Some 17,500 fatbikes imported from China have been held by Dutch authorities over concerns about speed manipulation and safety risks.

  • Cpo@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    Technically you are right.

    The fat bike is considered to be a normal electric 25km/h bike (here in NL).

    What changed (our view) on it was that some Chinese brands made it possible to raise the speed by doing a trivial change (either hardware or software) allowing speeds upto 45km/h.

    In some extreme cases even higher.

    Combine this with 12 year olds with soft skulls and you have the reason why the legal age is going to be raised to 16 years old and wearing a helmet.

    And the old man in me screams: also require some training and a license for it.

    And yes, I hate those things with a vengeance and have an opinion on everyone on such a vehicle. They are noisy, tent to break the speed limits and attract a certain type of people.

    Old man signing off.