One last try

I know I said that I wasn’t going to spend any more time on registering my bike but I thought I’d have one more roll of the dice. I contacted the DREAL for Nouvelle Aquitaine, a government department that can help out with this kind of problem and received a reply the very next day.

In summary this said that it’s not their role to undertake the tasks that are the manufacturers’ responsibility and that as my bike has been imported, it has to conform to local regulatory requirements including having a Certificate of Conformity granted to its manufacturer. Their advice was that I should seek to annul the purchase with the seller, which I have taken steps to do.

But in the meantime, I thanked them for their reply and sent them the following message.

“.. overall I think that this is a good, well-made bike that is fit for purpose and meets regulatory requirements. It is also at a price at which many people could afford to use it for short journeys instead of their cars, as I want to, which is not true for competitive products that will inevitably always remain as minority products for enthusiasts.

Could you advise me, if I wanted to act on behalf of the manufacturer, how would I go about securing a CDC for this product and what costs would be incurred? I ask because I am not familiar with the French registration system and any advice you can give would be of value.”

So now I’m waiting for a reply.