Electric bicycle rider taken off roads for one year

Looks like you did a pretty good job there. I wish I'd gotten a battery bag for under the crossbar now as mine is hella heavy on the rear end.

21700 batteries are coming on stream now so I might have a go at building a custom battery housing.

My ebike build <--- link coz I skipped to the last 2 mins (the interesting bit)


I'm now on a down tube pack and crank drive:-

RFb2zlD.jpg
 
Horses require a 'passport' as documentation both when out riding on the road or just being transported i believe. While i dont know if there are any hard limits, i think taking a horse at galloping speeds would be viewed as dangerous for yourself and other road users. A horse just trotting along however is not particularly fast.

Passports are simply identification documents that are needed for transport, you don't need to carry them when going out on hacks and they don't have any bearing on how you can ride the horse anyway.

Although a horse trotting is fairly slow, their massive weight gives them the same momentum as a small car, and as it stands there are no restrictions on how you can ride a horse on the road as long as you comply with the highway code, even normal speed limits do not apply to horses because they are not classed as motor vehicles.

It seems logical to me. It's set to a speed that an average person can cycle faster than on a flat road so they only use the electric assist on hills/headwinds. If it was set to a speed higher than most people could cycle, then they'd have the 'assist' on permanently and it then becomes a powered vehicle rather than an assisted bicycle.

And that would be a bad thing?

I make loads of trips with my electric bike now that I would otherwise make using motor vehicle, it should be something we want to encourage!

It's actually worse than just 15mph because the motor is only 250W max which means even with the best torque motor you can't get 10mph up a steep hill.

I've not seen any horses being pedalled or freewheeled faster than 40mph?

Not sure if this is supposed to be serious but have you ever watched the grand national?

The point is with the law as it stands a small child could gallop on a 1 ton horse well above the speed limits and still be road legal, yet we restrict bicycles to 15mph?
 
Last edited:
The grand national is not the same as riding a horse on the road, the same as cav sprinting for the line is not the same as me riding to work.
 
we restrict bicycles to 15mph?

No we don't.
You've entirely misunderstood the law which you are calling an "embarrassment".
If an electric powered bike is not capable of exceeding 15mph, it's classed as a bicycle and no speed limits apply.
If an electric powered bike is capable of exceeding 15mph, it's classed as a motor vehicle and the same speed limit as cars applies.
In neither case is there a15mph speed limit.
 
About the same as a small motorcycle.
You don't have the same mass to slow down.
I suspect I'll need new brake blocks soonish though.
 
Believe or not most cyclists can't sustain 15mph. Sure they can easily exceed that but they quickly drop down to about 12mph.
My average cycle speed is 11mph and I'm slow as ****, unfit and unhealthy :p. Most fit cyclists could easily sustain 15mph.
 
No we don't.
You've entirely misunderstood the law which you are calling an "embarrassment".
If an electric powered bike is not capable of exceeding 15mph, it's classed as a bicycle and no speed limits apply.
If an electric powered bike is capable of exceeding 15mph, it's classed as a motor vehicle and the same speed limit as cars applies.
In neither case is there a15mph speed limit.

I fully understand how the law works, electric bicycles for all intents and purposes are restricted to 15mph on the motor because otherwise they are classed as a motor vehicle and you need a licence, mot and insurance (which doesn't exist for ebikes). I never suggested it was illegal to ride a bike at over 15mph.

The grand national is not the same as riding a horse on the road, the same as cav sprinting for the line is not the same as me riding to work.

The point is the legal inconsistency, I can ride my horse 40mph down the road ignoring speed limits, but I can't have the motor on my 20kg ebike work at over 15mph, that's ridiculous.
 
Believe or not most cyclists can't sustain 15mph. Sure they can easily exceed that but they quickly drop down to about 12mph.

Not sure about that. Im a 14.5st road cyclist and can easily sustain 15mph no problems at all. I've averaged over 17mph over 100km of rolling terrain and I've only cycled seriously for about one and a half years.
 
The law needs changing. They want people out of cars and this is a growing tech that would suit a lot of people. No need for the power restriction just the speed and build more bike lanes separate to the road so people feel safer.

Oh and I bet he was being a **** cops do not care.
Yes so people on mopeds don't need to do a CBT then, after all they only do 28 mph!
 
Not sure about that. Im a 14.5st road cyclist and can easily sustain 15mph no problems at all. I've averaged over 17mph over 100km of rolling terrain and I've only cycled seriously for about one and a half years.
I would imagine someone who is a casual cyclist on a standard cheap bike would average around 12mph over a short distance.
Serious cyclists (myself included) easily average over 20mph, even on hilly courses. I’ve also maxed out over 60mph a few times this year. Also, catching and overtaking someone on an electric bike is very satisfying :D
 
The point is the legal inconsistency, I can ride my horse 40mph down the road ignoring speed limits, but I can't have the motor on my 20kg ebike work at over 15mph, that's ridiculous.
I don’t know why you keep going on about horses. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a horse even at a trot on the road. You certainly wouldn’t get one up to a gallop, and very few horses can hit 40mph anyway. I doubt their hooves would be up to galloping on tarmac for one thing.

You may as well argue that there’s no speed limits for people. I can run down the pavement at 40mph! I’m a menace!
 
I have two eBikes and I rode one with a 1000 watt motor that would do 30 mph on the throttle.
It scared me so much that I went back to 250 watt motors and a top speed of 15.5 mph however I often hit 20 mph and above with just leg power.
Every now and then I see a bloke on a bike speeding past cars with no pedaling and one day he will come unstuck.
The person in the OP deserves it, there are laws in place and we should stick to them.
 
Back
Top Bottom