Steve O'C wrote: ↑18 Aug 2022, 11:36pm
I can not maintain 30mph on the flat and I do not own an ebike.
With that out of the way I do think there is a discussion to be had about the legislation limiting the assistance of ebike motors to 15mph. It seems to me that being able to keep up with traffic in town increases rider safety in that it reduces the temptation for drivers to make impossible overtaking manoeuvres.
20mph seems about right to me and on the flat would be possible with current motors and batteries.
There was a thread here some time ago about how the 15mph limit was arrived at and if I recall it was no more scientific than my assertion that a 20mph limit would be safer.
I suspect evidence would be hard to come by, but what the exact speed limit should be is something that it is not unreasonable to discuss here.
Steve
Yes, the e-bike speed limit is a reasonable topic for discussion. It has several aspects, from safety issues to technical issues such as the rate of energy drain and the various methods for adding motor power to leg power.
The OP's question seemed to be asking for a fix to enable the overcoming of the 25kph legal limit currently set as one criterion defining an assisted e-bike, so 50kph is possible. So perhaps this thread should first consider arguments for and against changing the current cut-off speed from the perspective of safety at this much higher speed? Such an e-bike would mean cyclists on them might habitually go about at 30mph, not the current situation with cycling in general.
As a very experienced rider of unpowered bicycles I know that many who are less experienced (novices, if you like) as well as some who have ridden bicycles for years, are not good (sometimes bluddy awful) at the riding skills. The first consideration about e-bikes, then, is looking at the potential for their added power to increase the consequences of being an inept cyclist.
Personally I feel that at speeds above 20mph those with a poor ability to control a bicycle will begin to find their window for recovering from a bad control decision is too short to make amendments. As their velocity increases, the chance of them suffering a serious consequence from one of their numerous poor control inputs will increase. In 30mph scenarios they also stand a much greater chance of coming to serious harm.
But what about those who are very good at bike control? Many can go at 25mph habitually; and all cyclists have the potential to go at up to 40mph down significant hills. If they can remain competent at those speeds on an unpowered bike, why not allow them to have assistance up to those speeds? The answer is that it's impossible to differentiate at the point of purchase between competent and incompetent cyclists.
That's a poor argument, though, because we currently allow incompetent cyclists to buy unpowered bikes that can go as fast as their riders can make them go. Some will get better at the cycling skills via slower speed cycling, as they'll not initially be fit enough to get up to 20mph. But there's plenty out there with thousands of miles under their wheels who are still far from competent, especially in traffic. And someone superfit from some other activity might be a novice cyclist but will still be able to get up to 30mph on his new and unfamiliar bicycle from day-one.
No conclusions about e-bike speed limits from me then!
My personal preference is to set my e-bike motor to give no more than 200 watts (usually hlf that) and then only when I'm outputting at least that myself. I keep it for the long steep hills only, so my legs don't wither and fall off. I don't feel a need or want to be assisted to high speeds, only to shorter times (or smaller efforts) up serious hills. But many want, effectively, an electric motor bike only without all the costs of licenses, insurance et al.
Perhaps the only way forward is to allow an experiment (up to 30mph assistance in, say, Surrey) to see what the related "accident" statistics tell us. Cyclists as guinea pigs.
Or we could look at statistics from those US States in which 30mph, not 15.5mph, is the limit ...... ?
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes