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Baz the balloon man

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 17, 2024
401
18
Are they crushing the wrong bikes?
Probably take for instance Bird Bikes Sold by major high street retailers.

Bird went bust so now owners who can not get a replacement battery are left with a choice if they can not find a used replacement.

Scrap the bike or try to put on a road legal kit .

What is a road legal kit when you are talking to a copper , if you can a find one these days .

But is it actually road legal if cops just say “ This has been modified “ or Who is the manufacturer ie where is a manufacturer’s plate then what they are doing is making DIY builds illegal by default .

As usual in this country a really good thing is being spoiled by a minority so nanny state comes in with a one size fits all .

Or as very surprising on James Obrain ( not a misspelling) on LBC the other day let’s put insurance , number plates ECT on cycle’s .
Or something that can do a whole 15MPH for little cost ie let’s work out how to tax it a bit like widow tax hundred years ago .

What’s the point of ditching the car ? Let’s all drive 4x4 Chelsea tractors avoid bumps and drive straight at cyclists to avoid bumps with off road suspension that costs thousands of pounds .
 

Baz the balloon man

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 17, 2024
401
18
Why?
Privately owned E Scooters are illegal. End off. What else is needed?
The law concerning eapc's is concise though much mis-understood , mis- quoted and mis-interpreted.
Perhaps we all need to carry printed copies of the actual law. Does a version with the correct terminology and authoritive provenance actually exist?
Nanny state as is our laws
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,535
30,830
Perhaps we all need to carry printed copies of the actual law. Does a version with the correct terminology and authoritive provenance actually exist?
Not in one document.

First there is exemption (h) in Type Approval law which qualifies an EAPC to be a bicycle in law:

(h) pedal cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with
an auxiliary electric motor having a maximum continuous
rated power of less than or equal to 250 W, where the
output of the motor is cut off when the cyclist stops
pedalling and is otherwise progressively reduced and
finally cut off before the vehicle speed reaches 25 km/h;


Then there are the labelling rules which are fragmented. However here is an authoritive statement from the DfT:

Confirmed as below by James Brown, International Vehicle Standards, Department for Transport:

"As part of the GB EAPC amending legislation, that will come into force on 6 April 2015, the requirement for the marking identification has been amended. Previously a plate showing the manufacturer, maximum continuous rated power output and voltage was necessary, from April 6 2015 the requirement will be that the manufacturer, maximum continuous rated output and maximum assisted cutoff speed shall be marked on the cycle."

This should be in the form of a plate or permanent label bearing all three items of information, mounted in a prominent easily read location on the bicycle.

Then there's EAPC throttles permitted by type approval, the proof of this included in the relevant type approval manual.

Then there's grandfather rights that permits EAPCs legally supplied before 1st January 2016 to indefinitely retain any throttle they already had, no formal statement available.

Finally there's the definition of maximum continuous rated power contained in technical document EN 15194, making it clear there is no actual legal limit to the wattage power available of an EAPC.

Mostly beyond a police officers pay grade understanding.
.
 

Sparksandbangs

Pedelecer
Jan 16, 2025
106
36
lincspolice
Over the past few months, we have seen an increase in reports of e-bikes being used illegally in Lincoln city centre. Our Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) have run a recent operation on e-bikes in the city as part of Neighbourhood Policing Week.

https://www.tiktok.com/@lincspolice/video/7520244478267936022
The old wheel off the floor test. I would have thought unnecessary with the obvious dinner plate.
 

danielrlee

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 27, 2012
1,401
726
Westbury, Wiltshire
torquetech.co.uk
The old wheel off the floor test. I would have thought unnecessary with the obvious dinner plate.
Ignoring for a moment that an 'unloaded' speed test proves nothing, a direct drive (dinner plate) motor is not precluded from being rated at 250W:
 
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Waspy

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 8, 2012
535
215
The old wheel off the floor test. I would have thought unnecessary with the obvious dinner plate.
In this video, they do "the old wheel off the floor test" at 00:56 and get the speedo up to 74.5KMH.

I have no doubt the bike in question is illegal but how that test can be used as evidence to prove the bike can actually achieve 74.5KMH on the road is baffling.

But then, they are never going to prove in court the bike can do 74.5KMH. The officer decides it's illegal at the roadside, bike gets crushed, owner gets prosecuted, job done. Roadside judge and jury right there.

I wonder what happens when they do the wheel off the floor test on a LEGAL eBike and get the speedo to show over 30MPH? Because that is what you can achieve, I know because I've tried the test on my own legal eBike.

 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,535
30,830
But then, they are never going to prove in court the bike can do 74.5KMH. The officer decides it's illegal at the roadside, bike gets crushed, owner gets prosecuted, job done. Roadside judge and jury right there.
Not so. If you refuse to accept that the bike is illegal, they have to take you to court and get the magistrates to issue the destruction order.

At which time you can shown the magistrates the proof that the bike is an entirely legal pedal cycle in law, conforming to the exemption in REGULATION (EU) No 168/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 January 2013, now accepted into our British law via the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which was passed into law by the UK Parliament on June 26, 2018, after receiving Royal Assent. It was introduced to Parliament following the 2016 EU referendum and aimed to repeal the European Communities Act 1972, which incorporated EU law into UK law.

The Act's primary purpose was to ensure legal continuity after the UK's withdrawal from the EU by converting existing EU law into domestic UK law. It also established a new category of UK law called "EU retained law".

Obviously, try to show that proof to the police first, either at the time or subsequently.
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guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
12,054
3,375
I wonder what happens when they do the wheel off the floor test on a LEGAL eBike and get the speedo to show over 30MPH? Because that is what you can achieve, I know because I've tried the test on my own legal eBike.
Thanks for linking that vid - although not a wheel off the ground pedal assist speed limit test, it's the first time I've seen police orificers do a cadence pedal assist function test. I have four magnets on my driven wheel at odd angles, but I am only using one at present. If I see that test testing speed and not just cadence sensing function, I could turn around the other three magnets towards the speed sensor, to befuddle and confound my Bafang BBS01B mid-drive controller's firmware, in order to make the display show incorrect low speed no matter how fast my rear wheel turns, load or no. Irritating because I've made efforts to make a legal bike, and because doing so would effectively destrict my presently legal bike's speed on the road while looking legal to thicko or malignant rozzers testing roadside. Unless I used a GPS app, I would never know my actual speed, rozzers following me on the road or in hot pursuit could see me proceeding faster than 25kph, and it'd also incorrectificate my odometer. Similar might be possible with KT kits, I don't know. Coppers really need to get an eddiyckaiyschun!