Been looking at ebikes as I often do at the start of the dreary season and I’ve been thinking. If you deresteict an ebike it gets treated as a moped which is fine, but how would one go about doing the ins and outs of that?
I reckon I could talk the Mrs into letting me have one but who in their right mind would insure it, where would I fit my number plate and what other hoops would I need to jump through?
Really just thinking out loud at the moment, but would there be a market for this sort of thing? I saw an American advert for a 750w fat bike, would be awesome for getting to work but the law here would make it difficult.
This is the thing I saw and I think with a bit of trimming down of the unnecessary stuff they’d make a great commuter. Would only need to be able to do 30mph, battery last for 50-60 miles. Job done.
30 mph on the flat and uphill would slash my commute time.
Edit – Cheers Ewan, interesting. Will have a read of those later.
20mph instead of 15mph would make them perfect for a lot of people’s commutes.
15mph is fine (IMO), the whole point is it’s not supposed to be faster than a normal bike! If it was faster then the infrastructure becomes unsuitable for them (cycle paths with wobbling toddlers on balance bikes).
prawny – Member
Then the only issue would be insurance, I assume pedalsure or similar wouldn’t cover a de-restricted e-bike/
I’m sure someone would insure it if you rang around custom motorbike insurers.
TBH though, why would you not just get this? By the time you’ve jumped through all the hoops it’s probably cheaper (the 2017 version is discounted to be cheaper than a lot of e-bikes!)
You would need ( IIRC) a number plate, approved tyres,insurance, approved lights, brake light and basically it will be almost impossible to do. Yo would need a motorcycle license ie pass CBT ( or an old car license that allows you to ride mopeds)
Get an electric moped instead
This sort of thing is possible if yo are totally mad – someone once got a minimoto made road legal
The issue for me is that Mrs P has a pathological fear of both death and motorbikes.
To her the idea of me having even a 50cc moped fills her with dread and she would be wracked with panic every time I left the house on it.
Conversely she grew up around cycling and cyclists so the idea of me whistling down hills in traffic at 40mph in stretchy clothes is fine. I think she’d see an e-bike as a handy labour saving device but a motor bike, even an electrically powered one as death on wheels.
At what point do you say ‘stuff it’ and buy a 50cc ped? They do a zillion mpg so the environmental impact isn’t that much greater and they’ll last a lot longer without having to work out how to fit lights and mirrors to an e-bike to make it a moped.
Does about 30miles on a charge (2018 version does 50% more which is probably why the 2017 ones are so cheap) and has about the same torque and weight as a 250cc MX bike.
Yeah I found it, it’s nice. One of our clients at work is an official dealer it turns out.
3 issues with that though, I’ve not got any kind of bike licence at the moment, I’d have a 10 mile walk home from work every day with no charging in the basement and its six grand!!
To her the idea of me having even a 50cc moped fills her with dread and she would be wracked with panic every time I left the house on it.
We’ve had a 50cc scooter for ten years. It’s brilliant! Feels much safer then being on a bike in town (I do both, more on the scooter recently because my legs have been struggling with commuting, gymming and MTBing). Absolutely nothing like a proper motorbike – even down a steep hill it’ll barely exceed the 30mph limiter.
I also discovered you can fit a Brompton in the footwell (is that what it’s called?) which makes the annual trip to the garage for service and MOT much less hassle.
Sometimes I wonder if using the scooter costs less than the MTB because it uses so little petrol and I’m not wearing out the bike’s drivetrain or expensive sticky tyres…
That leccy scooter looks pretty good, I’d get range anxiety during the winter too, not sure how happy Work would be with me charging a big ole battery though, plus the prospect of carrying a 12kg battery from the nearest motorcycle parking to the office would be a pain.
I think I’m going to work on the idea of a 50cc moped, I didn’t realise how stupidly cheap they could be, I’ll need to find a new route though, one with less 50 and 60mph stretches
kinda at a similiar point myself, standard 250w ‘legal’ bikes with their 15.5mph cut off are pointless to me – i can ride way faster most of the time on my normal commuting bike. I looked at Honda Ruckus/Zoomer ‘peds as the most ‘cool’ like scooter that my Ducati/S1000RR/R1 owning mates wouldn’t instantly disown me but I would still prefer a bicycle based 30 mph option even if that meant licencing & insurance.
If you have an accident on an illegal ebike you are going to be liable for all sorts. Not a problem if it is £1.25 out your benefits for the next 50 years.
Motorcycles are dangerous and your wife is right to be worried. What makes you think a cheap Chinese electric bicycle will be safer?
Just derestrict a normal one and don’t ride it like a total bell. If I could derestrict mine I would do it a flash. 15 mph is just too slow, 20 would be more realistic.
Nah, I’m old enough to ride a moped (up to 30mph 50cc) without L plates and would only need a cbt to ride a 125. That KTM would need a full licence, and that doesn’t fit with the cheap commute ethic.
I also agree with motorbikes not being dangerous, as long as you don’t ride them like a bellend on my commute they’re probably safer than cycling. Plus if you do fall off you’re better protected than on a pushbike.
It’s that that makes me chuckle about my wife’s worries, I often push it on the downhills to save energy so would easily hit a higher speed on my road bike than I would on a moped.
It’s that that makes me chuckle about my wife’s worries, I often push it on the downhills to save energy so would easily hit a higher speed on my road bike than I would on a moped.
I’m quicker down all the hills on my MTBs (even the old XC one with a toddler on board). But the scooter is quicker on the flat or uphill. My Brompton is the quickest down the urban hills but far and away the scariest!
I think our scooter is a whole four brake horsepower!
Posted 6 years ago
Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 40 total)
The topic ‘Legally using an ‘Illeagal’ e-bike’ is closed to new replies.