Police in the UK have confiscated what they say is the fastest electric bicycle they’ve ever seen, suggesting it was…
click bait title.
"Police shared an image of the bike’s LCD panel showing a max speed of 83.2 mph (134 km/h), though this is almost certainly the “no-load” speed reached from lifting the rear wheel and allowing it to spin up freely without resistance. " the rider was going 35.
the rider was going 35.
mph or km/h?
I’m guessing mph given how it was written in the first part of the sentence (mph being the default kph being the parenthetical). 35kph is nothing crazy even on a regular bicycle as long as you have the right gearing for it.
The real problem is that this article and the argument that it supports is framed from the perspective of a car-centric mindset; which is hilarious since the website is for alternative methods of transportation.
Saying that using fast ebikes forced to share the same space as other larger, faster vehicles (that still can barely keep up with the larger vehicles) will ruin it for ebikes in general is such a mind-boggling statement.
I honestly could give less than a shit if people were going over 35 MPH on a bicycle on a road. As long as that’s under the posted limit who cares?
I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of the article.
There’s one sentence about travelling in traffic. It’s related to how the police noticed that the bike was likely illegal.
Far more of the article discusses the potential dangers of travelling at 80MPH.
I honestly could give less than a shit if people were going over 35 MPH on a bicycle on a road. As long as that’s under the posted limit who cares?
I’m starting to care about these bikes. It’s a genuine problem. The paths in my area are mostly mixed use. Walkers, riders, kids, dogs, wheelchairs, everything. A 14yo kid weaving through pedestrian traffic at 60km/h is a disaster waiting to happen.
As the article correctly opines, it’s the rest of us with compliant bikes who lose.
I completely agree with you about mixed use zones. If there are likely to be pedestrians in that area, then they should not be going over 15 MPH or whatever a reasonable speed is in that area. Those people are just negligent assholes.
The 80 MPH portion was to just grab clicks. The bike likely cannot actually reach those speeds except during a freewheel test where you pick up the back wheel and pull full throttle, as other commenters have stated.
Like you said, the reason that it was spotted, pulled over, and confiscated was because it was keeping up with traffic at 35 MPH. Why should that be illegal? Even if the bike could go 80 MPH, cars can go 110+ MPH and yet they aren’t pulled over for going 35 MPH. Why do these classes exist when bikes are forced to ride with cars and are punished for attempting to keep up with them?
Ultimately, all I see are conventions/laws that are too old to apply anymore that are used to limit or punish anyone that isn’t using a car.
it was keeping up with traffic at 35 MPH. Why should that be illegal?
I’m a bit surprised I need to enumerate all the reasons but here goes.
The bike isn’t designed for that, the article goes into detail about some of the potential failures.
There’s no system to ensure riders have a basic level of maturity, skill, and understanding of laws.
You need regulations for bikes which exceed 15MPH and for their users. Regulation ensures bikes are appropriate and riders have appropriate skill.
It’s not the rider’s own risk to weigh. They can collide with other road users, like bikes or pedestrians. They also contribute to a culture of behavior - some riders might disregard the obvious risks because they see others engaging in this behavior. Finally, if I were in a car and had an accident with a cyclist, I would be traumatised even if it wasn’t my fault.
I think a far more appropriate “fuck cars” type solution is slower traffic. Here roads are being narrowed to make room for more pedestrians and cyclists. Narrower roads some how force people to drive more slowly and be more alert. It’s very controversial, people complain about it a lot.
These electric bikes typically don’t have the necessary safety features to be considered a road-legal electric motorbike, e.g. brakes certified to come to a complete stop in a reasonable distance without skidding, and indicators so you can keep both hands on the handlebars when signalling turns. They’re also commonly used by people who don’t have a motorbike licence. If a particular vehicle is always a danger to its operator and people around them, it makes sense for it to be illegal.
The law permits electric motorbikes, but that doesn’t mean it has to permit them when they’re deathtraps, let people drive them without a licence, or let people keep them when they’ve driven them in a place or manner that wouldn’t be allowed with a regular motorbike. The frame being derived from a pedal bike doesn’t make it not a motorbike once it’s powered and capable of going faster than is safe.
While I don’t know the laws local to them, usually it’s just “for that category”. It’s not that the law is too old to apply but that the law treats vehicles with different capabilities differently. Perhaps there are different required safety factors, which traffic you can ride with, or whether you need to be licensed. All fair
As the article says, the speed indicated in the photo is almost certainly from spinning the wheels off the ground, and the confiscation apparently stemmed from a traffic stop when doing 35 MPH (56 kph).
But I want to acknowledge the well-warranted snark that the reporter added:
Due to the nature of roads in the UK, e-bikes that ride on them are generally in front of or behind cars, and occasionally next to them.
I can personally vouch for the veracity of this statement in the USA too: bikes can indeed be found in front of, behind, beside, on bridges that fly over cars, on tunnels underneath cars, and sometimes inside of motor vehicles as well.
This is the correct amount of satire when the Northumbria Police makes an absurd statement about chasing an ebike “following reports it was travelling in front of a car”. Of course it would! Bikes and cars operate on roads. There is no place on earth that has 100% planar separation for different road users.
But the snark also points out the police being so very car-brained: why does traffic enforcement constantly concern itself with “car welfare” while writing citations and impounding all other road users except automobiles? The UK’s Highway Code is quite clear on what is and isn’t permissible on the public roads, but “ebike in front of car” is not one such proviso.
Boring. Allegedly we have 100mph e-scooters: https://sh.itjust.works/post/43488460
Maybe I was considering modifying my mountain bike to do this, but mainly to get it up a long steep hill.
Top speed doesn’t really change climbing ability, that’s more about torque.
True, but TFA does say the bike was not under load when they measured the tire speed. I have a lot of me to move, so I was concerned about what my unencumbered bike would register.
Until this, I was perfectly happy with the idea of a mountain bike that could go 35, maybe with registered plates.
