E-BIKE LAW UPDATE 2024 // UK // SURRON

I have a full motorcycle license and an e-bike but to be honest, if they start introducing more and more laws and requirements for e bikes with more power and a throttle you may as well just get a motorbike.

The rules on max power, throttles etc. could be tweaked slightly, but remember that unlike other powered vehicles, ebikes require no licence, tax or insurance. An exception is made for them as they're not supposed to be any faster than a fit person would be on a normal pedal bike. The power restriction is intended to make them safe to use without any training and to allow them to mix safely with pedal cycles. Remember that ebikes have the privilege of using cycle lanes and cycle racks just like a pedal bike. - Anyone who needs or wants more power can buy an electric motorbike, but these don't belong on cycle paths as their higher speed and extra weight make them unsafe to share space with pedal cycles and pedestrians.

I made a 2kW ebike 8 years ago which does up to 30 mph by adding a hub motor to a mountain bike and making a battery from 224 harvested laptop cells and have ridden thousands of miles on it. Secret to not being stopped is to behave responsibly and keep pedaling as though you're working at it, even you're not actually doing any work. Having a couple of panniers help too.

I've been using a 250 w commuter ebike for 7 years without any problems. Yes i have to pedal it but thats what it is an electric assist bicycle and it makes going up hills a whole lot easier.

I don't agree that 250 watts is pointless. It gives a very significant boost and definitely makes me use my bike more than I'd use one unpowered

I surrendered my driving licence after having a seizure and they won’t give me it back now even though I’m 100% healthy . now there trying to take my bike 😂. I will build a para moter

I live in a small town in the hills. I'm also 63 years old with severe heart failure. I ride my ebike everywhere, it's a matter of choosing the right bike for your environment and the 250w limit is fine, use your gears with forethought and pop up through the assist modes as necessary. I get up hills I could never hope to ride a normal bike up, even in my youth and without lifting my bum off the saddle.

There's only one rule that needs to change. Increase the speed limit from 15.5 mph to 20 mph

The average politician went to Eton school, so anything with a wheel will baffle them.

You can have your Surron on the road however it just appears to me that you do not want to register or insure it, I would love to get away with that argument on my motorcycle or car. If we remove the restriction for pedal assist then those bikes will also lose the ability to use the same areas that standard pedal cycles currently use as these areas will become overrun with what are effectively electric motorbikes. One of your arguments that these electric motorcycles are actually safer than pedal assist is you state & 11.55 that your bike is equipped with better brakes than a pedal cycle, that’s strange as yours appears to be equipped with Hope Tech 4 master cylinders which are designed for normal bicycles. Just give in, register your bike, do your CBT and ride it without complaining.

eBikes should be limited to 20mph so you can keep up with the traffic in such restricted areas. There would then be no need for 'close pass' etc, because you're at the max anyway. I can pedel my bike at about 20mph on the flat (I am a retiree!), but the assistance is useful for hills....

I think the laws on ebikes are spot on. If you don't have pedal assist then it's a motorbike. The likes of Surrons and Talarias ect, are in the realm of mopeds, they are faster in fact. You should need tax, insurance and a CBT to ride one on the road.

As someone who owns an e bike and who has spent many many years cycling prior to using an e bike, someone needs to explain to me why going over 15.5mph on an e bike is more dangerous than going over 15.5mph on a normal bicycle, because i have experienced no additional safety concerns between the two.

We have an ADO folding E bike with a 250 watt motor with a CE mark on it. I have been into the engineering section, changed it to hybrid drive and increased the max speed setting and fitted the throttle that came with the bike as an option. The bike now goes up to 15.5 mph as normal with the pedal assist but the throttle takes it up to about 22 mph without pedaling hard, in still conditions on the flat. I now find it perfectly capable enough for tootling about as a sensible e-bike. I can't see that 500 watts is needed. If I want to go faster I can get my Kawasaki 900 RS, or my Honda cbr 600 f out and go nearly 160 mph ( where permitted ) lol. Don't think any faster than that speed on an e-bike is appropriate and at that speed I wouldn't attract the wrong attention, particularly at 65 years old.

The 4mph throttle is for walking your bike up hills when you're not actually on the bike. The reason the output is 250watts is because as you said ≈ human pedal power. Full electric power (or more than 250w) is then a mechanically propelled vehicle and the subject to the same road laws as a car, motorbike etc, insurance, DV license etc

Legality.....Rules of the road also apply to private property if there is open public access as far as I'm aware. Therefore, if you are on a public footpath, bridleway, carpark or access road you are quite possibly in breach of the law and all relevant laws apply. Wanten and furious riding is like dangerous driving. Same thing different words. Insurance and registration. As it stands currently you don't need it for road legal bikes. This is because they are to all intents and purposes the same as non e-bikes. If you want something more powerful then you should be registered and insured accordingly. This protects you and everyone else. Whilst there would be money to be made by the government from this there is a huge problem of irresponsible riding especially in towns (As with driving). Cars are used on the road and the generally delineates cars from pedestrians. E bikes less so. If a car is not registered or insured it is impounded. It wil be destroyed if the relevant fines are not paid. The same law needs to be applied here. These bikes are very expensive so if you can afford one you can afford to register and insure it. Sadly laws are required because perception of consequence is the arbiter of human behaviour. Without consequences people are less likely to be responsible.

Regular bicycles increasingly use dedicated road spaces, sometimes shared with pedestrians. If e-bikes can share this road space then it makes sense for others who interact with those dedicated spaces, be they cyclists, pedestrians or motor vehicles, to expect similar characteristics from all types of machine in that space. That’s why e-bikes have limited power and max speed. There are also electric mopeds, available which have much higher power, but are treated like other mopeds in terms of the road spaces they are allowed to use and the registration and driver training regimes. I ride a pushbike mostly in London where there’s a lot of dedicated cycle infrastructure and would not appreciate having electric mopeds invade that space. The distinction between bikes and motorbikes is also enshrined in law. Cycles can’t be sanctioned for breaking the motor vehicle speed limit, for example, unless, as you point out they do so ‘furiously’ (generally taken to mean dangerously) So it’s not a money-making scheme by the government, it’s a necessary categorization of vehicle types and the line has to be drawn somewhere.

The USA speed limit of 20mph is approaching sensible. I ride a normal bike at around 18-22mph and I've raced down hill skateboards at 50mph (world record is over 90mph). 15mph is just useless apart from pottering around a city.

You misunderstand the use-case for an e-bike. They are basically bikes made easier, they are not designed to be electric motorcycles. The throttle being allowed up to 4 mph is because it is only designed as a push assist, or to assist someone with a disability to get moving. Some e-bikes are heavy, especially cargo bikes, so this assists greatly.

Sounds like you haven't ridden a decent e-bike to be honest. With a Bosch Performance Line CX motor and the right gearing you can go up very steep hills with ease. I can do it on my Enviolo with moderate effort (sitting down, not sweating) but I test rode a bike with the Rohloff E-14 transmission and it went up the same hill in 3rd gear with ease. There is no need for more than 250W