Why did this happen? Like in what circumstance does it make sense to delete tge originals and replace them with slop?

Speed limits exist in Europe. Motorcyclists regularly ignore them.

Enforce them. Or even better, build roads that encourage people to ride at reasonable speeds. Cobbles are very common in places where they don’t want to ban 2wheelers, but seriously discourage them. Otherwise there’s speedbumps, curves, more narrow roads

A distinction without a difference.

Except you literally have to modify a bike to make it louder than it comes with a stock exhaust. People do the same shit with cars.

You can also get rid of all motorbikes and improve public transport

You get rid of motorbikes, people continue to drive cars. Bicycles can’t displace cars in car-centric hells the way motorcycles can.

One motorcycle takes up the space of at least 2 bikes

lol ride in Hanoi or HCMC some time. You’ll be shocked by how many bikes they can fit on a square meter of road.

one bus can transport many more people in the same area than bikes ever could.

Depends on the bus service. For a BRT with a dedicated lane and priority at lights? Absolutely. In a car-centric hell where buses fight cars in traffic? Nah, hundreds of bikes will get down the road before the bus.

Motorcycles are just as bad for the environment as cars

Depends on the bike; a 125cc Honda Wave burns 1 gallon of gas per 160 miles, ~60 isn’t uncommon for bigger bikes.

Motorcycle accidents also result in death more often

Yes, 2 wheeled vehicles are less safe than cars. We can make streets safer for everybody by lowering speed limits and reducing car usage.

They are often also louder than cars

That’s not the bike, it’s the muffler.

The only upside they have is that they are easier to park.

They also require a fraction of the right-of-way. This becomes more apparent in places with a smaller portion of cars; 15 feet of road can accommodate 100+ bikes or 2 cars. This is the key benefit; by decreasing the area that needs to be dedicated to car RoW and parking, and the overall speed, you make a place more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly.

To make motorcycles better, you have to go electric

Electric mopeds are extremely common in east asia, minus Japan. For shorter trips, light-weight electric mopeds that can ride on pedestrian paths are very popular and pretty much necessary for delivery drivers in fully pedestrianized areas. The transition/addition of electrics has been very effective in China where it supplements public transit, but less so in Vietnam where people can’t afford electrics, there’s less public transit, and fewer places to safely charge bikes.

I see any anti-car groups that oppose motorcycles the same way I see environmental groups that want to close nuclear plants.

Yes ideally they would be unnecessary because we’d have public transit and walkable/bicycle-friendly infrastructure, but for 80% of car users, they can be a drop-in replacement, don’t require any political influence like building infrastructure, and help build opposition to car-centric urban design.

Surely those bike inspectors, while they benefit, aren’t writing bike legislation or telling the guys who do.

I have zero doubt that’s common, but are corrupt bike inspectors an influential political block? The same applies in US states that require emissions testing, minus the bribery.

Bikes are such simple machines though, theres people who can’t read but can fix a Honda.

Diagnosing a car problem requires specialist knowledge and equipment, excepting BMWs and some other more technical bikes. Is/was people riding unsafe bikes a problem in Europe, or was car policy just copied over to bikes because reasons?

Why do yall need annual motorcycle inspections??

Who is increasing their reliance on America in 2026?