Hi All
I just got back from Germany, I have lots of family there that I met for the 1st time. And of course I had to inquire about atving in German. Well, I was told that you are allowed on the roads no problem and no helmets????? You are NOT allowed in the woods????? I came across some machines and had the opportunity to talk to this German guy about his. It was a 150cc brand I have never saw before Kv.......? I don't remember. I told him about my 400i and how big it is, his eyes opened and then I told him about our trails and hill climbing and mud running, he was interested. It was funny to see his response to what I was saying. I was able to pick his wheeler up off the ground? Any ways Just found it interesting and thought I would share it with you.

 

Well, this is partially correct. In Germany and other European countries you are almost forced to road register your vehicle as there isn't anything as a trail network. For registration you can roughly choose between agricultural and road registration- plus lots of mixes from those. Agricultural registration doesn't call for helmets put requires a speed limit of around 25 Mph and a rotating yellow beacon light to warn of slow moving vehicles.
On the other side Arctic Cat has released a special model range for Europe which have features not seen in the USA or Canada. Those wear for example alluminium rims in 15x7 inches with road tires, reinforced brake systems, decent halogen headlights, catalyzer and so on. The 500 TRV cruises happily at 55-60 Mph all day long on any road, even on those famous Autobahn. Which is however not to be recommended.
Prices for Arctic Cats go from around 8500 Euros (roughly 9300 US$) to 12500 Euros (13600 US$) which makes them a pure luxury car.
Just to tell you how good it's in Canada.
Alain
Over in Europe

 

Hi Redcat
So what part of Europe do you live in? In Germany I didn't see any cat dealers, however I did see Honda. And what ATV do you have? Do you use it on the roads?
Thanks for the information, I find it interesting to see how other guys use there ATV's [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Hi Anton,
I live in Luxembourg which lies in the corner of Belgium, France and Germany. A friend and I own LuxATV which is the official Arctic Cat distributor for France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The 'Cat net is only building up now in all of Europe. In Germany the main problem seems to be that there's no rational reason to buy an ATV. And buying "for fun only" is not very compatible with german thinking, hehehe...
I drive what comes along, just got the 500 TRV in road legal trim. Nice machine and capable of doing 95 km/h with two seriously sized adults aboard. Hope to get my hands on the new 650 soon but it will probably consume too much to be a serious alternative to the 500.
Almost all ATVs over here run on tarmac - you simply have to. Even in France where the conditions are still way more liberal than in Germany you have to do some roads every few kilometres. And the fines are now around 1100.- US$ if you get caught with an illegal ATV, plus some "points" taken off your drivers licence (you only have about a dozen points than you have to redo your license).
Got told even farmers who just CROSSED a highway with their ATV were fined this high so I believe road legalness will be a major issue in the next time. But, speaking frankly, that's not bad. Those parts you have to replace in order to make the vehicle legal are only what common sense should have told the engineers to do from the start on.
Oh BTW, Arctic Cat ATVs are the best on the roads. Not as fast as a sport ATV but really stable and safe to drive.
Alain

 

Hi Redcat
What are sales like, are people interested in ATVing in Lux? Or are they used mostly for commuting or farm? I did notice the gas price in Germany 1.09 ero a litre, wow [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]
1 ero is about 1.55 canadian [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]