HELP can i take the 15mph limit off a hub motor ebike

[mail@nickavery.com]

It's a really interesting debate and of course what we are all doing is exploring the boundary between pedal cycles and motor vehicles. My brother in law has a chinese e-bike with fat tyres and I think it does 15mph. It is so heavy that I can barely lift the thing. I'm 107kg and in my 60s and left him standing on a hire shop hybrid on a 40 mile run. His vehicle reminds me of the old 1970s mopeds which were supposed to be capable of being pedal powered. There weren't many who could pedal a 65mph Yamaha any distance.

Going back on topic, I think that the person who said "you can't keep up with traffic at 15 mph" is absolutely right, but the ideal cycling infrastructure should be suitable for people who can't do 15mph at all. We don't really want to be sharing our cycle paths with Harley Davidson Livewires which can get to 100mph in 5s !

What this little ramble is really saying is that you have to draw the line somewhere, and in my opinion 15 mph is not a bad place to do it. As other correspondents have said, 30mph either gives you no battery life or a bike so heavy it's really an electric moped.

[swscotland bentrider]

As others have pointed out if you did this you would become a motorcyclist not a cyclist.

[hemo]

The current 25km/h limit is set because that is likely the speed at which an average cyclist will attain, there are always the fatser lycra riders with there racing/touring bikes or the youth who will pedal like crazy for speed. But in general most folaks will amble along at 10 -15mph. the limit was adopted from the japanese as this is the limit they set and implemented on their early EPAC's as they found 10/12mph was the average speed ridden.
Speed on bicycles incurs more conentration as other road users don't corralate fast speed with cycle users except in the cases of a lycra clad rider or a bike of the type used.
Where does one stop ?
Raise the limit to 20mph and then then it will bemoaned for being to slow and 25 or 30 mph will be sought.
The limit is fine as it is and is a capable limit that most should be able to amount to on a push bike without over exerting themselves.

As in the op's opening gambit, if they can manage 30mph/50kmh on flat terrain on a push bike why on earth does one need to opt to having a moped ?

[Cowsham]

Hi all

i am looking into removing the limit off my Kinetic 250w hub motor driven Ebike, not to break speed limits but after that its a weighty bike and i struggle to get it up to 30mph or close to it as where a standard bike i could do this no problem. dont get me wrong its lovely up hills. if i can do it it would be nice but i also dont want to burn the motor out. i would have thought it could cope with it just it has the limit to keep in check with laws and to slow us cyclists down .

any help and advise would be great
thanks
Scott

Please Miss please Miss I know.

If you can set the wheel size a lot smaller than the actual wheel size that'll work since the controller thinks your wheel should be doing a lot more revolutions to make the 15MPH so a bigger wheel will try to revolve faster.

I know cos I tried this out today ( see "pictures of your bikes" thread. )

[cycle tramp]

Hi all

i am looking into removing the limit off my Kinetic 250w hub motor driven Ebike, not to break speed limits but after that its a weighty bike and i struggle to get it up to 30mph or close to it as where a standard bike i could do this no problem. dont get me wrong its lovely up hills. if i can do it it would be nice but i also dont want to burn the motor out. i would have thought it could cope with it just it has the limit to keep in check with laws and to slow us cyclists down .

any help and advise would be great
thanks
Scott

Please Miss please Miss I know.

If you can set the wheel size a lot smaller than the actual wheel size that'll work since the controller thinks your wheel should be doing a lot more revolutions to make the 15MPH so a bigger wheel will try to revolve faster.

I know cos I tried this out today ( see "pictures of your bikes" thread. )

That is so not helpful......

Dear Mr Shapps,
I read an article today where bicycle riders freely discuss altering electric powered bicycles to exceed their legally set speed limit - I demand that they all carry insurance and registration plates immediately.....

[Cugel]

Hi all

i am looking into removing the limit off my Kinetic 250w hub motor driven Ebike, not to break speed limits but after that its a weighty bike and i struggle to get it up to 30mph or close to it as where a standard bike i could do this no problem. dont get me wrong its lovely up hills. if i can do it it would be nice but i also dont want to burn the motor out. i would have thought it could cope with it just it has the limit to keep in check with laws and to slow us cyclists down .

any help and advise would be great
thanks
Scott

Please Miss please Miss I know.

If you can set the wheel size a lot smaller than the actual wheel size that'll work since the controller thinks your wheel should be doing a lot more revolutions to make the 15MPH so a bigger wheel will try to revolve faster.

I know cos I tried this out today ( see "pictures of your bikes" thread. )

Most of the e-motors built in to bikes by manufacturers have their wheel circumference set by the manufacturer into the motor software and, even if there's rider software available to tweak motor profiles, the wheel circumference can't be changed. Fazua, for example, allows dealers but not riders to change the wheel circumference by +/- 5% maximum.

Changing the tyre on a 700C wheel from, say, 28mm to 44mm will only increase the wheel circumference by enough so the motor cuts out at just over 26kph rather than 25kph. No big deal.

There are tweaking kits of various kinds on the interwebber, allowing the e-motor software to be bypassed or suborned. Some e-motor manufacturers issue warnings not to use whilst others install software of their own to counteract the tweaker kits (or so they try to intimate, but no details are published).

Perhaps those e-motor kits that one buys and fits oneself have software allowing the rider/installer to set the wheel circumference to whatever they like? Or, for that matter, other settings such as the power output and the cut-off speed? Is this why we hear so many tales of kit-fitted e-bikes whizzing about at high speeds, still powered by a motor despite the illegality?

Are there statistics in Blighty concerning "accidents" & incidents with illegally-powered e-bikes? I suspect that they cause more of a nuisance on shared paths than they do "accidents" ..... although there were media tales of a significant increase in such "accidents" when older Dutch riders bought the things in droves and went about at illegal highspeeds ..... ?

Cugel

[Cowsham]

Hi all

i am looking into removing the limit off my Kinetic 250w hub motor driven Ebike, not to break speed limits but after that its a weighty bike and i struggle to get it up to 30mph or close to it as where a standard bike i could do this no problem. dont get me wrong its lovely up hills. if i can do it it would be nice but i also dont want to burn the motor out. i would have thought it could cope with it just it has the limit to keep in check with laws and to slow us cyclists down .

any help and advise would be great
thanks
Scott

Please Miss please Miss I know.

If you can set the wheel size a lot smaller than the actual wheel size that'll work since the controller thinks your wheel should be doing a lot more revolutions to make the 15MPH so a bigger wheel will try to revolve faster.

I know cos I tried this out today ( see "pictures of your bikes" thread. )

That is so not helpful......

Dear Mr Shapps,
I read an article today where bicycle riders freely discuss altering electric powered bicycles to exceed their legally set speed limit - I demand that they all carry insurance and registration plates immediately.....

I'd happily pay for cycle tax if dedicated cycle paths away from main roads were built and maintained and I'd expect other riders will too. I already paid empty business property rates ( going to knock the place to the ground and leave a dirty great hole like everyone else does -- maybe charge people to leave electric bicycles there charging and actually make money ) and get no service back for that I'm certainly not going to let the government thieves take more money off me for nothing in return.

I do agree with the limit on speed hence I set the wheel size back but part of the reason for that is the higher stresses on my 250w geared hub -- I don't want to wear it out prematurely.

[Vantage]

I'd happily pay for cycle tax if dedicated cycle paths away from main roads were built and maintained and I'd expect other riders will too.

I certainly wouldn't.
I suspect the majority of cyclists on low/no incomes wouldn't either.
The road network isn't perfect, but it's still usable and more dedicated cycle lanes away from main roads only feeds the motorists misinformation that they own the roads.

[Cowsham]

I'd happily pay for cycle tax if dedicated cycle paths away from main roads were built and maintained and I'd expect other riders will too.

I certainly wouldn't.
I suspect the majority of cyclists on low/no incomes wouldn't either.
The road network isn't perfect, but it's still usable and more dedicated cycle lanes away from main roads only feeds the motorists misinformation that they own the roads.

Motorists pay to use the roads. I see cyclists on the main fast roads and think to myself it's only a matter of time till something bad happens -- cyclists seem to want to ban cars off the roads but don't want to pay for using them. Where's the logic in that?

[Vantage]

Can't believe you just posted that.

[hemo]

Compel cars users not to use pathways/pavements as off road parking places causing untold dmage to the road side infrastruture then registration for bikes might have some merit. On my route to work it is part of cycle route on quieter roads and there is a bollarded passing frotance m one road in to a cul -de-sac, very often one can not easily pass thru due to cars blocking said way, it is not only cylces that are forced on to the paths to pass the obstruction it is als mobility scooter rides as well who struggle to access the quieter route.
For too long motorists have been allowed to park where ever they feel like because they think they have a right to park outside there house, the UK needs far more enforcement of parking fines to be handed out.

[MartinC]

Motorists pay to use the roads........

Tosh. Every tax payer pays for the roads. The costs of motoring way exceed the revenue raised through VED.

[Cowsham]

Motorists pay to use the roads........

Tosh. Every tax payer pays for the roads. The costs of motoring way exceed the revenue raised through VED.

You obviously didn't read or understand what you just quoted

[Cowsham]

Compel cars users not to use pathways/pavements as off road parking places causing untold dmage to the road side infrastruture then registration for bikes might have some merit. On my route to work it is part of cycle route on quieter roads and there is a bollarded passing frotance m one road in to a cul -de-sac, very often one can not easily pass thru due to cars blocking said way, it is not only cylces that are forced on to the paths to pass the obstruction it is als mobility scooter rides as well who struggle to access the quieter route.
For too long motorists have been allowed to park where ever they feel like because they think they have a right to park outside there house, the UK needs far more enforcement of parking fines to be handed out.

With you on that one

[Steve O'C]

I think most of us read

The costs of motoring way exceed the revenue raised through VED.

As meaning the cost to the environment.