The thing that concerns me is that they wouldn't accept a card.

When I was pulled over for speeding I paid by card, they had a card reader in the car.

I suspect they targeted you as a foreign registration plate and were trying to pocket the cash...

TVR, UK plates - and you wonder why you were followed for 10 kliks.

You might as well as had a stop-me-and-buy-one placard on your car.

Schultze und Schulze were looking for dinner with wine.

This excuse 'having to watch my speedo' is getting worn out. If a driver can't drive at a practised, normal speed (40/50/60) then he/she needs to take a basic driving course.

My biggest problem is in 30 Zones, I have to be in 1st gear in the Porsche 911 as tickover is higher in second, same withe the Triumph Sprint 955i so I just make loads of noise to stay legal

You poor baby. Is that one of the water-cooled abominations? Still, at least your v-squared is kept nice and low.

Of course it's NOT water cooled, it's a Porsche not an Audi /VW.

1983 911 SC Targa if you wanted to know, it lives out in the street summer / winter as any real car should. Still got 100% original paint from the factory!

Ok. Respect for the SC. (I had one many years ago).

I used to find that my Triumph Sprint ST 955i was perfectly happy in top gear at around 30 (mph) so I can't see why you couldn't happily leave it in third or fourth.

So sorry, bur you'll have to think of a better excuse...

Anyway, do they ever have cameras in 30kph zones?

30 mph is 50 kmh, big difference at least in my book! How long did your clutch last?

Loads of spped controls in 30KMH areas, it's a real money spinner

Read again - I said I was in sixth at 30mph, so you should be fine in 3rd or 4th at 30kph. Without slipping the clutch. Indeed, mostly without even needing to use the clutch at all, was my experience over 25000 miles.

Whether they do or don't (and I'm sure I've seen a mobile police trap in Basel in a 30 zone - but maybe it was a 50), it's the very limit you shouldn't break (along with the 50). There are pedestrians, kids, cyclists, etc for whom every tick down on your v-squared is a shorter time in the hospital (or a missed trip to the mortuary).

I've done some reckless (and insanely fast) driving along with every other young guy who found some money in his pocket. But I did that mainly on motorways (you won't find a cyclist there) and other such fast roads. That was anyway in the 80s/90s (the last golden age of motoring), before electronic speed traps became really ubiquitous. (Sucks to be driving now. Sorry).

One great thing about Switzerland is that it's often very easy to live close to your place of work. I don't even bother owning a car now - but I do have a very nice bicycle...

There's a mobile one often on the (30 kph) street that's parallel to ours. Sneakily partially hidden behind a concrete pillar and catches people just as they accelerate out of the preceding bend. Love to watch the brake lights slam on a nanosecond after the flash of the camera.

Though I've been here for 1.5 years, I only had the chance to drive through the highways in Switzerland two weeks back for holidays. I have to say that driving in Swizterland makes a neurotic experience. It is because a combination of these:
1. (relatively significant) fine if caught driving over the limit, even slightly over.
2. speed cameras are everywhere
3. what drives me nuts is that the speed limits change seemingly every few kms (from Zurich to Luzern/Engelberg area). I can see one could easily get caught speeding if he/she is not paying attention carefully to the signs. I would rather that they just set a slower speed limit, say 100km/h, throughout.

You're about the only one who wants that. Just up your driving standards and start paying attention. There's a certain pleasure in 'advanced driving' techniques where you're constantly assessing the road conditions. Speed limit changes are no surprise if you drive like this.

Maybe try learning to fly - you'll soon start paying attention to the parameters of your machine.

The point of dropping the speed limit periodically is if the road runs through a town or village or other populated area. You can't have a nominal speed of 100 kph from city to city, regardless if it is barrelling through a village, because the drivers might not be noticing the speed limit signs.

On the autobahn the speed limit changes for stuff like roadworks or tunnels but is otherwise consistent.

Or learn to ride a motorbike. My dad always said he never properly learned to drive until he was in the middle of traffic in control of a motorbike.

5th & 6th are very close together as you will remember, Tick over in 4th is higher than 30 KMH so you would have to be slipping the clutch........

Which is why I said 3rd or 4th. ICBA to look up the gear ratios, but no, I don't remember 5 and 6 being especially close (but it's nearly ten years since I got rid of it to buy the gixxer thou), but I do recall specifically how easy it was to ride very slowly in town at tickover revs.

But 30kph zones are an abomination and you shouldn't be using them anyway, IMO. I don't think any of the Basel ones have cameras, or I'd be setting them off on my pushbike, just for fun.

In my opinion, all residential (and non-main) roads should be 30. (Ducks).

I was with you until residential. And then you blew it at "non main".

In your world I would pick up 2-3 speeding tickets *every trip*. And that's even by leaving the car at home, and just cycling.

Edit: I see Ace1 has the same machiavellian streak as me. I still can't get my favourite 50 ones to fire and I'm getting fitter by the day!

But there would be something desperately wrong with the picture if even cyclists were worrying about collecting a stack of tickets.

Back to the OP...what would have happened if they hadn't had 500 swissies on them at the time? Or they didn't have 500 in their account?