- This topic has 214 replies, 78 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by kerley.
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Petition to increase speed limit on electric bikes
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martymacFull Member
I’ve posted this before,
I have an ebike, i had it hacked, it was fun for a few rides, but (and its a big but)
It genuinely doesn’t improve the bike.
It doesn’t improve the ride.
It goes through the battery like nobody’s business.
Once you start to go past 20mph or so, you can really start to feel the limitations of the suspension and brakes.
There’s a world of difference between a racing snake doing 20mph, and a 20stone biffer (me)
Cruising at the same speed.
I would be against the limiter being set any higher than it already is.
I’ve tried it, it’s not any better.RustyNissanPrairieFull MemberMy sister, a middle aged woman with dodgy hips who doesn’t drive, has a Raleigh ebike she uses for the stuff most people drive cars for: commuting, shopping trips, visiting friends, going for a pub lunch on nice days. She loves the freedom her ebike gives her, and has no interest in hacking it or taking the piss. She did >3000km on it last year, more than many of you do on your stupidly expensive plastic dandyhorses. I’m a big fan of ebikes for this. People like the OP are going to wreck it for reasonable, considerate human beings like my sister. Selfish ****.
She would have more time with friends if she had 20mph assistance. I can lend her my bike if you want?
trail_ratFree MemberShe would have more time with friends if she had 20mph assistance. I can lend her my bike if you want?
Would she ? After she got it into a situation where she could legally ride a hacked up ebike she probably be better off sticking to the legal 15.5mph.
Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition
Latest Singletrack VideosFresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...tjagainFull Memberyes they are – check the legislation. 250 w continuous output.
oldnpastitFull MemberCould this be a trojan horse by the anti-cycling lobby?
Get lots of inexperienced cyclists riding around at 20mph, quite quickly get a load of injuries of both cyclists and pedestrians.
Solution? A test, license and registration plate for *all* bikes.
JamzeFull MemberDidn’t realise that until recently you couldn’t ride them in Northern Ireland without insurance etc. They didn’t adopt the UK legislation.
Personally I don’t have an issue with the current boundary between electric bikes and S-pedelecs. Just odd we used kph rather than mph in UK legislation.
Out of interest had a look at some S-pedelecs. Would be very interested in what happens when you turn up at you local MOT testing centre with one! Some of the brakes are interesting – have switches for brake lights and they cut the motor when you put on the brakes.
Great result! Unanimous support across all parties for new e-bike legislation. From tomorrow e-bikes will be treated just like a normal bike. No more barriers of having to register & license it beforehand. Get peddling 🚴♂️🚴♀️ https://t.co/lEMmTMsfhB
— Nichola Mallon (@NicholaMallon) May 12, 2020
whitestoneFree MemberJust odd we used kph rather than mph in UK legislation.
Maybe because the metric system is the legal system of measurement in the UK?
MoreCashThanDashFull MemberCould this be a trojan horse by the anti-cycling lobby?
Get lots of inexperienced cyclists riding around at 20mph, quite quickly get a load of injuries of both cyclists and pedestrians.
Solution? A test, license and registration plate for *all* bikes.
Funnily enough, my 17 year old made that point when we were talking about it
nickjbFree MemberSolution? A test, license and registration plate for *all* bikes.
It has certainly worked for cars, which are now totally accident free.
woolFull MemberE bikes are great my 75 year old mother inlaw has replaced quite a number of car trips with hers.It’s been a very positive thing to get her back out on two wheels, But it’s the pilot in control and how it’s ridden. You can legislate for stupidity and by keeping the limit at 15 MPH it keeps the none thinking from causing more carnage. Judging how may people think is fine to hustle my ten year old daughter on a blue route whilst shredding on a electric mopeds is quite amazing, Assist should be no more than 10 MPH in a blue route situation. It really has taken the pleasure out of going for a ride with my daughter as the number of close silly passes is quite alarming.
DickBartonFull MemberGood to see the petition has only reached just over a quarter of the way to 10k signatures…hopefully it’ll fall way short and save some daft arguments for and against.
epicsteveFree MemberI’ve ridden in the bike lanes in Amsterdam where they allow mopeds in them and found that horrible (and my wife who’s a lot less experience on a bike than me really hated it so we ended up locking the bikes up and walking instead). So I’d very much be against this unless the bikes were registered, insured and ridden on-road rather than in the bike lanes.
convertFull MemberI think the solution is to improve the technology so that ebike motors are less draggy once disengaged so the rider can push on past 15.5mph under 100% human power input to their heart’s content.
100% would not support this petition – 15.5mph is plenty and is a good speed where the current legislation (no licence, no mot, no insurance (though this is for fools)) has a chance of being maintained.
99% of commuters and recreational cyclists are totally fine with that speed. If that’s not you buy an electric moped and a licence. Don’t attempt to ruin it for the majority.
jamieaFree MemberI was passed on my faux-commute (along a Tarmaced bridleway) yesterday by a fat knacker on an old MTB with a derestricted conversion kit going at a fair lick, must have been pushing 25mph; I wouldn’t have liked to see him have to stop quick-sharp!
tthewFull MemberI’ve ridden in the bike lanes in Amsterdam where they allow mopeds in them and found that horrible
I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed, just **** not following rule 1.
epicsteveFree MemberI’m pretty sure it’s not allowed, just **** not following rule 1.
They are allowed in a lot of the bike lanes sadly – some peds limited to 30mph and some only allow peds limited to 20mph (and folks don’t need to wear helmets on those). Lots of people ignoring the rules as well though.
MrSmithFree Member100% would not support this petition – 15.5mph is plenty and is a good speed where the current legislation (no licence, no mot, no insurance (though this is for fools)) has a chance of being maintained.
99% of commuters and recreational cyclists are totally fine with that speed. If that’s not you buy an electric moped and a licence. Don’t attempt to ruin it for the majority.
i agree, especially for urban commuting with large numbers of other cyclists using the same infrastructure. unlike cars there is no way of enforcing or having speed limits unless you go down the camera and registration route. and even then as cars and motorists have shown they ignore them.
15mph is fine when the average urban commuting speed is 13mph, if you want to go faster then pedal harder.
butcherFull MemberThey are allowed in a lot of the bike lanes sadly
I don’t know the history, so I’m guessing a bit here. But I imagine it goes back to the days of when mopeds had pedals, the type of which are still relatively common in some parts on the continent.
Which is pertinent to this topic since that’s exactly where we’re at now. Power assisted bicycles are nothing new.
craig5Full MemberDefinitely the cut out limit needs to be changed. 15.5mph is a bit lame. Just because you can travel at full speed doesn’t mean you do all the time. The sustrans lanes round my end are always full of walkers and dogs, so you just slow up. On the road its a different matter. Signed
i_scoff_cakeFree MemberIf you want an ebike that can do 30mph assisted then what you really want is an electric motorbike, which already exist.
I’m not sure anyone is asking for 30 mph.
20 mph would be enough for me.
i_scoff_cakeFree Member15.5mph is plenty and is a good speed where the current legislation (no licence, no mot, no insurance
So I should get a licence, mot, and insurance if I take my non-e-bike past 15.5 mph?
KojaklollipopFree MemberI’ve never understood why ebikes don’t have a drop in power as you get faster? I’d like the limit to be 20mph but so that over 15mph the assist would drop to the lowest setting, eco or whatever, and then cut off at 20mph,no one really needs more than 20mph but to get a sudden cut off at a lower speed then most people can do on a normal bike seems odd. Surely it would be easy to set up the firmware to work like this as we can manually adjust the power anyway and the limit is governed by speed. Idiots ride normal bikes too!
joepudFree MemberReading these comments it seems like people just want to go fast without having to put the work in. If you want to go faster just spin those legs more. It’s pedal assist not pedal for you. If you want to go faster just get a motorbike.
doomanicFull MemberNice to see the same old tired anti eBike comments coming out. Yawn.
There is a feeling amongst eMTBers that 15.5mph is too slow and ruins the flow of decent single track. They claim they can go faster on their lighter clockwork bikes. They consider that their only current option is to derestrict the bike which with current technology generally means doubling the speed that assist is available. Most are also in agreement that a small increase to 20mph would make all the difference.
I don’t agree with any of this and think they need to find some better trails to ride. For example, in the Forest of Dean I know of only one trail where a higher assist limit would help me; Countdown. I don’t notice the limit on any of the other trails I ride there. I haven’t chipped my eBike and don’t intend to. I don’t ride the marked trail centre stuff often either, but when I do I, and everyone I ride with, is courteous to non eBikers, especially kids but I do accept that dicks will be dicks.The chances that the majority of signees will actually commute on their eBikes is probably quite small.
NobeerinthefridgeFree MemberApparently a 30mph moped isn’t safe, but a 15.5mph commuter on the same road is?….
doomanicFull MemberThe poll was started by one of the above group, not a commuter.
JamzeFull MemberI agree @Doomanic. I’ve never had an issue with the current assist limit, but it being 15.5mph (25kph) suggests it was adopted without too much thought in the UK, and I would be surprised if 4.5mph is going to result in some of the carnage described above. Interesting though that in the US where the limit is 500W/20mph friends are getting fed up because many of the shared trails are banning them. I assume because the trail conflict is too great?
trail_ratFree MemberApparently a 30mph moped isn’t safe, but a 15.5mph commuter on the same road is?…
Do you see many mopeds on shared use paths ?
As I said the mechanism to have an electric moped on the road exists you just cannot have your cake and eat it so it restricts you to the roads – shared use paths and many trails (most of Scotland where we don’t have *off road roads* would be out of order.
i_scoff_cakeFree Member‘Trail use’ – however you define that exactly – isn’t relevant for your average commuter who may use a combination of public roads, dedicated cycle lanes, bridleways and combined use paths.
There is definitely a conversation to be had about what performance parameters are appropriate for defining a restricted e-bike. The current 15.5 mph limit seems to have been arrived at quite arbitrarily.
squirrelkingFree MemberThere is already enough friction over inconsiderate cyclists on shared use paths (regardless of motive power) without giving the anti cycling lobby more ammunition.
I’ve had near misses from oblivious e-bikers both on trails (slog uphill at Llandegla where one was slaloming round everyone) and when on a shared path with my daughter (suddenly finding someone zipping between us) and IMO it’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed by one given the weight of them. More speed is not the answer, 15.5mph is plenty fast enough for assistance.
lungeFull MemberThere is a feeling amongst eMTBers that 15.5mph is too slow and ruins the flow of decent single track. They claim they can go faster on their lighter clockwork bikes.
If you can go 15.5mph on singletrack then their singletrack is crap or not singletrack.
If you go to 20mph then someone will want 25mph.
Plus as said above, there’s nothing stopping you going at 25mph, just pedal quicker.ayjaydoubleyouFull MemberIMO it’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed by one given the weight of them
assume you mean the weight of the stereotypical user, becasue a few extra kilos on the bike is going to make sod all difference in a cyclist to pedestrian impact.
JamzeFull MemberThe current 15.5 mph limit seems to have been arrived at quite arbitrarily.
Something I realised today, it would be a PITA if we had different rules to the EU. You’d end up with a bike that you couldn’t legally ride on holiday in France for example.
GreybeardFree MemberThe current 15.5 mph limit seems to have been arrived at quite arbitrarily.
I don’t think it’s arbitrary. It’s about the speed that many people on bicycles will travel at until they get to a hill. I don’t think the original intention was to enable people to ride faster, it was to enable them to ride at the same speed uphill as they would on the flat. So brakes, etc, don’t need any improvement. Actual cyclists (so the assumption goes) rather than just people on bikes, will ride faster than 15.5mph but they did that before eBikes and will know about bikes and know whether they need to improve their brakes for the riding they do (as many people here actually do).
tailsFree MemberI’ve signed it and I don’t even have an ebike. I’ve not seen many people get hit by bikes full stop.
Plus whenever the topic of motorbikes speeding comes up everyone says it’s safe and they are not the problem.
NobeerinthefridgeFree MemberI’ve ridden in the bike lanes in Amsterdam where they allow mopeds in them and found that horrible (and my wife who’s a lot less experience on a bike than me really hated it so we ended up locking the bikes up and walking instead). So I’d very much be against this unless the bikes were registered, insured and ridden on-road rather than in the bike lanes.
Alternatively, my wife (who’s only been biking for a couple of years now) absolutely loved cycling in Holland, and if you asked her she probably doesn’t even recall mopeds, petrol or electric, in the same space as us (they were!)
Even on the 3 occasions we left The Hague during rush hour, it all just worked.
Folk always cite non cyclists, councils, government etc as reasons we can’t be like the Dutch infrastructure-wise, but even some cyclists here are so ingrained in how we’ve always done it, they’re as much of an issue.
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