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Bikers in Sweden

1K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  dirkwrong 
#1 ·
I am here until July 6. I have been watching the riders around here and I am surprised at how they often break the law here. I have seen wheelies, excessive speed, lane splitting, riding on the shoulder and other bad behavior that I don't see very often in America. On the plus side, the riders here wear all the gear, all the time.

The most popular bike is the Harley type, just like in America. The roads here are super smooth and the summer weather is awesome. I wish I had a bike to ride here.
 
#3 ·
I figured that was the case. They seem to be everywhere right now. We are in Muskö, an island just south of Stockholm. My wife has a summer house here. We were up north yesterday, west of Söderhamn looking at houses for sale.

It is great to see the Swedes enjoying their brief but beautiful summer. I am not looking forward to going back to America. It is an inferno there right now.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Well for f@cks sake Dirk! I live in stockholm and i have 2 bikes, You should PM me and Ill hook you up. :D There are some really nice roads around Södertörn (check road 257 from "Rosenhill" to "Västerhaninge" called "slingerbulten http://kartor.eniro.se/m/aVLVo) and i can show you around some if you want. Roslagen up north is bikers heaven aswell!

A word on the behaivor..
Sweden doesn´t have nearly as much police on the streets as they do in the US, so getting caught is more by accident then the fact that police actually monitor the behaivor as such.. Police are trained in the academy for a minimum 3 years and then 2 years probation and that is just the basic police assistent, so getting new cops out on the streets demands a longtime in training.. And then there are budget cuts. Good thing is that they are generally very proffesional

But like you said..
wheelies - Happens, but it depends on where you are.. Not as much as it was
excessive speed - This is a problem since police dont have large manpower. Police also have orders not to chase bikers if they run, because of the high risk "not worth the possible accident" is the reason the police leadership says
lane splitting - Legal in Sweden for bikers
riding on the shoulder - Also legal in Sweden for bikers if there is congestion. Max. 70 kph
other bad behavior - Comes back to police manpower again.

Most of the crowd i ride with are 30-40 years old and we ride hard on the track, but not on the street.. Mostly that is tha case with serios bikers, but just like everywhere, there are bad seeds.

Shoot me a PM! I´d love to get together for a cold one or for a ride!
 
#8 ·
Well for f@cks sake Dirk! I live in stockholm and i have 2 bikes, You should PM me and Ill hook you up. :D There are some really nice roads around Södertörn (check road 257 from "Rosenhill" to "Västerhaninge" called "slingerbulten Kartor, vägbeskrivningar, flygfoton, sjökort & mycket mer på eniro.se) and i can show you around some if you want. Roslagen up north is bikers heaven aswell!

A word on the behaivor..
Sweden doesn´t have nearly as much police on the streets as they do in the US, so getting caught is more by accident then the fact that police actually monitor the behaivor as such.. Police are trained in the academy for a minimum 3 years and then 2 years probation and that is just the basic police assistent, so getting new cops out on the streets demands a longtime in training.. And then there are budget cuts. Good thing is that they are generally very proffesional

But like you said..
wheelies - Happens, but it depends on where you are.. Not as much as it was
excessive speed - This is a problem since police dont have large manpower. Police also have orders not to chase bikers if they run, because of the high risk "not worth the possible accident" is the reason the police leadership says
lane splitting - Legal in Sweden for bikers
riding on the shoulder - Also legal in Sweden for bikers if there is congestion. Max. 70 kph
other bad behavior - Comes back to police manpower again.

Most of the crowd i ride with are 30-40 years old and we ride hard on the track, but not on the street.. Mostly that is tha case with serious bikers, but just like everywhere, there are bad seeds.

Shoot me a PM! I´d love to get together for a cold one or for a ride!
Oh man, thank you so much for your kind offer. I don't know what to say. I would love to meet up for a beer and conversation. My wife supports my motorcycle habit.

Thank you for the education on Swedish laws regarding motorcycles. Lane splitting and riding on the shoulder is illegal in my state back in America. Wheelies are considered reckless driving also. I have not seen very much illegal behavior on the part of Swedish riders after all. Swedes in general are much more law abiding on the road in my experience.

My wife said the same thing you did about no traffic cops on the road in Sweden. In America, they even park empty police cars on the side of the road to scare people into slowing down.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I just found out that popping a wheelie in Sweden is not illegal! Dang! In my state, it is reckless driving and if caught you will loose your license.

But, the way they get you here in Sweden is the insurance rates. They are sky high for anyone under 30 years old. The state does not like bikers and does not want to pay for their hospital stays.

My son in law also told me that someone can go to a court here in Sweden and claim that they have claustrophobia and therefore cannot wear a helmet. He said no proof is required of said phobia, and that no cost for the biker was involved either. Wow, things are very different here!
 
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