ebike law changes coming....

[Steve A]

My source is someone at Bosch... Read isn't that what you like.

I understand and i'm sure Bosch will try their very best to adhere to potential new laws, but again there are people out there who will be able to get around the firmware / software. Examples, PS4, XBOX, Car chip tuning, etc etc etc. Good luck there Bosch!!!

 

[Wheel-E]

35KPH would be sensible IMHO. My gearless hub motor when unrestricted likes to sit at around that speed with a bit of pedalling. An increase in speed will also probably mean more range for me.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

I understand and i'm sure Bosch will try their very best to adhere to potential new laws, but again there are people out there who will be able to get around the firmware / software. Examples, PS4, XBOX, Car chip tuning, etc etc etc. Good luck there Bosch!!!

Just a clear difference .... changing none of those things breaks the law does it? and there is no requirement by national governments to stop them doing it.

The clear difference in this case is that the motor brands can stop it, they just don't have the current commercial need to do it. They've admitted it, because if one brand does it people will just shop elsewhere. Now its being stamped on from the top, the motor brands will all have to have shown they are stopping it.

From what I've been told, this isn't going to be hard for them to do it, and they are keen to do it, so that all eBikes aren't simply categories as motorbikes and we loose the freedoms we currently benefit from.

 

[anotherkiwi]

So at 35 km/h you are still a bicycle and at 45 km/h you are a moped. This would sign the death of the s-pedelec. OK so in France it is already dead...

 

[fusion.wind]

This will do wonders for the bike retailers re: warranty. The future, a bit like Bosch would want, where you can only get the motor fixed by a certified fixerupper person and only order parts through channel partners.

I guess, much like car engines where replacement parts are coded to the ECU and will fail if third party. Of course, then the tweaks and a small bump chip to make the incredibly much cheaper lightbulb with the non vendor firmware work.

Electrical engineering is a fairly well known science... good luck stopping the tinker people. The true nature behind electromagnetism not so well known, but enough to get by.

My take on any changes, there would be some new teeth with a law if you are caught going obviously too fast for a legally certified bike.

 

[The Bear]

I foresee a rush to buy bikes with tunable motors in the run up to the law change.

As far as bells are concerned, I wouldn’t use one. If i need to warn a pedestrian of my presence then I choose instead to slow or stop till they’ve seen me. I wouldn’t expect a pedestrian to move out of my way, it’s for me to hold off or move around them safely.

 

[Danidl]

Is it April the first or did your source find that on a post somewhere dated April 1st. It's absolutely impossible for the control system of a crank-drive bike to know what speed the bike is going. Whatever speed sensor they used, including GPS, it wouldn't take a genius 5 minutes to figure out how to blank it off and send a different signal like the present dongles do. Even if they could do it with encrypted codes, there would be an immediate market for after-market controllers. All motors work the same, so it's relatively easy to use a different controller and control system.

I can remember in 1999 when they brought out DVDs. They said it would take the most powerful computers a million years to crack the security encryption system. A gang of hackers did it in about 3 hours, so we could all copy DVDs. Even when they brought out the DVDHD and Blueray encryption, which was even more sophisticated and secure, it still didn't take long for the hackers to have a decryption system. 13,256,278,887,***,***,***,***,***,***,401,704,640 is the magic number. I think it's actually an illegal number, so I blanked out the middle.

Just like since the inventing of coinage, there has been counterfeiting, so there will be hacking and breaking into computers, car controls and now bike controls. Provided it is kept below acceptable limits, the authorities will be satisfied.Say 1% of cyclists get to dongle, then that's 99% compliance.
In the meanwhile they will have a tool to go after people who advertise dongles , and anyone who has an accident on a dongled bike will have more severe penalities ... A dongle is a single use device, so unlike Kodi boxes, the user or vendor cannot plead alternative legitimate use.
Likewise if you replace the controller, the bike is no longer compliant with its EU designation as signed off on by the European manufacturer or importer and having a CE mark is fraud. Just because one isn't prosecuted didn't mean it's legal.
In addition it is another barrier to trade and the Chinese industry will be the one to suffer..

 

[flecc]

I wouldn’t expect a pedestrian to move out of my way, it’s for me to hold off or move around them safely.

Fully agree and it's what I practise. I do use a bell, but only when approaching quietly from behind when I give a single advance "ting" to ensure they aren't startled when I suddenly appear close to them. I'm speaking of shared paths of course.
.

 

[Gringo]

Fully agree and it's what I practise. I do use a bell, but only when approaching quietly from behind when I give a single advance "ting" to ensure they aren't startled when I suddenly appear close to them. I'm speaking of shared paths of course

That's all Fab and Groovy, but more & more I'm finding dumb a*s fekers meandering along the middle of a shared path drifting from side to side wearing full sized headphones whils looking down at there phone they don't hear a bell (or a shout) and don't know I'm there untill they see my front wheel creeping past. I've even stopped in the middle of a path when one of the above numptys was aproching, he only knew I was there when he walked int to my stationary front wheel.
I also like to slow and use my bell but there are time you need air horns

 

[soundwave]

 

[flecc]

That's all Fab and Groovy, but more & more I'm finding dumb a*s fekers meandering along the middle of a shared path drifting from side to side wearing full sized headphones whils looking down at there phone they don't hear a bell (or a shout) and don't know I'm there untill they see my front wheel creeping past. I've even stopped in the middle of a path when one of the above numptys was aproching, he only knew I was there when he walked int to my stationary front wheel.
I also like to slow and use my bell but there are time you need air horns

Indeed, I've met 'em all.

The funniest incident was when I was approaching an elderly lady from behind. She obviously didn't hear the bell, so I said quite loudly "Good Morning".

She looked up into the tree she was walking under!
.

 

[Gringo]

I'd forgotten the topic of this thread
How will these potential changes effect 2018 sales, potential buyers knowing next years bike could be better.
I'm in that boat, I have a perfectly good Bosch active cube and intended buying a gen3 active plus's bike in January but my present bike has years of life left and I could easily keep using it for another year.
Second hand prices are low enough now but any bike brought in2018 will be worth even less in 2019 after the changes

 

[soundwave]

i can flatten a 500w bat in 1hr 20mins anyway

 

[tommie]

i can flatten a 500w bat in 1hr 20mins anyway

Super!.... good for you,

so what`s that got to do with anything?

 

[soundwave]

Super!.... good for you,

so what`s that got to do with anything?

So they will have a system built in where if you ride it turned, after 90 minutes the motor assistance speed will be reduced by 10kph

 

[danielrlee]

Just a thought..... Has anyone ever managed to sustain that sort of top speed for 90mins? Not easy unless you have 30 miles of empty, open road.

I guess it depends on what "running tuned" means.

 

[The Bear]

By 90 minutes, do they mean continuous riding, or does it include when the motor is turned off? If the latter, then part way though my week of commuting I will suddenly experience a 10% drop in power.

 

[flecc]

I'd forgotten the topic of this thread
How will these potential changes effect 2018 sales, potential buyers knowing next years bike could be better.
I'm in that boat, I have a perfectly good Bosch active cube and intended buying a gen3 active plus's bike in January but my present bike has years of life left and I could easily keep using it for another year.
Second hand prices are low enough now but any bike brought in2018 will be worth even less in 2019 after the changes

Don't worry, it won't affect us since they cannot be used as pedelecs in the UK and I'm sure there will be no change in law to allow that.

See my posts on this link and further on this link.
.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I'd forgotten the topic of this thread
How will these potential changes effect 2018 sales, potential buyers knowing next years bike could be better.
I'm in that boat, I have a perfectly good Bosch active cube and intended buying a gen3 active plus's bike in January but my present bike has years of life left and I could easily keep using it for another year.
Second hand prices are low enough now but any bike brought in2018 will be worth even less in 2019 after the changes

It's a completely fake story, so nothing to worry about. If it were true, Wisper, Oxygen, Woosh, etc would have been notified. How would they make their bikes tamper-proof? Who's going to test their bikes for tamper-proofness and how? The speed limit won't change either. can you imagine people doing 35 km/hr on the shared cycle paths? Come on! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the story can't be true.

 

[RobF]

I think Col has been the victim of a teutonic sense of humour.

The Germans probably still haven't forgiven the Austrians for The Sound of Music.

Col, did you mention the war?