BBC Breakfast item today on illegally modded ebikes

[ebikeerwidnes]

Hmm - yes
I know I ride an ebike
but yesterday I got my 3rd best time on a segment - which was pretty good

but the increase in speed is mostly because the canal path is dry and hard at the moment and hence faster

when I look at the faster times than be (I think I am 21st - which is good for me!) there are a fair number that are just over my time and a couple that are significantly faster

i.e. I am doing 13 mph average and they did 14/15 mph


The current leader is well over 20 mph
on narrow soil paths about 1 foot wide, bumpy and not straight

which sounds to me like either a professional on a top MTB
or an electronic motorbike


before anyone says - all my best times are done with no walkers - normally I am much slower due to having to stop or go off the track onto the grass and slow down
yesterday was just a gap in the walkers by luck

and also - I only bother looking when I get back - I don;t even know where they start and stop on the actual ground

 

[Mike_P]

Problem with Strava it uses AI logic to determine if a ride might be by ebike if uploaded by a Garmin etc and asks the user if that was the case, rather than having some setting so that a ride that is ebiked is automatically is recorded as ebike ride rather than ride
Having a legal ebike it rarely picks that up through the AI logic despite the ebike usually having a faster climb rate than by push bike efforts.

 

[classic33]

At least one less here now.
Frame and what was left of the rest of the bike brought out of a building fire in the town centre. Dumped into a pool of water on the road.

Not certain if it was the cause or just caught up in the fire. Flats above shops where there was at least four such bikes kept inside.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Another 14 illegal ebikes confiscated in Plymouth last week. Hard to know the scale of the problem (no way to get a basline I suppose) but at least something visible is being done. It would be interesting to look at motorcycle CBT uptake and see if it's rising.

 

[classic33]

Another 14 illegal ebikes confiscated in Plymouth last week. Hard to know the scale of the problem (no way to get a basline I suppose) but at least something visible is being done. It would be interesting to look at motorcycle CBT uptake and see if it's rising.

Three have changed/swapped to mopeds round here, but still ride them as though they're on the e-bike. Wrong way on one way streets, on pavements...
One of the registrations should be on a Subaru, not a moped.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

I do wonder if the police should be given powers to demand rider details from Strava to go and pay them a visit (and seize illegal vehicles), for those riders regularly posting public ebike rides that are clearly not legal on the UK roads, often making a mockery of the segment leaderboards.

 

[Drago]

Outside the Coop last night I heard a group of teenage srotes talking.

One was boasting that hed been caught on an illegal ebike with a knife. He was telling his chums how hed been fined £500 that hes paying at a mighty £1.50 a week, and been given 8 points "on the licence I ain't even got" for no licence and no insurance.

£1.50 a week is hardly a deterrent for endangering the public and carrying a deadly weapon. It didnt even seem to be an inconvenience.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Outside the Coop last night I heard a group of teenage srotes talking.

One was boasting that hed been caught on an illegal ebike with a knife. He was telling his chums how hed been fined £500 that hes paying at a mighty £1.50 a week, and been given 8 points "on the licence I ain't even got" for no licence and no insurance.

£1.50 a week is hardly a deterrent for endangering the public and carrying a deadly weapon. It didnt even seem to be an inconvenience.

WHich is the problem
The license he hasn;t even got sounds irrelevant to him now
but it won't in a few years when he wants a job and needs a car to get to it
then gets an insurance quote and realises that getting done for speeding in it once will result in a ban


but the future is not something that type of person sees

 

[DCLane]

Three have changed/swapped to mopeds round here, but still ride them as though they're on the e-bike. Wrong way on one way streets, on pavements...

I reported one using the local Greenway via OpSnap last week, with action being taken.

 

[classic33]

I reported one using the local Greenway via OpSnap last week, with action being taken.

This is in the town centre where they don't want to waste time going the correct way on the roads.
They've been reported but no action taken yet.

 

[Drago]

WHich is the problem
The license he hasn;t even got sounds irrelevant to him now
but it won't in a few years when he wants a job and needs a car to get to it
then gets an insurance quote and realises that getting done for speeding in it once will result in a ban


but the future is not something that type of person sees

He didnt strike me as the sort who would ever choose to work.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

He didnt strike me as the sort who would ever choose to work.

Possibly

but people change when they grow up

and some people grow up incredibly late when they realise that living on the dole is not all it is cracked up to be!

 

[DCLane]

Possibly

but people change when they grow up

Agreed.

One of the most irresponsible students we had became a father unexpectedly. He turned up at the start of his final academic year a changed person, with the statement of "I've got a family to support so need to do well". He was the first there to a session, always prepared, graduated and then was around to support his partner when she returned for her final year after maternity whilst he worked. He's done really well since.

But not all change.

 

[Drago]

Possibly

but people change when they grow up

and some people grow up incredibly late when they realise that living on the dole is not all it is cracked up to be!

Some folk do change, but not a great proportion.

In my professional experience a total sheetbag in their mid to late teens is unlikely to grow into a responsible adult. There are reasons for this, but that well overlaps into the remit of the other forum.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Some folk do change, but not a great proportion.

In my professional experience a total sheetbag in their mid to late teens is unlikely to grow into a responsible adult. There are reasons for this, but that well overlaps into the remit of the other forum.

I heard of someone who was a total whatsit - well know to your ex-colleagues
even in jail for a few things - including murder until he got out on a rather dubious technicality

and latest I heard of him he was living with his girlfriend and kids and working in a proper job and keeping out of trouble

I have also seen it earlier when I was a teacher
one of the worst kids in our school - someone who we seldom caught doing anything himself
but his "friends" did a lot of stuff
and when he was out of class all the problem stopped
and there werre frequent complaints of bullying out of school - but always out of sight of teacher and Police etc


anyway - eventually he was kicked out permanently in Year 10
after a term or so the Head got a letter from him
a proper handwritten letter
he apologised to causing so muchtrouble - admitted to a load of things and said he was starting to realise how much trouble he had caused and the effect it had on the other pupils and the staff

he then went on to say that he was trying to study at home and in the library but he needed help and an better environment
one where his mates couldn't come round and disturb him

he asked if he could have a room in the school away from pupils and maybe some text books
and if any teachers could help him he would be very grateful but didn;t expect it after all he had done


well - that all sounds very good but....

anyway - the Head at the time said it was up to the teachers
secret ballot - everyone had a vote - 3/4 majority needed ot give him a chance
every ballot cast - and pretty much everyone voted - was a yes as long as he was kept an eye on

and several teachers volunteered their free time to help him

lad was very grateful and worked like mad
but stuck to teh deal of arriving after the first lesson started and left before the last lesson finished - and cleared off at lunch time


in the end he was even allowed to attend the "End of Year 11" party thing - which was a big event - but he said he couldn;t come because it would not be fair to the kids who had behaved and he had affacted - so he stayed away

apparently he got a few good GCSEs - far more than expected before he was kicked out

he apparently turned into a nice kid once he grew up


it just takes some people a lot of time


anyway - lessons
a) some people do grow up eventually
b) teachers are incurable optimists