ThePinkOne wrote: ↑27 May 2023, 4:03pm Two lads riding a bike.
Yeah he was giving a bakkie to his mate and yeah he's not supposed to...... but back in the day when the thing a kid wanted most for their birthday was a bike, these things happened.
Stuff like this stopped because the kids didn't want bikes any more, they wanted cars. However, whether we like lekky bikes or not, they are now an "I want" thing and surely it's better the lads grow up riding a bike (which may technically have more power than legal- although so do many of the "compliant" conversions.....) than illegally using a car.
This was a 16th birthday present not stolen, no doubt the parents worked hard and saved up. Yes, Ely is a working class area- note the "working" bit. The lads were whizzing about and yes it was not technically legal to be two up, but the video clip shows them riding on the ROAD- not pavement. (Could have just as easily been doing that on a Raleigh Chopper back in the day).
And as Ian pointed out up-thread, an e-bike could be going faster than 15mph perfectly legitimately.
Perhaps it's time we had a proper conversation about e-bikes and about loosening the regulations. Fact is, we're far better off in the long term persuading folks to swap their cars for e-bikes than for electrically driven cars, and if making e-bikes "desirable" through being low-cost and a decent speed for in-town commuting (e.g. 20mph, to go with all these 20mph zones about to spring up in Wales), then we've got a better chance.
The COVID malarkey got the polis far too accustomed to having power without proper accountability. Some of those cases are still wending their way through court (and will never be heard due to lack of court time, an informed source tells me). I know the job of the polis is difficult, but making it easier by picking on the easy targets whilst ignoring the more difficult stuff isn't going to end well.
TPO
It wasn’t a ‘street legal’ ebike. It was an electric motorbike.
some might think that in choosing to give their son an illegal electric motorbike capable of 40+mph, the parents should perhaps bear a significant portion of the responsibility here.