Since no one is listening to their complaints regarding French interior minister Claude Guéant and his series of proposals that specifically targets motorcyclists, over 50,000 angry French bike took to the roads for the third time this year to continue their protest.

“We will not tolerate to be treated like cash cows and adhere to legislation that is purely there to grab money from us. We will fight, continue to demonstrate and cause massive chaos all over the country until these short-minded and money-grabbing guys abandon their policies and listen to what we’ve got to say to them. If this is the only way we have to put our points across, then so be it,” said a spokesperson from the FFMC (French Federation of Angry Bikers).

Vincent, our blogger from Motosblog.fr was also present and sent us these photos and if you check out Miker Werner’s motorbiker.org website you can see that the FFMC is not limiting itself in only blocking traffic, but are sending messages to the public with some pretty hard hitting ads against the government’s new proposals.

Continue reading: French motorcyclists continue protest

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Motor taxis in Paris have been in use since 2001, spreading to other large French cities, but are now going to be regulated starting from April 1st. The new law is not going down well with the operators and last weekend they organized a protest in Paris complaining that they are being discriminated against traditional taxi cabs.

The tougher legislation means that taxi riders will not allowed to go looking for fares, the way their four wheeled counterparts are, nor will they be allowed to park in front of the airport or train stations, unless they’ve been booked by a client and violations include one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 Euros.

Many taxi riders are afraid that they’ll loose a third of their business due to the new law (which also includes that motorcycles not be older than 3 years, with proof of regular maintenance) and that fate could await almost 40% of the existing moto taxis.

Source | motosblog.fr

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London motorcyclists are continuing their 18 month protest against the Westminster City Council in London against parking taxes that was imposed on them.

After being ignored and their protests completely unlistened to, the protesters have now upped their demonstrations from once a month to once a week with what they call the Wednesday-Morning-Breakfast-Club’ (WMBC) protest ride.

A few hours before the start of the WMBC, bikers, who are registered with the No To Bike Parking Tax campaign, receive an SMS to advise them where to meet and at 7:30 gather at a roundabout or junction to cause massive traffic jams during the morning rush hour in the British capital by riding their bikes as cars and taking the space of a car.

The Wednesday morning protest will continue until the City Council sees the light and abolishes the parking tax.

Check out more videos after the jump.

Continue reading: London Bikers Continue Parking Fee Protest (w/video)

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To lane split or not? The French Federation of Angry Bikers took to the roads in a 40,000 strong protest, after an official from the French Transport Ministry stated that the police would start pulling over and fining motorcyclists who lane split.

10,000 of the protesters made a point of taking up as much room as a car and not lane split which resulted in a massive road congestion in Paris, and after the French Transport Secretary Jean Marc Belotti said if bikers didn’t the like the idea that they couldn’t lane split anymore “they can take the metro like everyone else” which the bikers did and wearing full leathers, mobbing into the Paris subway system and blocking one of the lines.

… apparently the Transport Secretary has now had second thoughts and is re-considering the restrictions on lane-splitting.

Source | stayontheblack

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Over 550 New Zealand bikers got together to protest against the Govenment’s proposed hike on ACC levies.

Under the proposed levies, owners of bikes over 610cc will have their annual ACC levy increase from $252.69 to $745.77, for medium-sized bikes the increase would be from $252 to $511 and moped owners would face a $257 levy.

What surprised us wasn’t the the numbers of bikers in the protest, but the fact that ACC minister Nick Smith met with the protesters and there wasn’t any police or secret service guys hanging around, something that would have never happened here in Italy.

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This video shows us one of four protests that took place in Israel against the Finance Ministry’s decision to raise insurance fees for motorcycle owners.

It seems that these protests hasn’t moved the Government in rethinking their decision, so other Israeli bikers in Tel Aviv, intensifying their protest this time by carrying signs that read “They are leaving us without coverage” showed what they really meant, check out the pic after the jump.

Continue reading: Israeli Bikers Protest - Video

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