Try living here with that speed limit... Usually, police do not fine people from their area and those guys do not wear any helmet or any kind of protection and usually they are above the speed limits.

The Turkish Speed Limits made nearly 50-60 years ago and they haven't updated it. Motorcycles have a speed limit of 70 km/h, off-road vehicles (most SUVs belong to this category) and any kind of semi-trucks and trucks have speed limit of 80 km/h. The police are really flexible about SUV that I haven't seen any SUV fined for going over 88 km/h but they are not that flexible about motorcycles. As far as I know, they have a quota which they should control enough number of motorcycles so they usually pick the people who has big motorcycles, wearing helmets from other cities, or countries and control or fine them.

Our Motorcycle federation tried to do something about it but they are not a effective federation. As motorcycle riders in Turkey, we always talk in the our local forums about doing something about it but the result is nothing, all we do is talking. Also, There is no strong civil organization which could rally protest ride against these speed limits. (and Also, some riders agree and like these limits).

What we do is, try to negotiate (namely, bribe) if we get caught but these days it is harder because radars are also recording images or videos of the vehicles and those were checked from time to time cross-referenced with the fines so, the police are afraid of being caught. If we can see the car with the radar and if there is a side road in between the radar car and the check point, we usually take that side road and try to circumnavigate the check point. Also, we usually prefer the side roads instead of main roads because there is small chance of police being on these roads.

Also, fines are rated. If you are %10 to % 30 over the limit, the fine is 128 TL, if you are %30 and up over the limit, the fine is 265 TL. If you pay on site, there is %25 discount on the fine.

Cheers,
Ozgur