I mean there are a lot of e-bikes floating around where they’re capped at 20, but there’s a conspicuous little cable that you better not clip, even though people tell you to, because that would disable the speed limiter. It’s not exactly like people are installing custom hardware to overclock their e-bikes
Mopeds have been similarly easy to de-limit for decades though and nobody has complained. You crimp an offshooting sidepipe on the exhaust and that’s that, proper jobs cut and weld it but crimping works just as well. 16 year olds in the UK are allowed to ride these things on everything except motorways and they go 40-45ish delimited depending on hills etc.
This complaint isn’t safety it’s absolutely just about opposition to electric.
Well I’m not so I don’t know about these mopeds, but I would certainly not want to share space with them either on my bike. That’s also a lot more technical work than just clipping the speed sensor cable according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Some of them are even more simple, like removing a washer from the gear assembly. Just unscrew the cover and take out a washer.
I agree you wouldn’t want to share with them either, they’re the same speed as all regular traffic. The point is that it’s not about the safety because they’ve never given a shit about that, they’re petrol based. It’s about electric.
I know many of those, like the original surron, but they look like motorcycles and scooters, not bicycles. It’s not impossible to make normal ebike-looking components go at that speed, but it will severely limit their lifespan or outright destroy them and you’re still going to need an expensive large battery to make it work, so I’d be surprised.
There’s the Bafang Ultra motor that can be hacked to do that (using a laptop and a special cable and shady exes from forums) but last I checked it will overheat and destroy itself without physically opening it and tweaking the thermals if you push it to those numbers. It’s not easy to make a motor that can go at that speed and put out that much power and still fit in a normal bike frame.
Actually now that I think about it that’s probably a pretty good rule. Should probably do the same thing for cars too - a fiat 500 maybe doesn’t need the same licensing and insurance as an F-450 dually hauling a 15,000 lb trailer
It’s already legislated to be illegal. The fact that it doesn’t look like a bike means it’s easy for the law to be enforced - if it doesn’t have plates and looks like a bike and certainly if it’s going fast that’s easy enforcement. All that’s missing is the pressure to get useless cops to do their jobs, but that’s a solvable problem.
I mean there are a lot of e-bikes floating around where they’re capped at 20, but there’s a conspicuous little cable that you better not clip, even though people tell you to, because that would disable the speed limiter. It’s not exactly like people are installing custom hardware to overclock their e-bikes
Mopeds have been similarly easy to de-limit for decades though and nobody has complained. You crimp an offshooting sidepipe on the exhaust and that’s that, proper jobs cut and weld it but crimping works just as well. 16 year olds in the UK are allowed to ride these things on everything except motorways and they go 40-45ish delimited depending on hills etc.
This complaint isn’t safety it’s absolutely just about opposition to electric.
my dna50 could go 50 if i had a light breakfast
breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Well I’m not
so I don’t know about these mopeds, but I would certainly not want to share space with them either on my bike. That’s also a lot more technical work than just clipping the speed sensor cable according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Some of them are even more simple, like removing a washer from the gear assembly. Just unscrew the cover and take out a washer.
I agree you wouldn’t want to share with them either, they’re the same speed as all regular traffic. The point is that it’s not about the safety because they’ve never given a shit about that, they’re petrol based. It’s about electric.
I know many of those, like the original surron, but they look like motorcycles and scooters, not bicycles. It’s not impossible to make normal ebike-looking components go at that speed, but it will severely limit their lifespan or outright destroy them and you’re still going to need an expensive large battery to make it work, so I’d be surprised.
There’s the Bafang Ultra motor that can be hacked to do that (using a laptop and a special cable and shady exes from forums) but last I checked it will overheat and destroy itself without physically opening it and tweaking the thermals if you push it to those numbers. It’s not easy to make a motor that can go at that speed and put out that much power and still fit in a normal bike frame.
It’d be pretty easy to stop abuse just by limiting dry weight to, say, 30kg.
Actually now that I think about it that’s probably a pretty good rule. Should probably do the same thing for cars too - a fiat 500 maybe doesn’t need the same licensing and insurance as an F-450 dually hauling a 15,000 lb trailer
Sure, but how would you legislate “it has to look like a bike”? The UCI already has enough trouble with that
It’s already legislated to be illegal. The fact that it doesn’t look like a bike means it’s easy for the law to be enforced - if it doesn’t have plates and looks like a bike and certainly if it’s going fast that’s easy enforcement. All that’s missing is the pressure to get useless cops to do their jobs, but that’s a solvable problem.
I generally agree with you but this is uhhhh a big reach
Well what more can you do? The law enables enforcement, the enforcement is easy, what else is there to do?
Kill a few cops in Minecraft