Throttles in Europe

[tostig]

I assume that several of the people here have ridden their biles in Europe and that many of these have throttles or even overpowered bikes. Have any of those had their bikes checked by the local police and, if so, what was the result? For that matter, has anybody been stopped by the police in this country and had their bike checked?

 

[mike killay]

Ridden with throttle many times. Never been stopped. Some Police have been interested in the ebike. Senior Officer who I know has also ridden my bike and made no comment. I think that most Europeans have ridden mopeds and expect there to be a throttle.
Not wanting to get anyone in trouble, I will not mention the country.

 

[D C]

On one of my off road rides I met and chatted to a mountain biker who was extremely interested in my bike and electric bikes in general. He went on to say that he was an off duty policeman on holiday in the area, also that he was a regular reader of electric bike forums including this one, though I suspect not a member of any of them. Very nice chap to talk to though I got the feeling he was doing a little information gathering.
He did have a quick go on mine up and down a steepish hill and made the unprompted comment, "why would you want more power than that".
I can think of some reasons but resisted the temptation!

 

[flecc]

Remember a "walk-alongside" throttle that operates up to 6kph is perfectly legal in the EU and is seen there on many BikeTec Flyer models and is optional on some other makes. Therefore the presence of a throttle and it's ability to operate from a standstill without pedalling wouldn't necessarily attract attention.

 

[tostig]

Yes but the walk-along throttle that I have seen was a tiny button and walk-along is not like riding uphill without pedalling.
The comment about a policeman actually riding the bike suggests a possible problem if the bike was capable of going faster than 25KPH. I have not seen any overpowered bikes that were governed to that speed so a bigger motor could be a problem although the prime motive for getting such, for me, would be its hill climbing. Or can, say, a 350w motor be so governed?

 

[flecc]

Quite a few walk alongside throttles are thumb ones, just like any normal thumb throttle, and it was those I was thinking of.

As for the 350 watt motors, with any motor the actual power depends on the controller, so a 250 watt controller can be used with them, though that would defeat your objective. For speed governing it depends on the motor type. A crank motor e-bike can be simply restricted to 25 kph by arranging the top gear so that it runs out of steam at that speed and some makers do just that. A similar result is achieved with a hub motor by specifying it's rpm to give 25kph maximum in the wheel size it's mounted in. Some crank drive e-bikes use a rear wheel magnet sensor for the crank motor to be able to sense road speed from the magnet pass frequency and cut at that.

 

[Alan Quay]

Yes but the walk-along throttle that I have seen was a tiny button and walk-along is not like riding uphill without pedalling.
The comment about a policeman actually riding the bike suggests a possible problem if the bike was capable of going faster than 25KPH. I have not seen any overpowered bikes that were governed to that speed so a bigger motor could be a problem although the prime motive for getting such, for me, would be its hill climbing. Or can, say, a 350w motor be so governed?

There's no reason why bigger motors/controllers cannot be governed to 25kph. The KU series controllers (BMS battery and others) all seem to have the speed limit option.

Does not make it legal though if its above 250w, which is why I guess most people don't use that function.

 

[tostig]

Then would it be possible to use a 250w motor with a 350w controller and get the equivalent of 350w for a short time, like when going up the steepest part of a hill?

 

[flecc]

Yes, the risk of overheating is negligible with such a small change in power and well within design safety margins, particularly with such short term usage. Little point though, still illegal when used in that mode so might as well use a 350 watt motor/controller combination.

 

[tostig]

I find all this very interesting, but it seems that you have destroyed all my cunning plans and I am back where I started. I will just have to shove my current, stopgap, 250w with throttle on the back of my MH and shove off to France etc. and see what, if anything, happens.
Many thanks to all of you for sharing your knowledge with me.