Exchanged UK driving licence, now I can drive motorbikes?

Kotek Besar · 23-10-2019 12:37pm #1

Please could someone explain this?

EDIT: I’m trying to attached a picture.

Kotek Besar · 23-10-2019 12:40pm

Picture now attached.

knucklehead6 · 23-10-2019 12:42pm

certainly looks like it!

I assume from your tone that its an error?

Kotek Besar · 23-10-2019 12:43pm

knucklehead6 wrote: »

certainly looks like it!

I assume from your tone that its an error?

Yes, I've never ridden a motorbike in my life. I'm going to buy myself a Harley now.

knucklehead6 · 23-10-2019 12:48pm

Kotek Besar wrote: »

Yes, I've never ridden a motorbike in my life. I'm going to buy myself a Harley now.

My father got his licence in one of the general amnesties way back when

about 20 years ago he was getting a replacement licence and the bloke behind the counter asked if he wanted to hold onto everything. Dad asked what he meant... apparently my dear ol' dad was licenced to drive anything, buses, articulated trucks, rigids, motorbikes, the whole shebang.

Enjoy your new found freedom on the roads and don't be too disparaging of us cagers!!

:p:pac::pac::D;)

tossy · 23-10-2019 12:52pm

It comes from the 70's here in Ireland the motorbike was the main form of transport before paved roads. People used Motorbikes to go to the fair, go to the holy water wells, deliver babies and drive to the coast to make sure the normans weren't coming. In fact if you were caught intoxicated on a motorbike but could prove you were going to the fair ( by say having a chicken or lamb strapped to the pillion seat ) you were immune to prosecution. The word pillion actually comes from the ancient Gaelic word for Animal skin.

Spook_ie · 23-10-2019 1:01pm

Restricted to tricycles 79.3

https://www.ndls.ie/licence-categories.html

Kotek Besar · 23-10-2019 1:34pm

Spook_ie wrote: »

Restricted to tricycles 79.3

https://www.ndls.ie/licence-categories.html

My three year old can ride a tricycle.

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 23-10-2019 1:38pm

Kotek Besar wrote: »

My three year old can ride a tricycle.

Not a motor trike he can't

bladespin · 23-10-2019 2:44pm

Nataly Abundant Scuba wrote: »

Not a motor trike he can't

I bet he could.

Wishbone Ash · 23-10-2019 6:44pm

knucklehead6 wrote: »

My father got his licence in one of the general amnesties way back when

about 20 years ago he was getting a replacement licence and the bloke behind the counter asked if he wanted to hold onto everything. Dad asked what he meant... apparently my dear ol' dad was licenced to drive anything, buses, articulated trucks, rigids, motorbikes, the whole shebang....)

There was only one 'amnesty' - October 1979.

I suspect you father may have had his licences from the pre-driving test era - i.e. before 1964. (My mother has them all also).

redcup342 · 24-10-2019 9:32am

A member of my family exchanged her old Irish Paper license for a plastic one and also got the A1 (Restricted to Tricycles)

I think if you got your driving license before a certain date after that they split out tricycles as a separate category from the Car License.

Alun · 24-10-2019 9:45am

At one stage in the UK you could drive a three wheeler "car" such as a Reliant Robin on a motorcycle licence. Could that be it?

redcup342 · 24-10-2019 9:56am

Alun wrote: »

At one stage in the UK you could drive a three wheeler "car" such as a Reliant Robin on a motorcycle licence. Could that be it?

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2013/si/6/made/en/print

The Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 2006 ( S.I. No. 537 of 2006 ) are amended—

(a) in Regulation 3(1), by inserting after the definition of “tricycle” the following:

“ ‘twinned wheels’ has the meaning assigned to it in Article 1(2)(b) of Directive 2002/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 March 20123 ,”,

If you got your license before Jan 2013 then when you renew it, you will have this Tricycle Category automatically added.

If you got your license after that then you won't have it.

galwaytt · 24-10-2019 4:43pm

..the reason this has come up so much lately, even amongst people I know at work, is that motorcycles, or, as the EU calls theM: PTW's (Powered Two Wheelers) are what's known as a 'single track vehicle'. That is, that the front & rear are in the same line.

The confusion comes along when you have a 3rd wheel....is the 3rd wheel 'inline'...or not.... ?

The issue is that they've had to define the 'width' of that line - which has been determined as 460mm.

If the pair of wheels are 460mm apart or more, then technically it does NOT require a motorcycle licence (as it's not a 'PTW'), so can be drivern on a 'Car licence'. The latest issues of new (car) licences with 79.03 are just to specifically point that out (as there have been a lot of roadside conversations with police etc where confusion reigns)

So, so long as the front track is 460mm or more, you do NOT need a motorcycle licence to ride it. And be careful, manufacturers like Piaggio make these 3-wheelers in BOTH versions, so important to check which it is you're looking at....

Examples are the MP3 range from Piaggio/Vespa and the Tricity range from Yamaha, to wit:

01piaggio-mp3400.jpg?mode=max&quality=90&scale=down

01piaggio-mp3400.jpg?mode=max&quality=90&scale=down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9_49wBlHc

TigerTim · 24-10-2019 5:31pm

galwaytt wrote: »

..the reason this has come up so much lately, even amongst people I know at work, is that motorcycles, or, as the EU calls theM: PTW's (Powered Two Wheelers) are what's known as a 'single track vehicle'. That is, that the front & rear are in the same line.

The confusion comes along when you have a 3rd wheel....is the 3rd wheel 'inline'...or not.... ?

The issue is that they've had to define the 'width' of that line - which has been determined as 460mm.

If the pair of wheels are 460mm apart or more, then technically it does NOT require a motorcycle licence (as it's not a 'PTW'), so can be drivern on a 'Car licence'. The latest issues of new (car) licences with 79.03 are just to specifically point that out (as there have been a lot of roadside conversations with police etc where confusion reigns)

So, so long as the front track is 460mm or more, you do NOT need a motorcycle licence to ride it. And be careful, manufacturers like Piaggio make these 3-wheelers in BOTH versions, so important to check which it is you're looking at....

Examples are the MP3 range from Piaggio/Vespa and the Tricity range from Yamaha, to wit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9_49wBlHc

Just got my tricycle license as well. Looking at the pics you quoted, the trace looks very narrow & probably not the required 460mm apart. Does that sound correct?.

T,

Kotek Besar · 24-10-2019 8:37pm

galwaytt wrote: »

..the reason this has come up so much lately, even amongst people I know at work, is that motorcycles, or, as the EU calls theM: PTW's (Powered Two Wheelers) are what's known as a 'single track vehicle'. That is, that the front & rear are in the same line.

The confusion comes along when you have a 3rd wheel....is the 3rd wheel 'inline'...or not.... ?

The issue is that they've had to define the 'width' of that line - which has been determined as 460mm.

If the pair of wheels are 460mm apart or more, then technically it does NOT require a motorcycle licence (as it's not a 'PTW'), so can be drivern on a 'Car licence'. The latest issues of new (car) licences with 79.03 are just to specifically point that out (as there have been a lot of roadside conversations with police etc where confusion reigns)

So, so long as the front track is 460mm or more, you do NOT need a motorcycle licence to ride it. And be careful, manufacturers like Piaggio make these 3-wheelers in BOTH versions, so important to check which it is you're looking at....

Examples are the MP3 range from Piaggio/Vespa and the Tricity range from Yamaha, to wit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9_49wBlHc

Wait...so I can drive one of these now?!

TigerTim · 25-10-2019 3:08pm

I'm interested if anyone has views on this. I reckon they probably don't come under the trike heading/covered by the car licence but I could be wrong.

T.

macplaxton · 28-10-2019 12:54am

My Mrs doesn't have A(79.3) on her exchange licence, but should have. On the other hand she seems to have gained an A1.

Regardless, I still don't think she'd be up for driving my Reliant. :pac:

macplaxton · 28-10-2019 12:56am

TigerTim wrote: »

I'm interested if anyone has views on this. I reckon they probably don't come under the trike heading/covered by the car licence but I could be wrong.

T.

They do as clearly pointed out above, as long as the track is greater than 460mm.

Exchanged UK driving licence, now I can drive motorbikes?

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