Our regular readers may have noticed the absence of news over the last week or so. We’ve been back in Blighty. John had a meeting on Wednesday and the trip would give us the opportunity to save some money on our new kitchen by buying the units in England: tight so-and-so’s that we are …

As luck would have it, our scheduled departure date coincided with the climax of John’s homologation problem. I’m talking about his bike. Tush, tush. What were you thinking?!

Following the cryptic letter received from Triumph SAS, Paris (see September 6th), we attempted to contact the DRIRE in Colomiers. Even allowing for my ‘faible’ telephone French, Monsieur Lavielle did not appear terribly sympathetic to our cause. He babbled incomprehensibly about a required ‘dossier’ and I was sure he said that we would have to take the bike to Paris for tests. It was clear that I had not understood and he quickly became impatient. I thanked him for his time and gave up. John rang Triumph UK in Hinckley, asking them if they could throw any further light on the problem. There is also a small car import agency in Montréjeau, so we thought it might be worth asking them if they could help.

After several phone calls, it transpired that the problem boiled down to the homologation code that forms part of the bike’s VIN or chassis number. It seems that a new Europe-wide whole type vehicle approval scheme was introduced in June 2003. Under the new scheme, new models intended for use on European roads are subjected to a comprehensive battery of tests to ensure they meet the latest regulations on noise, emissions, etc. If passed, a Certificate of Conformity is issued for all vehicles identified as being built to the same specifications. The benefit of this approach is that, once approved, one can freely import and re-register vehicles anywhere within the EU. Hence, all that was required to re-register my 2005 BMW was a few minutes’ form-filling.

The homologation code essentially identifies the particular set of standards relevant to the market for which the vehicle was built. Unfortunately, it seems that later Triumph Trophies were principally manufactured for the American market and therefore carry a different homologation code from earlier models exported to Europe.

Yannick from Triumph Paris explained that, because no Certificate of Conformity had ever been issued for John’s bike, in order to register it in France, we would have to submit it for testing. However, he warned, the process was extremely complicated and expensive, and it might be better to bring the bike back to the UK and sell it. Not the news we wanted.

The import agency confirmed Yannick’s advice. The manager had rung M. Lavielle at the DRIRE to clarify the requirements for testing and was shocked to be told that the cost would be in the region of 5-6,000€! Unsurprisingly, M. Lavielle did not know of a single person who had pursued the matter. Realising that he would not even be able to insure a British-registered bike for use in France, John was left with no option but to return it to England to sell.

Thus, on Friday last week, we cat-proofed the house (as far as possible), set the timer on ‘George’, the automatic pet feeder, and drove back to the UK in convoy: John on the bike and me in the car.