Hitchcocks Forum

Greetings all,

1993 Bullet 350

II have just com across a post from Bumble regarding a Certificate of Conformity in France. I find myself in the same position, only I personally imported the bike from Bombay to Belfast in 1993. The bike was registered right away in Belfast without problems and has been on the road ever since.
I brought the bike over to France and took out French insurance cover. Six months later and the insurers are asking for the French Carte Grise (registration document)
I think that I am stuffed here as I know that it is not possible for me to get a C O Conformity from R. E. In Madras or from UK importers.

The big problem is that without the C.O.C. it is not possible to register the bike in France.
Any information from the wise members on this forum would be greatly appreciated.
,
Many Thanks in Advance

Was your bike new on importation into NI or was it second hand? Vehicles over 30 years old are straight forward to register here in France hence my question. Over the years I read of many people trying to register previously registered Indian imports into France and failing and just returning the bikes back to the UK for sale. Do not bother with the UK importer in your case they would not be able to help you and in my case a few months back,after 4 unanswered emails and two cutoff telephone calls Moto GB were useless. Also the French importer has just changed and I doubt they would have been helpful either. The insurance companies in France have tightened up their procedures in the last year and will not now issue long term insurance on UK registered vehicles. The only way I can see for you to register here would be through DREAL, but that would be time consuming and costly(my American pickup was through this procedure going to cost in excess of 6000 euros) so I would think that would be a non starter. If you like the bike you could always mothball it till it is 30years old then register. Have you obtained a quitas fiscal (import tax certificate) yet, because if and when the UK leaves the EU tax importation rules could change. So how old is the bike?

I have had 2 friends taken their bikes out to France and try to register them - both have given up after nearly having nervous breakdowns with the French red tape and bought French registered bikes - I hope you have more luck.

Wayne, bikes have to meet French regulations, if they do the red tape here in France is no more difficult than the UK. The most important thing is to do your homework before bringing them across.

Thank you for the replies gentlemen. Fm12 - the bike was bought new by myself in Bombay in 1993, ridden around for a few months and then shipped to Belfast. Looks like the 30 years old is my only option. You mentioned that 30 year old bikes were easy to register in France, if you read this I would be grateful to hear more detail on the registration procedure. Mothballs are on the shopping list.