yea yea i know. It's not the money, it's that they're illegal on the road and the police here will just take my bike immediately (Especially as it's UK-registered)
Ahh - you never got stopped in Switzerland then Mick!!
Two choices; pay the 500 Swizz (yes I spelt that correctly) on the spot fine, or have the bike confiscated until the standard exhaust is put back on ... which was in my garage at home!
Oh and if I couldn't have paid the on the spot fine, which was the equivalent of about £240 and they only accept Swiss francs, I would have to accept choice number 2!!
To be fair to the coppers who stopped me, neither of whom spoke a word of english, unlike every other Swiss person I spoke to (???), they were very helpful and offered me a third choice. This was to leave the bike with them, get a taxi to the nearest Honda dealer (like I knew where that was), buy a standard exhaust (cos they're bound to have one in), get another taxi back to the bike and fit the exhaust (which would be dead easy on the road side with no proper tools). Of course there was the issue of a standard silencer costing more than the on the spot fine!
First thing I did when I got home was buy a db eater for my exhaust. Doesn't sound quite as nice but the power curve is the same (with a little tinkering of the power commander on the dyno) and I ain't ever gonna get three points for it!
Final point, from what I am told, the Police in the Netherlands are just as friendly.
the police here are of 2 kinds...
1) The idiot street cops who dont care about anything at all. U could slap them in the face and they wouldn't have the energy to prosecute you
2) The road cops... arseholes of Europe! So strict about anything and everything. God forbid u go 5 km/h over the limit! I've got a big target on my back already having a UK registered bike. Loud pipes would make it even worse.
I must be just lucky as never had a problem and been all over
They have been sold to some guy in Poland hope the cops there dont hassle him
My BM has euro standard Carbon on now but the baffle dosnt seem to make much difference so I left it in
Road legal but without the db eater. In Switzerland it has to have a db eater. The traffic cops even have a little book, with each page laminated to keep it in good condition and this shows them in pictoral views how to identify faults with motorbikes.
Anyway, no db eater ... on the spot fine!