As to the lack of easing up, this goes back to the very point I made which is that the law provides no ability to register vehicles in the 'space' between mopeds and restricted eBikes and it is this category of where lightly regulated bikes are of most interest to those of us who don't want scooters or sport bikes for transport over longer distances. This very intransigence over accepting bikes in this category in some form of compromise way is what drives people to tinker, hotrod or whatever you call it, especially younger riders not into fitness. The lower category is too low and the higher category is too high. It's only in the middle ground that the balance sought is to be found and people get bikes they actually are happy with owning and riding.
There's no point in telling people to register as mopeds - you can't without turning bicycles into mini-motorbikes with mirrors, indicators etc and passing a huge range of criteria. Which means there's no legal way of riding them within the legislative framework. Anywhere in public. And it's not the bikes that are the problem it's the lack of recognition of their suitability for transport clouded by revenue seeking governments trying (effectively) to make them expensive to own on the one hand and protectionist arguments from the legal market fearful that the bikes their market wants will be swept up in any changes adversely.
So ..... in the meantime the only way people get to ride perfectly safe bikes which suit them is to do so outside the law. And they are doing so in significant numbers. The law is not reasonable on this point, sorry. These perfectly safe bikes are technically outlawed for no better reason than legislative apathy.
There's no point in telling people to register as mopeds - you can't without turning bicycles into mini-motorbikes with mirrors, indicators etc and passing a huge range of criteria. Which means there's no legal way of riding them within the legislative framework. Anywhere in public. And it's not the bikes that are the problem it's the lack of recognition of their suitability for transport clouded by revenue seeking governments trying (effectively) to make them expensive to own on the one hand and protectionist arguments from the legal market fearful that the bikes their market wants will be swept up in any changes adversely.
So ..... in the meantime the only way people get to ride perfectly safe bikes which suit them is to do so outside the law. And they are doing so in significant numbers. The law is not reasonable on this point, sorry. These perfectly safe bikes are technically outlawed for no better reason than legislative apathy.
That is exactly the point I was making in pointing out that the Netherlands cannot be held up as representative, being a nation of "tootling cyclists" with a well developed and affordable public transport system for people to cover longer distances on. Nothing culturally or infrastructurally could be further from the United Kingdom ... or most of the rest of Europe !Sorry thats not true,well at least not in Utrecht in Holland....I exhibited at a 50plus show and one of the first questions we got asked was did it have EN15194. This was closely followed by a maintenance contract,a leasing deal,a guaranteed final value and anti-theft insurance,trying to make it go faster above 25kph was not even mentioned-the show was 6 days long,80,000 attendees so it was representative.
This is in contrast to the recent Birmingham NEC cycle show,in order of popularity of questions...
How far does it go? 35miles
Does it recharge when pedalling? No
How much does it cost? £495.00 to £1295.00...thats usually followed by thats a rip off or thats very cheap,no consistency in value judgement
How fast does it go? 15mph......usually followed by my bike goes quicker than that,how can I make it faster? I was never asked that question in Holland!
KudosDave
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