Commuter bike for 6’1 14 stone man

Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
2,045
903
Plymouth
That in the UK have the same legal categorisation as mopeds ? I am under the impression that that's currently a very small market ? I wonder if a brand actively marketed them, maybe with a tie in with an insurance company. I think the regulations should probably be slightly different to mopeds.
Yes, they are classed as mopeds with all strings attached and all hoops to jump through to have them approved. I understand why people want cheap vehicles with no responsibilities and no accountability attached to it, but there is no way law will be modified in a way that this will be happening under this government or another.
Imagine lunatics ploughing through children and dog walkers at 45km/h.
 

Northmale

Finding my (electric) wheels
Dec 29, 2023
22
13
It would be horrific, but speed limits on shared use areas and a higher speed limit on cycle paths combined with insurance and some form of registration is the future.

we all know it’s coming, the government just keeps kicking the van down the road regarding e-scooters and sooner rather than later a full overhaul of U.K. law will be required if we want to get local emissions down and hit clean air targets.
There will always be idiots but most people just want to be able to do a 15-20 mile commute in under an hour, so we aren’t talking insane speed levels and high risk, we are talking about slight risk increase for collective benefit.

The way things are was once revolutionary. Cars once had a man walking in front waving a flag. Change is possible.
 

Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
2,045
903
Plymouth
It would be horrific, but speed limits on shared use areas and a higher speed limit on cycle paths combined with insurance and some form of registration is the future.
It looks like direction is quite an opposite. They test 20mph speed limit in Wales now.

There will always be idiots but most people just want to be able to do a 15-20 mile commute in under an hour, so we aren’t talking insane speed levels and high risk, we are talking about slight risk increase for collective benefit.
You already have what you want - L1e-B. 45km/h is ideal speed limit to blend in traffic IMO. You just need to put big boy pants on and accept some responsibility (registration number, driving license, insurance etc).
 

Northmale

Finding my (electric) wheels
Dec 29, 2023
22
13
It looks like direction is quite an opposite. They test 20mph speed limit in Wales now.



You already have what you want - L1e-B. 45km/h is ideal speed limit to blend in traffic IMO. You just need to put big boy pants on and accept some responsibility (registration number, driving license, insurance etc).
I already have all of those for a car and a motorbike. It’s not about responsibility, it’s about flexibility. I live 100m from a river. My route to work is 14 miles via a combination of wagonways, dedicated cycle paths and a 1 mile section of city shared use pathway.

The route to work via road is 2.5 miles directly up a very steep hill and then 15 miles.

The flexibility (as per the original post) would be to have a taxed and insured vehicle that could ride on the deserted wagonways at 25mph before dropping to 15mph once I hit the city.

Or flexibility would be to use a taxed and insured moped registered speed pedelec on the deserted wagonways before switching to road at the city.

Whilst we are having this discussion loads of untaxed and uninsured lunatics are riding at insane speeds on e-bikes and scooters. They’ll still do that after a rule change and therein lies the problem with regulation. It punishes the considerate and has no effect on the lunatics.
 

Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
2,045
903
Plymouth
I think Cyclebuddy gave you the best advice. Just change your mentality. Sit back, relax and travel at 25km/h to work to arrive sweat free and pedal as hard as you want on your way home. Is that a compromise good enough for you?
You sound like a responsible person, so the choice is yours. Comply or join lunatics out there.

The answer to your question is you can't have legal e-bike that would assist you above 25km/h.
 

Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
2,045
903
Plymouth
Good luck with that.
While writing you can mention Az from Pedelecs is asking for more cycling paths as what we have now is pathetic and way behind other European countries.
Skol!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Northmale

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,917
8,533
61
West Sx RH
There is already another legal class of a pedelec and that is the S or speed pedelec, issue is users don't like the extra cost and other definitions of using the bike. Like licencing and fitting a number plate , insurance third party, full face m/c helmet.
One can ride at 25 /30mph + ( this I know as I acheived 34mph on a bosh drive Kalkhoff) , the issue with extra speed is the effort = sweat , so the opposite of arriving at work not being so. For sweatless or less sweaty commute one needs to don the lycra or lighter clothing , use a hub motor and stick to 17mph . Make use of the 17a power or so and partly ghost pedal in high assist, a mid drive isn't condusive for sweatless commute.
Mixing high speed on shared paths is a no no , the risks are too high and at high speeds one should defo be on the road.
 

Peter.Bridge

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 19, 2023
1,262
584
From the article
"
in the Flanders region of Belgium where a pioneering project has classified the s-pedelec as a ‘Moped class P’, which meant that traffic regulations bent to enable them access to cycle paths.

Using this test pool, researchers were able to determine that speed pedelec users were averaging speeds comfortably below the maximum, suggesting that the higher speeds are often not deployed, with users instead adapting to their environment. Notably, the quality and width of cycle paths in most of Europe do tend to outshine that found in the UK, theoretically making higher speeds more comfortable for all users."
 
  • Like
Reactions: Woosh

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,895
6,506

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
11,390
3,234
Cycle paths are nearly all horribly surfaced, I avoid them. Smoother and overall faster journeys using roads.

With a cadence sensing BBS01B mid-drive and the controller set to 18A, on a bike with 20" wheels and a (formerly very overweight) light rider, it's no sweat for me getting to work - that's specifically why my bike bike is set up the way it is. Turn the pedals a bit on a low gear, and away it zooms to 25km/h with very little effort, zipping up through the gears without crunches thanks to the gear sensor (which works great on my bike, but not on many others). Before restriction, about 21mph/33.7kmh was easy to attain, that was my usual speed, loved easily getting to the higher speeds too, and that was with the controller limit set to 15A. I haven't tried derestricting with the controller set to 18A, but there's enough power for me to increase chainwheel size from 52T to a 58T possibly, for higher speeds... and that's precisely what I would have done when I was young and more foolish.
 
Last edited:

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
11,390
3,234
Though it's a faff, if someone set the max speed to 15.5 mph with a KT controller and saved the setting, then set it to any other max speed and rode the bike without saving the setting, it will use the new setting until switched off, then revert to the old one. With the settings protected with a password, nobody else would be able to see or change the settings except the guy, who put the password in. Some bikes have LCD settings protected by passwords or other secret codes that the owner isn't given, so it's normal for the owner not to know the password.
Good idea. Annoying that the throttle (when that was attached) did work without the password, but pedal assistance doesn't on a BBS01B until you enter the code (I've just tried it).
 

Northmale

Finding my (electric) wheels
Dec 29, 2023
22
13
This debate would make a lot more sense if all cars sold in the U.K. were limited to 70mph max and there were campaigns to have cars fitted with sensors to limit the max speed according to the local speed limit.

Just popping to the shops in a vehicle that can do 110mph that I didn’t need to derestrict and that I qualified to drive by driving slowly and doing a couple of manoeuvres 30+ years ago and insure by ticking some boxes that allow anyone to bend their honesty to the limit to reduce their premium.

Silly country.
 

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,895
6,506
but what if they limited all cars to 20mph and it is not if it is when that happens computer says slow :oops:
 

Northmale

Finding my (electric) wheels
Dec 29, 2023
22
13
The technology exists for a complete overhaul of the U.K. transport network to curb car ownership and single occupancy commutes and move towards low carbon shared vehicle use or single rider evehicles.

we don’t have the grid infrastructure to move to mass electric car use and it isn’t as if we arrived to this point through visionary transport policy. For those of us away from London and the SE, particularly those away from cities, public transport is not a reliable option and we are being given the stick to move away from car use in city centres before any carrot towards cleaner alternatives.

What a great community this place is though. Reminds me of the early days of the internet be social media had people shouting at each other.
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
6,814
3,151
Telford
Occasionally I forget that just over half the voting population had the wool pulled over their eyes by a bunch of self serving whoppers. What a time to be alive.
Some fall for it again and again - covid, climate change, war in Ukraine, war in Palestine, US elections, immigration, and more to come shortly.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: POLLY