bikes and how dangerous the action seemed to the police. It is not a good idea to filter on a solid line anyway.

In cities like Madrid and Granada you have advanced motorcycle stoplines. I think that nobody is going to fine you if you filter to reach them if the cars are fully stopped and you do it slowly even if you do not leave the 1'5m.

Parking on the sidewalk is allowed in some cities and forbidden in others, so when you travel it seems you have to study each council's local rules. Radar where the speed sign changes are increasing. It is a theft. They mostly control speeding at the sorrounding of towns or at the end of descents. Never where the traffic is very light -no matter the accidents, according to the former chief's words-. The 50% discount is very embarrasing and for many law experts it is considered actually illegal.

It was Altea Costa Blanca North, Alicante province Bike for filtering, and the car speeding fine A-P23 up Narvonne?, parking incident Teulada/Benissa Alicante province. Having a moan but loving my life here in Spain, but I will be hanging onto my British licence as long as I can as I have been told when I get my Spanish licence I will have points straight away.
Lew

[taylor]

send in the warships. we have had enough of those greasy gringos, all they do is moan.

[lew600fazer]

send in the warships. we have had enough of those greasy gringos, all they do is moan.

Trust you are joking about moaning non worse than us, think we Brits invented it.

[Slaninar]

La gente este muy loca!   

[taylor]

muchus grasus penis, thanks a lot cock,

[Earache]

Which city it was?

I'm from Spain and I've never been fined for filtering, and only once for speeding  . Filtering is a grey area that depends on how hard the city's council tries to get money, if it happens that somebody there hates or likes bikes and how dangerous the action seemed to the police. It is not a good idea to filter on a solid line anyway.

In cities like Madrid and Granada you have advanced motorcycle stoplines. I think that nobody is going to fine you if you filter to reach them if the cars are fully stopped and you do it slowly even if you do not leave the 1'5m.

Parking on the sidewalk is allowed in some cities and forbidden in others, so when you travel it seems you have to study each council's local rules. Radar where the speed sign changes are increasing. It is a theft. They mostly control speeding at the sorrounding of towns or at the end of descents. Never where the traffic is very light -no matter the accidents, according to the former chief's words-. The 50% discount is very embarrasing and for many law experts it is considered actually illegal.

It was Altea Costa Blanca North, Alicante province Bike for filtering, and the car speeding fine A-P23 up Narvonne?, parking incident Teulada/Benissa Alicante province. Having a moan but loving my life here in Spain, but I will be hanging onto my British licence as long as I can as I have been told when I get my Spanish licence I will have points straight away.
Lew

Hi there!


I live in Spain too, Barcelona is my home city. Cops here suck big time, specially if you are a foreigner who cant speak good enough Spanish.. I have been living here for almost 2 years and i have been stopped only once,it was a routine traffic control with 7 cops bitching on me about almost everything...  i do around 1000-1500km a month commuting to work and weekend trips around Catalunya and the French border.. I do filtering all the time since here its the big city traffic and a bike is the only good choice here(+ coming from Finland i have the chance to ride 12 months a year instead of 6 month!). Regarding the Driving licence mystery, cops hate foreign licences due to the fact of not being able to deduce points and if you haven't done anything wrong to fine you its hard for the young macho's to just let you go.. I have had a big argue with 3 cops about my licence(EU-licence), the cops say you have to change it for a Spanish one, but a the "DGT=Trafico" they say there is no need to change it, but after 2 years of living here you should register your licence to Spain. The process costs 50€ for a medical check and 10€(mostly tax) to the DGT=Trafico + a week or two of waiting for the your original licence to travel to Madrid and back, during that period you will have a temporary paper as your licence and you are not allowed to drive outside the country(Spain). So all in all you have to pay 60€ for the privilege of being fined by loosing points.. And for me as i hold a Finnish ABC licence from the beginning of the 90's, my licence is of a very long duration, its valid until 2047 without any need for renewal. That seemed to be a big problem for the Spanish authorities too!! I'll try to just continue driving without doing anything to my DL, unless i get into big trouble that forces me to register the licence.. Not sure if the local insurance companies can wash their hands in case of an accident if you are resident here,riding a Spanish Plated bike with an unregistered EU licence... but even if cops and some other things suck here, can't fault the beautiful women and the awsome weather!! 


By the way any more members of this forum living in Spain, would appreciate some riding company, since i'm mostly a lonely rider here.

[lew600fazer]

I am lucky down here on the North Costa Blanca, I ride with a group every Sunday morning , Brits , Dutch, Germans in our group.
I am not resident here and to be honest I may keep it that way, if I take out residencia it is compulsory to get a Spanish licence so will stick with my UK(Euro)licence for as long as I can.
Lew

[Motorbreath]

La gente este muy loca!   

Exam passed. That's from a silly disco song, isn't it?

send in the warships. we have had enough of those greasy gringos, all they do is moan.

muchus grasus penis, thanks a lot cock,

I'm lost now. Who are you calling the greasy gringos? Spaniards or British?
"Gringos" is how mexicans call yankees. Spaniards call North European people "guiris", specially when they are drunk or/and sunburnt

Earache, it seems that everybody hates Barcelona police (Mossos d'Esquadra). They seem worse than the Guardia Civil that is at most of the rest od Spain. I am even afraid of going there with my new bike (old Madrid plate).

Lew600, once you get used to our roads I am pretty sure you will got less fines.

I've been always riding fast and doing a lot of filtering, forbidden turns, overtakes and more. But I've been considered a good driver by the DGT: I started with 12 points and now I have 15 (I could even "sell" some, they are highly priced ).

Enjoy the country.

[Slaninar]

La gente este muy loca!   

Exam passed. That's from a silly disco song, isn't it?

Yes. THAT one.   

[Earache]

Earache, it seems that everybody hates Barcelona police (Mossos d'Esquadra). They seem worse than the Guardia Civil that is at most of the rest od Spain. I am even afraid of going there with my new bike (old Madrid plate).

Yes the fuck*ng Mossos! But here we have all the scale, Guardia civil, Guardia urbana, Policia local and the damn Mossos!(i might have forgotten some!)
HAHA, a Madrid plate in Barcelona would like red to a toro! But as a guiri i don't care of Madrid plates, you are welcome to Catalunya any time!

[Earache]

I am lucky down here on the North Costa Blanca, I ride with a group every Sunday morning , Brits , Dutch, Germans in our group.
I am not resident here and to be honest I may keep it that way, if I take out residencia it is compulsory to get a Spanish licence so will stick with my UK(Euro)licence for as long as I can.
Lew

If you have the possibility to live here without the residencia, then you have no worries about the licence..
I need to be resident since i work here and support the troubled state by donating some hundreds of €'s to the tax office every month.

[slimwilly]

Two of us rode down to Barcelona last year, did quite a bit of riding around the city,it's very easy to get lost there. No problems with the police though, thank god.
we went to see the Moto GP.We truly loved the place, Los Ramblas, my mate got fingered there, foreign bitch had his money.Very nice city, will take the wife there one day.

[lew600fazer]

Two of us rode down to Barcelona last year, did quite a bit of riding around the city,it's very easy to get lost there. No problems with the police though, thank god.
we went to see the Moto GP.We truly loved the place, Los Ramblas, my mate got fingered there, foreign bitch had his money.Very nice city, will take the wife there one day.

Just like any big city , always some twat trying to rip you off, but Barcelona is up there. When I was working < merchant Navy> we used to go into Barcelona and all you could hear on the ships radio was some passenger had been mugged ashore in Las Ramblas.
We had a chief officer on one ship and him and his wife were ashore and two guys tried to mug them. They thought easy meat here as the wife was a lovely little Korean girl. She knocked shit out of the pair of them and detained them until the police arrived. Marshal arts black belt in something or other. She must have weighed in at all of 50kgs, apparently the police pissed themselves laughing before hauling them away.