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[Closed] A little example of why e-bikes may be bad for everyone

rollindoughnut · 2019-11-30T11:59:28Z

Coming into law today is a piece of legislation requiring drone and model aircraft operators to pass a competency test and apply for an operators ID which must be displayed on all aircraft, i.e. a registration number. This will have to be renewed annually for a small fee. Now people have been flying model planes and gliders for decades and like us mountain bikers are a fairly sensible bunch enjoying getting out into nature. I personally got into flying model gliders on hills in the South Downs this year and it's a lovely thing to do (combines well with a bike ride too). I've no doubt that this new legislation has come about due to the growth of drone use. Indeed 90% of the test questions related specifically to drone usage and all the questions were posed with the word drone not model aircraft in the question. Drones are readily available and can be flown by any muppet. Hours of building and learning to fly are not required. Hence drones have now been deemed a hazard by the CAA and model aircraft have been lumped into this. When I saw this legislation I could immediately see parallels with the use of e-bikes. We've done all the arguments to death on here so won't bother spell them out. I've personally now met enough e-bikers out in the wild to agree that they help bring people of different abilities together and that's nice. However I thought I'd post this to the people who think e-bikes, and more significantly de-restricted e-bikes won't affect everyone. It may well give those in power the opportunity to restrict our use more than we care to think. So before you blithely de-limit your bike, please have a little think about it for the 'analogue' crew's sake. I've pondered whether to post this for ages as I don't enjoy the inevitable insults that will follow. I used to hate e-bikes with a passion and still don't like them as a concept for recreational mtb's but like I said earlier I've met enough nice enough folk out in the wild to realise that it's not a black and white argument. I do however worry about the effect e-bikes will have on all our rights. Democracy seems to be going out of the window these days. I just don't want my quiet, lovely sport to be regulated until it's no fun anymore.

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greyspoke

Posts: 2548

Free Member

There is also an offence of riding elsewhere than on a road, often used in tandem.

I hadn’t heard of a general offence of this nature, which is it?

Grab a coffee, you’ll need it!

@downshep thanks, seems clear enough. I hadn't realised it extended beyond common land. It doesn't appear to be limited to tandems, though.

Posted : 05/12/2019 3:54 pm

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