Use of electric bikes by younger people.

[vickster]

That is the truth, there is no enforcement of it, must admit in Sheffield I have only seen 1, but I was only going in 2 days a week, but apart from being only a few hundreds yards from the central station I never see officers walking around, except on horseback.

I see a couple every day now with the lockdown, on bike paths, pavements, occasionally roads.

I did almost get mowed down by an unlit one on Oxford Street a while back

 

[Smudge]

After the recent case in London, It seems you can knock a pedestrian down and kill them using a non road legal ebike and get off scot free, not even being convicted of the lesser charges of using an illegal ebike on the public highway.
Its hardly surprising that people using these bikes feel no fear of being charged of any offences.

 

[Mike_P]

Don't see many ebikes at all up my end, but I've seen a naughty one recently. I was doing 26 and he came past me like I was stationary, without even pedalling. It was a heavy looking rigid MTB with what was probably one of these Chinese gazillion watt kits on it.

Sounds like the one that shot pass me, I was doing 22 at the time on my road bike which on a slight up into light headwind and with grippy 28s on it was IMO pretty quick, it must have been doing 30+ and the tyres looked huge.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I don't know why it's so difficult to Police though. I know the police are stretched, but surely it's obvious that a bike doing 25mph uphill or on the flat without pedalling is under illegal power? Perhaps the police are not educated enough (with respect) to know that legal e-assist bikes are painfully slow under power. Or maybe they just don't fancy their chances of catching something that can do 40mph on all sorts of terrain and narrow paths through housing estates etc

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I don't know why it's so difficult to Police though. I know the police are stretched, but surely it's obvious that a bike doing 25mph uphill or on the flat without pedalling is under illegal power? Perhaps the police are not educated enough (with respect) to know that legal e-assist bikes are painfully slow under power. Or maybe they just don't fancy their chances of catching something that can do 40mph on all sorts of terrain and narrow paths through housing estates etc

What Police?

 

[Smudge]

I don't know why it's so difficult to Police though. I know the police are stretched, but surely it's obvious that a bike doing 25mph uphill or on the flat without pedalling is under illegal power? Perhaps the police are not educated enough (with respect) to know that legal e-assist bikes are painfully slow under power. Or maybe they just don't fancy their chances of catching something that can do 40mph on all sorts of terrain and narrow paths through housing estates etc

Its a combination of not enough road traffic police and it being deemed such a low level crime, that cost and manpower wont be used on it.
I think its its more likely, that at some point knee jerk legislation will be put on ebikes. Affecting even road legal ebikes, such as where they can legally go. This is what i fear most.

 

[Electric_Andy]

knee jerk legislation

Yeah good point. I think it all needs revising. I keep harping on about it, but I really think more power assist should be allowed. Still limited to 15mph, but at least more torque would allow you to get up steep hills. My road legal e-bike would not even climb anything steep with a full battery. You don't really need it on the flat, so it's only advantage was on very slight inclines. The people who look at these laws probably have no clue about e-bikes in practice (I have no evidence to back this up, it's just a guess).

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Yeah good point. I think it all needs revising. I keep harping on about it, but I really think more power assist should be allowed. Still limited to 15mph, but at least more torque would allow you to get up steep hills. My road legal e-bike would not even climb anything steep with a full battery. You don't really need it on the flat, so it's only advantage was on very slight inclines. The people who look at these laws probably have no clue about e-bikes in practice (I have no evidence to back this up, it's just a guess).

Interesting, my legal MTB will climb just about anything, it's the riders lack of skill/fitness that stops it

 

[Smudge]

Yeah good point. I think it all needs revising. I keep harping on about it, but I really think more power assist should be allowed. Still limited to 15mph, but at least more torque would allow you to get up steep hills. My road legal e-bike would not even climb anything steep with a full battery. You don't really need it on the flat, so it's only advantage was on very slight inclines. The people who look at these laws probably have no clue about e-bikes in practice (I have no evidence to back this up, it's just a guess).

The Yamaha crank drive on my Giant seems to have a lot of torque, it's specced as 80nm. Although i've yet to test it out on a really steep hill as my area is fairly flat.
What ebike are you riding ?

 

[Mike_P]

Of course a side issue of the police getting more observant of what ebikes are legal or not will be doing the same for all bikes and how many road bikes have reflectors on the pedals?

The Yamaha crank drive on my Giant seems to have a lot of torque, it's specced as 80nm. Although i've yet to test it out on a really steep hill as my area is fairly flat..

I did come across a web site that reviewed all the different motors and rated the Yamaha as being the best on hill climbing.

 

[screenman]

We have a guy around these parts and close to the city who uses one of these type thingson the raod as well, it is not a bike.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/sear...=d5cb0f200e5876ab7967bda3600a6910&action=view

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Looks fun, but not sure I'd want to be batting down a road at 15mph into a crowd of people, how do you control the speed/braking?

 

[Smudge]

I did come across a web site that reviewed all the different motors and rated the Yamaha as being the best on hill climbing.

If i still lived back home in Bristol, then there would be loads of really steep hills i could try it it out on. Not so much round where i live now.

 

[Electric_Andy]

The Yamaha crank drive on my Giant seems to have a lot of torque, it's specced as 80nm. Although i've yet to test it out on a really steep hill as my area is fairly flat.
What ebike are you riding ?

It was a few years ago, a Wisper 910 or something. Good battery, don't know how much torque the motor made though. Yes it would get up really steep hills but I'd have to stand up on the pedals. My point being that (enjoyment/fitness of cycling aside) something that can get you around slowly but with no effort would be preferable to a lot of people, rather than having slight assistance at times where you don't really need it and are already going a good speed without assistance.

 

[Smudge]

It was a few years ago, a Wisper 910 or something. Good battery, don't know how much torque the motor made though. Yes it would get up really steep hills but I'd have to stand up on the pedals. My point being that (enjoyment/fitness of cycling aside) something that can get you around slowly but with no effort would be preferable to a lot of people, rather than having slight assistance at times where you don't really need it and are already going a good speed without assistance.

Dont know what motor that bike has, but its all about torque spec for hill climbing. With crank drive motors obviously being better for torque than hub drive, as the available torque can be used on different gears.
First ebike i had, had 35nm hub drive motor and it was useless on any hill, even slight inclines. I also have a hub drive Raleigh with 45nm motor and this is much better. But neither of them come close to the feeling of the torque on the Yam crank drive motor.