Interesting Electric bike

[anotherkiwi]

I made an interesting find myself on Sunday - an Azub Ti-Fly trike with trailer and windscreen thingy. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. It had some kind of hub motor kit on - it was parked in front of a house under a tarpaulin, the only part visible was the left front wheel and handle bar with LCD. Very similar accessory mounting to your find vf, maybe a cousin living in France...

I didn't see any locks but that is a 5750€ trike (without motor and accessories) parked outside on the footpath...

 

[Tarka]

I think the trailer is the battery pack

 

[Andy-Mat]

I think the trailer is the battery pack

You saying that reminds me of an old man that I met many years ago, who drove an old Mercedes 3 liter petrol engined car, converted to run on wood smoke, and all the "gubbins" was on a trailer he pulled.
He could not exceed 100 KMH as the smoke maker needed to be dramatically increased in size, and he could not be bothered to do it.
It actual predated the modern electric cars by about 30 years or so, and had already run over 200,000 KMs!
This was also done in WW2 when fuel was unobtainable in Germany.
This bike and trailer, strongly reminds me of him!
This is not him, but the same idea:-

 

[Spartacus]

Hi all. I have a home made work trailer for my bike. often laden to the gunnels with ladders and odds and sods. I have found that if the trailer can be mounted so the swivel/ pivot joint is vertically above the centre line of the rear wheel it follows steadier and will not tend to wobble and sway about so much.I have a ball and socket joint on mine. Will try to post a picture asap. Good luck to all. The real Spartacus.

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[mike killay]

Now I wonder what the legal position is if instead of having two motors on the bike, you put one motor on the trailer?
The bike remains legal.
Is there any offence of having a motorised trailer?
Guess not.

 

[MikelBikel]

A powered single wheel electric pusher trailer might be useful, as it could be attached to whatever bike one happened to be using at the time.
But would the push destabilize the rider depending on pivot position?

This one has a vertical pivot (vs a ball joint) behind the rear wheel for keeping "precious cargo" trailer upright . Tho i saw one where the joint was just a piece of fibre reinforced rubber hose! Cheers, Mikel

 

[Andy-Mat]

A powered single wheel electric pusher trailer might be useful, as it could be attached to whatever bike one happened to be using at the time.
But would the push destabilize the rider depending on pivot position?

This one has a vertical pivot (vs a ball joint) behind the rear wheel for keeping "precious cargo" trailer upright . Tho i saw one where the joint was just a piece of fibre reinforced rubber hose! Cheers, MikelView attachment 33334

Interesting, especially if one owns several bikes, which I am sure many people do!
Is this only for trailers, as you also mentioned powered trailers?
Assuming that I understood you fully, also an interesting idea, but likely to have problems getting a good grip on uphill stretches I feel, and likely to wear the "pusher" tyre tread quite rapidly, though a much wider tyre might improve that possibly, and some sort of spring, pushing the trailer down onto the roadway (attempting to lift the bike rear wheel, so to say!), also might help!
You certainly bring a breath of fresh air to Pedelec with your interesting ideas, for that I thank you most kindly! Keep up the good work!
Regards
Andy

 

[vfr400]

Therehave been a few commercially available electric pusher trailers over the years. They bring all sorts of questions about legality, as if anyone cares.

 

[flecc]

Is there any offence of having a motorised trailer?

There have been a few commercially available electric pusher trailers over the years. They bring all sorts of questions about legality, as if anyone cares.

I've answered this sort of question many times, but here goes again:

The Highway Act 1835 banned any form of locomotive from UK roads. Ever since then that has had the effect that all forms of motorised vehicles are automatically illegal unless they have a specific permission in law.

Since there is no specific permission for motorised trailers attached to bicycles, they are illegal.

The same applies to self balancers like Segways, powered pavement scooters etc.
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[Woosh]

Since there is no specific permission for motorised trailers attached to bicycles, they are illegal.

hypothetical question:

would this apply also to motorised stabilisers?

 

[flecc]

A powered single wheel electric pusher trailer might be useful, as it could be attached to whatever bike one happened to be using at the time.
But would the push destabilize the rider depending on pivot position?

This Dutch one sold a few years ago for bikes or trikes had the works in the base, the upper half for luggage:

 

[flecc]

hypothetical question:

would this apply also to motorised stabilisers?

Only if they were propelling the vehicle along the road.

However there are other ways that motorisation can be illegal, for example it is illegal to use the roads for manufacturing and when readymix concrete trucks were first introduced long ago they fell foul of this until given a permission.

This of course raises questions about using a generator while travelling, since that is manufacturing electricity.
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[Woosh]

I have no intention of making stabiliser wheels, but am unclear about which bit makes the vehicule illegal. We have front motor, middle motor, velosolex style motor so why not motor mounted onto an arm?
Is it because the vehicule would be then a tricycle?

 

[flecc]

I have no intention of making stabiliser wheels, but am unclear about which bit makes the vehicule illegal. We have front motor, middle motor, velosolex style motor so why not motor mounted onto an arm?
Is it because the vehicule would be then a tricycle?

I misunderstood the meaning of stabiliser in your post. Clearly you do mean to propel the vehicle, so that is legal since trikes are permitted, both under pedelec law and as motor vehicles by the Two and Three Wheel Type Approval law 168/2013 and Road Traffic Acts.
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