Police cracking down on 'modified' bikes?

[thelongshoot]

Hey there. I live in Hua Hin and have seen the police embark on a full on campaign to nick anyone who has a 'mod-eee-faaai" bike of any kind. I have a modern type vespa with an after market scorpion exhaust and a Thai fella in the local garage told me that the old bill would lift me for that. Apparently, and I dont know exactly how true this is, there is a hefty fine involved at minimum and at worst they are reserving the right to confiscate anything that has more than a couple of after market bits on it.

Apparently they have a hard-on for anyone with an exhaust that does not have some type of Thai stamp that gets stamped on the exhaust when the scooter is at the factory or imported.

This is a worry for me as I have a couple of classic scooters from the 60's, totally legal with book, reg plate and tax but obviously both dripping in after market stuff like lights, mirrors, horns etc and 50 year old exhausts that do not have the Thai stamp. I can handle paying the odd fine but to see these axxholes keep my scooter would devastate me, each scooter is worth more than my 3 year old Isuzu truck and I went through a coyple of years of stress and dramas getting them both restored and moded up!

Does anyone know if this is happening elsewhere in Thailand? is there a solution to it do you think? Maybe trying to meet up with police chief and offering some kind of back hander? A Thai guy I know at a shop which sells all after market stuff for honda/suzuki/yamaha scooters you know the silly colorful shocks and disk breaks they like over here, had to pay 50,000 Baht to the old bill just to stay open last week.

So, any truth to this? Any solutions if so?

Is there not some kind of law here that permits classic scooters/cars to fly under the radar, like they do in the UK?

[Rhys]

The stamp is purple

[JOC]

Be afraid, be very afraid!!

Hua Hin police station today:

[kiniyow]

Been doing this for many years..Over 10 Yrs ago and Modification on a Bike cost 1000 THB and this was years ago

[thelongshoot]

Jesus, so it is true. God knows where that leaves me on a 60's lambretta with all the extras on they are gonna jump all over me surely? Is that picture in Hua Hin? If so is it only Hua Hin?

What is that about the purple stamp sorry?

[guzzi850m2]

I think I read somewhere it's nation wide, they are getting feed up with the young gangs riding very noisy bikes.

I can't see it should be a problem on you very old classics scooters, you just have to try convince them that they all run original exhausts.

Forget about try bribing the police chief, a high ranking official can give you lots of problems and if he take bribes, it will be big money.

Sometimes it's also just a short time thing and all will be back to normal next week.

Only exhaust systems needs the special stamp, many here adds a lot of bling on their bikes, and I can't see that should be illegal?

[bramds]

I don't think you should be worried, I think the police can spot the difference between a boy racer on his modified wave or a gentleman enjoying a cruise on a classic vespa.

[thelongshoot]

I think I read somewhere it's nation wide, they are getting feed up with the young gangs riding very noisy bikes.

I can't see it should be a problem on you very old classics scooters, you just have to try convince them that they all run original exhausts.

Forget about try bribing the police chief, a high ranking official can give you lots of problems and if he take bribes, it will be big money.

Sometimes it's also just a short time thing and all will be back to normal next week.

Only exhaust systems needs the special stamp, many here adds a lot of bling on their bikes, and I can't see that should be illegal?

Yup you would have thought the lights etc would be ok, but the inspector at Pranburi vehicle registration place (who checked one of my scooters when i did a paint change) told my mrs that the police wont like the lights and they will try and hit me for them. it didnt realy worry me as I just figured i will tell them they dont work, show only, they will not know how to turn them on. But if they are out and about looking for excuses it is just another reason for them I guess.

Bottom line is - if i have to pay the odd fine, i can live with that. I was just wondering if there was any truth to the rumour of confiscating bikes. I cant see that myself but it is going around.

My first classic scooter didnt have a book but i did manage to pay off a friendly mid level traffic cop for 5000 baht. Any time i got stopped, whatever the reason, i just got him on the phone and i was left alone. He has left Hua Hin now.

[thelongshoot]

I don't think you should be worried, I think the police can spot the difference between a boy racer on his modified wave or a gentleman enjoying a cruise on a classic vespa.

There is that yes.... Im not exactly flying around town at break neck speed and it isnt very loud.

[DLang]

Hua Hin police have been famous for it for a few years.

The stamp is a TIS stamp.

Thai Industrial Standard or something like that.

Would be a stamp welded on to it after passing their noise test.

[Bung]

I guess the police chief got rattled after a boy racer overtook him at full noise so he ordered a crackdown...seroiusly though, some of the thais have very loud bikes and they gun them around town which doesnt help anyone. Ive cringed seeing them do it.

[DLang]

TIS Stamp on a Tsukigi Exhaust.

[eeeya]

What aftermarket exhausts have the TIS stamp in Thailand?

[andrewrooney]

^Not very many. I think Tsukigi is one of the few that does.

There's a reason when you go into K-Speed they have all those signs up that say "for track use only"... even though they install the pipe on the bike for you and you ride away on it

If the OP's pipes are the originals, though, it should be ok. Unless, of course, he meets a cop that feels like being a tremendous prick about it.

[eisfeld]

Mugen, Yoshimura, Akrapovic, Termignoni etc who are sold at official dealers in most cases should have the TIS stamp even though I have not checked.

They cost around 30-60k THB or more and even there some are not street legal (no cat, track only).

You pay the price for these brand ones though. The vast majority of aftermarket exhausts in thailand are not street legal.

[eeeya]

Be afraid, be very afraid!!

Hua Hin police station today:exhaust.jpg

all i see here is scooters and msx's

no big bikes

[eeeya]

Be afraid, be very afraid!!

Hua Hin police station today:exhaust.jpg

all i see is scooters and msx's

no big bikes

[macknife]

If your bike is legal then they can't confiscate it. They could take the exhaust off but you would still keep your bike. They can take take your bike to the police station though, this would involve about 1000B fine to get it back.

I wouldn't worry too much.

[thrilled]

Your moped,you say scooter cost more than your truck.What do you have it fitted with Gold?

[WingNut]

The "police work" they do never ceases to amaze. If it can earn a good amount of money then it's good "police work".

Edited June 18, 2015 by WingNut

[Crowleys]

Got 1000b fine because of modified and loud exhaust near by Asiantique today. Luckily they didn't take my exhaust.

[Overandout]

So let me get this clear, are we talking about "modified bikes" or simply bikes with loud exhausts?

There is quite a difference. I'd imagine that even the dumbest of officers can tell when a bike has an aftre market illegal exhaust, but how will the know if the cdi has been reprogrammed or the front forks changed?

What about Zoomers with 17" wheel kits? Larger brake discs with caliper brackets?

Where do they draw the line?

When they cracked down in Spain on the EU laws of Type Approval, they went mental. One guy I knew in a classic car club couldn't get his car through the "MoT" (even though it had been legally on the road for the last 25 or 26 years) because the car had a sunroof which wasn't recorded on the documentation. This meant, by SPanish bureaucratic logic, that it must have been added afterwards and therefore needed an engineer's certificate for the installation, but no engineer would give him one because they hadn't done the work and it was obviously a factory sunroof.

I'm not suggesting that Thailand will ever get to the ridiculous levels of EU ubercontrol, but how is a Thai cop qualified to decide if my bike is modified or not?

[Crowleys]

Qualifications and thai cop hahahah. they just make up some reason to fine you.

[1900]

Take off the muffler and put a washer in there somehow. They're not going to stop you looking for that seal if you're not making noise.

[SheungWan]

So let me get this clear, are we talking about "modified bikes" or simply bikes with loud exhausts?

There is quite a difference. I'd imagine that even the dumbest of officers can tell when a bike has an aftre market illegal exhaust, but how will the know if the cdi has been reprogrammed or the front forks changed?

What about Zoomers with 17" wheel kits? Larger brake discs with caliper brackets?

Where do they draw the line?

When they cracked down in Spain on the EU laws of Type Approval, they went mental. One guy I knew in a classic car club couldn't get his car through the "MoT" (even though it had been legally on the road for the last 25 or 26 years) because the car had a sunroof which wasn't recorded on the documentation. This meant, by SPanish bureaucratic logic, that it must have been added afterwards and therefore needed an engineer's certificate for the installation, but no engineer would give him one because they hadn't done the work and it was obviously a factory sunroof.

I'm not suggesting that Thailand will ever get to the ridiculous levels of EU ubercontrol, but how is a Thai cop qualified to decide if my bike is modified or not?

Its about the loud exhausts and the boy racers annoying everybody in the neighbourhoods.