Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
I remember them all coming in together and parking up at the touchline at football matches. You could have any colour you liked as long as it was pale blue.
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
Memory jogger, I'd forgotten that. The blue ones were I think one of a few makes/models. There's a detailed history on wiki!rogerzilla wrote: ↑12 Aug 2022, 9:40pm I remember them all coming in together and parking up at the touchline at football matches. You could have any colour you liked as long as it was pale blue.
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
The guy in Dalstom who went to court after he and woman collided ( she sadly died of her injuries) and he was riding an illegal bike with a 1000w motor and never got a sniff of any motoring offences.
- Chris Jeggo
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
One day last year, cycling along the canal towpath, I caught up with a mobility scooter. I kept station behind him, keeping a close watch on my well calibrated cycle computer. When the path widened I came alongside, saying "Hello! Your scooter does a good speed, seven and a half miles an hour". He just glared at me. "Eight!" he snapped.
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
More info herehemo wrote: ↑12 Aug 2022, 11:33pmThe guy in Dalstom who went to court after he and woman collided ( she sadly died of her injuries) and he was riding an illegal bike with a 1000w motor and never got a sniff of any motoring offences.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7136632/c ... ike-crash/
and
here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51647068
I think there is a public misconception that electric bikes are limited to 15.5mph, and not the assistance is limited to that speed.
To the vast majority of the public anyone cycling over 15mph is riding carelessly/dangerously. It's beyond their comprehension unfortunately.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
I don't peddle bikes.
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
Chris Jeggo wrote: ↑13 Aug 2022, 12:17amOne day last year, cycling along the canal towpath, I caught up with a mobility scooter. I kept station behind him, keeping a close watch on my well calibrated cycle computer. When the path widened I came alongside, saying "Hello! Your scooter does a good speed, seven and a half miles an hour". He just glared at me. "Eight!" he snapped.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
I don't peddle bikes.
- CyberKnight
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
the ones that can do 8 mph are not allowed to do so on the pavement, max speed is 4 mph legally
John Wayne: "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on... I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
The battery contains all the power on an ebike. The motor doesn't produce power it, converts battery power into motion.
Last edited by pete75 on 15 Aug 2022, 12:20pm, edited 1 time in total.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
It seems like he was but was found not guiltyhemo wrote: ↑12 Aug 2022, 11:33pmThe guy in Dalstom who went to court after he and woman collided ( she sadly died of her injuries) and he was riding an illegal bike with a 1000w motor and never got a sniff of any motoring offences.
"Jurors retired to deliberate on the trial just after lunch today and returned within just over an hour to acquit him of causing death by dangerous driving and driving without a licence and without insurance."
https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/c ... an-3652146
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
- simonineaston
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
Much to my amusement / despair the only person I've seen being talked to by a bobby or a pcso has been a little old lady who lives nearby, who doesn't drive and suffers from the old arthurs. For her, a modest 'leccy scooter was a real god-send, changing her mobility picture much for the better overnight. So there's an irony there, when she got the ticking off, when the same paths & vicinity are used by guys from a very different demographic, riding various 'leccy vehicles that are super-fast and not always that well maintained - not that plod stands any reasonable chance of catching them, that is !!I doubt the police are particularly bothered with illegal ebikes.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
I presume this is the case which was at court over 2 years ago
E-bike rider Thomas Hanlon weeps as he is cleared of death by careless driving
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/t ... 76446.html
My reading of that article is that he was tried for offences involving riding a motorbike rather than an ebike and was cleared by the jury.
E-bike rider Thomas Hanlon weeps as he is cleared of death by careless driving
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/t ... 76446.html
My reading of that article is that he was tried for offences involving riding a motorbike rather than an ebike and was cleared by the jury.
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
" there's an irony there, when she got the ticking off, when the same paths & vicinity are used by guys from a very different demographic, riding various 'leccy vehicles that are super-fast and not always that well maintained - ...."
Coppers always prefer opponents who are unlikely to fight back or even argue. Much easier to assault children or the elderly.
Coppers always prefer opponents who are unlikely to fight back or even argue. Much easier to assault children or the elderly.
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Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
Power = energy (or work)/time.
The battery contains energy, not power. The motor develops power from the energy stored in the battery.
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
Is a watt not a unit of power then?rogerzilla wrote: ↑16 Aug 2022, 6:56amPower = energy (or work)/time.
The battery contains energy, not power. The motor develops power from the energy stored in the battery.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Re: Legal speed restrictions on electric bikes
Wot's this? A confusion over power? Well, we do tend to use the terms for energy use and storage rather loosely at times. In common-speak:pete75 wrote: ↑16 Aug 2022, 7:58amIs a watt not a unit of power then?rogerzilla wrote: ↑16 Aug 2022, 6:56amPower = energy (or work)/time.
The battery contains energy, not power. The motor develops power from the energy stored in the battery.
Battery capacity (it's maximum stored energy) is measured in watt-hours - the quantity of power stored. The power usage rate is the time taken to use the energy in the battery - an hour of power at a usage rate of 250 watts if a battery capacity is 250 watt-hours, say.
Therefore, the rate of power delivered & used from the battery determines how long a battery of a particular capacity will last until fully discharged. For example, two hours if the power usage rate is a constant 125 watts.
Power usage rates from a battery are limited by a) the ability of the consuming thing to turn battery-watts into another form of power (such as the moment of an electric motor at its maximum power consumption rate; and b) the maximum practical discharge rate of the battery if it's energy is to be safely and efficiently used.
E-bike motors are (legally) limited to an average usage rate of 250 watts. In practice they seem to vary in their momentary maximum power output, with some able to operate at short periods of many more watts than 250. Generally they get used at lower powers; and sporadically, not continuously. A more practical measurement seems to be the torque an e-motor can produce - although it's not clear whether that's usually expressed as an average or a maximum ( usually in Newton-meters).
The e-bike battery is managed by circuits designed to optimise various behavioural factors, such as maximum/minimum storage amount allowed (less than the absolute maximum and more than the absolute minimum) to prevent battery damage. Charging and discharging rates also seem to get managed, to the same intent of preventing damage. So it's never quite clear what the real capacity and maximum discharge rate of a battery are, since it would be damaging to rely on those values in use.
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Incidentally, the legal speed limit for electric bikes (that 25kph) is allowed a variance of 10% in practice, or so I read. Presumably this is because the power-limiting software governing the e-motor employs a single assumed wheel size? Putting a fat tyre on a wheel will make it's wheel circumference significantly longer, so your bike will go further per wheel revolution than the assumed circumference-value used by the speed limiting software to cut off motor power. You'll be able to go a bit faster than 25kph before the motor cuts out.
Cugel, now waiting to be corrected.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
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John Maynard Keynes