Are throttles legal or not?

[AshleyBrayson]

I've seen a few conversion kits available with throttles ( grip or thumb ) so are these legal? For instance, 250 watt road legal motor with optional throttle. Does the throttle render the kit illegal?

 

[Benjahmin]

Here we go again !
As far as I understand it, there is no mention of self build kits in the law as it stands. So throttles are allowed by omission. My kit (an Ezee) has a full acting throttle, but then it was bought and installed in November 2014 - so before the change in the law to whatever it is now. In short it's a typical politicians mess and I doubt any copper actually knows or cares. Just don't go hooning around at 20mph without pedalling - it's a bit obvious.
However don't take it to Europe 'cos they definitely don't like 'em.

 

[AshleyBrayson]

Ha! Thanks. So far as I can see the whole things one foggy mess. 500 watt motors being sold as UK legal etc etc etc. Like you say I'm sure the police have better things to do with their time and are fairly clueless on this anyway. Seems like some of these shops are exploiting the lack of clarity though.

 

[Nealh]

Who cares ?
Don't worry about it just make sure you pedal mostly.
On some kits and OEM bikes you can set the throttle so that you have to pedal first or have throttle on always.

 

[flecc]

Ha! Thanks. So far as I can see the whole things one foggy mess. 500 watt motors being sold as UK legal etc etc etc. Like you say I'm sure the police have better things to do with their time and are fairly clueless on this anyway. Seems like some of these shops are exploiting the lack of clarity though.

Sorry but I have to challenge some of what has been said above, I believe it is possible for the police to successfully prosecute someone for using a pedelec with a throttle that can act independently of pedalling.

The guidance is clearly that any such pedelec made or supplied after 1st January 2016 has to under EU law be type approved or independently approved (SVA) . Remember that although we are leaving the EU, all their law that we've already signed up to is included in the great repeal bill making it UK law until such time it is ever amended.

It had been hoped that the facility for SVA (single vehicle approval) would be provided by January 2018 which would have made approval of home builds possible, but that has not happened. Just because that hasn't happened doesn't mean one can just go ahead and ignore the law. Meanwhile home builds with independent acting throttles are motorcycles in law.

There's a similar situation in Northern Ireland where the EAPC law was never brought into force, even though it was mandatory under EU law. In the absence of that law some started to ride pedelecs, but now they've been informed that they must register and use them as motorcycles in compliance with all motorcycle law. Information link on N.I. position.

I agree that the chance of being prosecuted for independent throttle use in the UK is very small, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen.

Below is a link to the current guidance notice, read through it fully and you'll see that all the points I've raised are included:

Information on EAPC use in Great Britain
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[Woosh]

Does the throttle render the kit illegal?

the full throttle is tolerated on all e-bikes as long as the rest of the e-bike is conform to EN15194.

There is a recent thread on it:
http://pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/newbie-advice-required-on-conversion-legals-please.30773/

Here is the reply from the DfT that was posted in the forum 3 years ago.

http://pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/type-approval.20368/#post-255421

"Although ‘Twist and Go’ cycles will require Type Approval according to the dates in EU 168/2013 the decision has been taken that cycles that have ‘Twist and Go’ capabilities up to 15.5 mph will not be considered as motor vehicles and therefore will not require registration, tax, insurance and rider licensing."

 

[flecc]

Here is the reply from the DfT that was posted in the forum 3 years ago.

http://pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/type-approval.20368/#post-255421

"Although ‘Twist and Go’ cycles will require Type Approval according to the dates in EU 168/2013 the decision has been taken that cycles that have ‘Twist and Go’ capabilities up to 15.5 mph will not be considered as motor vehicles and therefore will not require registration, tax, insurance and rider licensing."

You've left off the next paragraph:

However, under European law new "Twist and Go" vehicles will, from January 2016 have to meet a range of technical requirements before they can be used on roads. This will normally be established by "type approval" at the manufacturing stage but importers and individuals will be able to seek an individual approval for vehicles that have not been type approved.

Note, importers and individuals are included, covering kit builds.
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