Too late for us - local school kids came the other day to sell us some, as usual, proceeds for next year's ski trip. BTW as said above, the vignette is actually great value Insurance.

@dmarkd - My post was moved into this thread from another, which is why it looks like I'm asking a glaringly obvious question.

Ah, ok, now I see.
So glad I did not groan at your post! Just goes to show it is worth thinking carefully before clicking the groan button!
As long as you now have the answer to your question - that is after all the raison d'etre of this forum!

'Twas I. Threads merged to avoid having eight Threads on bike stickers instead of only seven!

If you don't know their proper name, Googling things like velo+sticker or Bicycle+sticker brings several hits. It's sometimes worth having a wild guess as to what other folk might have called them.

I've read this thread twice, and still don't get if a vignette is required or not. In my defence, I'm not the only one - this cycling forum is asking the same question: http://www.radforum.ch/forum/index.php?topic=889.0

So is a vignette still legally required?

I know this doesn't prove anything, but while walking through the bike er... shed yesterday afternoon, I must have walked past over a hundred bikes and not one of them had a sticker with "11" on it (i.e. for 2011).

When in Rome...

that's because the 2010 stickers are good for many months into 2011

Yes the 2010 stickers are valid until 31 May 2011. The reason being that it does not makes sense to have everybody buy vignettes for the bicycles if its still snowing. Makes more sense to wait until people are out and about on the bikes again.

But speaking of vignettes and 2010/2011. Don't forget that the 2010 vignette for your car (highway admission fee) is only valid until the end of January 2011...

So a thief stealing a bicycle only needs to remove that sticker and buy a new one for 6 CHF (writing his details on the other part) for you to have no claim on it anymore?

I was wondering when I got mine what I should use the part to keep for. I still think I'm missing something.

But yeah, the vignette itself is mandatory licensing and funds collective insurance of some sort (and perhaps some other things).

You've pointed out one of the obvious problems with using the vignette to identify a bike (there are several others like bikes from outside Switzerland not having vignettes). The best identifier of a bike is the frame number, which is located under the bottom bracket (the lowest part of the frame that the pedal cranks turn around inside). On the vignette booklet, it has a place to write this down, or write it down somewhere else safe. You'll probably have to turn the bike upside down to be able to read it, and hopefully the numbers and letters have not been completely filled in when the bike was painted. If your bike is stolen and you don't have the frame number then the shop where you bought the bike may have kept a record of it, or may have written it on your receipt / guarantee / other documentation that they gave you.

If anyone still has any general questions about the vignette then see this post in the Cycling in Switzertland thread, and the threads linked to from that.

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Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

2011 stickers (must be on the bike as of June 1st) are on sale now at Aldi.

Price - CHF 4.49

Link in French: http://www.aldi-suisse.ch/ch/fr/html...?WT.z_src=main

Link in German: http://www.aldi-suisse.ch/ch/html/pr...?WT.z_src=main

YES !! The sticker/insurance is legally required on all bikes. It is a 3rd party insurance that covers you for up to CHF 2 million in damages in all of Europe.

Link in French: http://www.aldi-suisse.ch/ch/fr/medi..._061011_FR.pdf

Link in German:http://www.aldi-suisse.ch/ch/media/p..._061011_DE.pdf

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Do or do not, there is no try(ing). Yoda

Thanks for reminding, I didnt notice that mine was stil '09.

There's a of confusion. I called in at my local post office on Saturday to buy a velovignette and the lady behind the counter told me it had been abolished. I called my police communale for confirmation and the officer there at first also said it had been abolished. It was only when I asked him if he was sure that he checked with a colleague and came back and said it is still required for 2011.

Thanks for clarifying, Nev. Everyone (who lives in Switzerland) will need a 2011 vignette from June 2011 (the 2010 one is valid until the end of May 2010), but 2011 will be the last one you need to buy. Aldi is normally the cheapest place to buy them, and it sounds like that will continue to be the case.

I had found ( but cannot relocate ) a linke about a removable plate that one could use to move Vignette from bike to bike.

Why would you want to do that? They only cost 5 chufs.

Be extravagant and splash out and treat each bike to it's own.

Just so you know .... the primary reason of the paying for a vignette is for 3rd party liability insurance, in case you cause injury or damage to others and are deemed to be liable.

The counterfoil of the sticker should be filled out with details (including frame number) of the bike to which it applies to validate the insurance cover.

Love this forum... learning more than I could have imagined.

Officially from 1.1.2012 they have been scrapped with the expectation you have personal liability cover. Our home insurance has already confirmed this with a note on the renewal confirming that we have personal liability cover included in the home insurance which covers the velo requirement.

The current stickers are also valid until the time they were originally valid until

This is really cheap insurance. We had one recently pay out over CHF 5'000 for a new radiator on a Land Rover Defender where the bike pedals punctured the radiator in an at fault accident. That is a pretty good return for a CHF 5 investment.

As others mentioned, if you do not have a vignette and do not plan to ride before January 1st, you will be fine with your personal liability insurance (normally part of your household policy). If you plan to ride before, be sure to get the vignette from the Post Office. Don't ride without the insurance.

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Do or do not, there is no try(ing). Yoda