August 20th 2023 - 11am - Box Hill - ULEZ

[SouthCoastRich]

News is coming through about a major protest ride to Box Hill from various motorcycle cafes and M25 service stations on Sunday August 20th.

Anyone planning to be there?

Where will you set off from?

[jamietzr250r]

It is? Can't find it anywhere lol
The weather if you can call it that has been shit, if it carries on like this then I'll be staying in, riding is fun but not in the rain.....

[SouthCoastRich]

Ron found it from an Ace flyer.

The plan is we all meet at Box Hill at 11am on Sunday. Weather looks good for Sunday. The rain from Saturday will have passed and the temperature dropped to reasonable from what the rest of this week will bring!

I think Gav, Owen, Ron, Andy and Marv are going so far.

I'll be on my RD obviously 

[AndyYam]

Yup I'm in. Also on the RD. Cmon Jamie, don't let the team down. For every red bull tzr that doesn't attend they're putting up 5 extra cameras mate. It was in the flyer! Honest!

[rz500guy]

What kind of protest ride? Are they trying to ban smokers over there?

[yanw]

Are they trying to ban smokers over there?

It's a charge for any vehicle not deemed to be new enough, cars, bikes, vans or trucks. Lots and lots of vehicles are affected. It is just central London at the moment but it is going to cover most of London after the end of this month.

For example, using my 3XV anywhere in London will cost you £12.50 per day and that day ends at midnight no mater when they first clock you. So, going out to the shop on the bike at 23:55 and getting home at 00:05 will cost you £25 assuming the many cameras catch you both times.

[thump566]

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/ulez-motorbikes/


https://stop-ulez.com/mc-events/ride-for-freedom-ace-cafe-to-rykas/

[jamietzr250r]

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/ulez-motorbikes/

OMFG what a complete load of absolute bollocks. That fucking idiot mayor has no idea what owning a motorcycle means, or why we chose to have the type we own, scrappage scheme LMFAO.
Mark my words London will be a no go area soon, no one will want to live, work or travel there......Ace cafe will die all motorcycle venues will die......

[SeaR1ck]

After reading that I hope you all show up in numbers. Borrow a bike if you must. It's more than just about bikes.

[yanw]

Bikes have to be Euro3 or better, which means most bikes pre-2007 are affected.

[SouthCoastRich]

Exactly Yan, and this is the thin edge of the wedge

Before long it'll be Euro 4 or better

Before long cities other than London will be doing this (Bristol already is)

Quite possibly any vehicle will be charged per mile via ANPR cameras for going into cities or passing through villages

All because GenZ just use Uber and don't know what driving is!!!

[thump566]

Bikes have to be Euro3 or better, which means most bikes pre-2007 are affected.

All of mine are pre 2000 let alone 2007 

[jamietzr250r]

Rain rain rain, worst of the year IN FUCKING AUGUST!!!! I go on holiday in three weeks (Cape Verde) my misses wants me in one piece, ANY sign of rain Sunday I'm out.

[AndyYam]

Rain rain rain, worst of the year IN FUCKING AUGUST!!!! I go on holiday in three weeks (Cape Verde) my misses wants me in one piece, ANY sign of rain Sunday I'm out.

Lucky the weather is looking good then! See you tomorrow!

[AndyYam]

Personally I'm going for the social side, to get out on the bike and see some TZR's to motivate me (more) to get mine done. I wholeheartedly disagree with the expansion of the ULEZ without supporting those that need it and adding some sensible exclusions based on yearly useage and other parameters.

I'm probably on the younger side of classic 2 stroke owners at 33, not quite a Gen-Z though  but I don't think this is about generations. I think it's a combination of needing to be seen doing something and then completely f*&*ing that up.

*Climbs up on soapbox & thinks "Is this the right place to start this?" then carries on anyway  *

I belive we do have to do something about global emissions but this is not about that. This is just a tax on the poor. The ones who are not affected at all are those who get a new car every year and so can afford to keep in the rules. The 3 groups either side of that are the ones that are affects.

1.The working class that rely on older vehicles. They just have to pay the charge. For those across the pond, they've introduced a scrappage scheme to 'help' people by giving you 2k towards a vehicle that passes the emissions regs when you scrap your old car, but the old car has to meet certain regs too and those are all worth more than 2k on the 2nd hand market so it's politics and words.

2.The Super rich, who will drive high emissions vehicles but £12.5 a day is like us boiling the kettle. They won't even notice it.

3.The third group is the enthusiasts. We don't ride our bikes day in day out but get hit hard still. Our yearly emissions are probably a drop compared to the overall yearly emissions of a daily run compliant 2litre car. It wouldn't be difficult to charger monthly or annually based on usage. I you got to Ace cafe 5-10 times a year on a 250cc bike...you're not the issue. They've already made "historic vehicles" exempt from MOT and Tax (which is emissions based  ).

So yeah, I think this is a pile of poo but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water and say "because of this dumb scheme we should boycott any initiative to cut emissions".

*Places extra soap box on existing one and clears throat*

To take this one level higher, let's not forget that "...animal agriculture contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined". - (Brown, 2022; Ritchie & Roser, 2021; University of British Columbia, 2016; Stehfest, et al., 2009).