Misleading advertising 250w power rating ebikes - not

[flecc]

Isn't it also the case where all home built / modified are technically illegal regardless of 250w 15mph making enforcement largely unenforceable?

Indeed, thoughout Europe including here in the uk they have no legal status. Enforcement is possible however, by taking them off the road but the authorities have no intention of doing that. They are well aware of their presence but take no notice while their users largely comply with the law for manufactured pedelecs.

Overall it's not a big enough issue to be bothered with and drafting a law for home constructions would be a complex nightmare.

They don't have to be illegal though, since I can tell you the legal way of dealing with a kit, athough no-one has ever done it:

1) Buy and fit the motor kit.
2) Make an appointment at an approved vehicle testing station, paying the £55 test fee.
3) Most often the purpose of this is to get an SVA (Single Vehicle Approval), entitling it for use as a type approved motor vehicle. However your intention will be to get the inspector to agree that it meets the pedelec requirements so is exempt from being a motor vehicle and is approved as a pedelec.

However, if you get and accept SVA approval as well at the same time, you will be able to have a fully acting throttle on a post December 2015 pedelec with it still considered a bureaucracy free pedelec, a bonus. I repeat though, no-one to my knowedge has ever done this to create a kit pedelec so it's never been necessary, but it is the DfT specified correct way when creating any motorised vehicle from more than one vehicle or from parts.
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[soundwave]

Isn't it also the case where all home built / modified are technically illegal regardless of 250w 15mph making enforcement largely unenforceable?

i have had a dongle on my bosch bike for the last 5 years and it has never been a problem ebike shop is one of the biggest haibike dealers in the uk and they sell and fit dongles to there bikes and honor the motor warranty.

 

[vfr400]

Look, it's illegal to ride a pedelec that has assist speed over 26.5 km/h. That's nice and simple.

Let's say you had an accident, like that guy on his Specialized that wiped out a woman who jumped out on him. If witnesses or CCTV show that you were going rather fast, there could be some suspicion about the legality of your bike, especially if you were seen fiddling with buttons after the accident or connecting your laptop or pressing buttons on your phone; however, it's going to be really tricky to prove what you did, especially if you sent an SMS on your phone to a friend to say that you were going to be late or you tell them you were pausing your journey time calculation on the LCD, or make any other plausible reason for what you did. If you have an "off-road" button on your handlebars and they test to show that it adjusts the max speed, you're going to have a tough time, but anything else is going to be very tricky to prove.

In fact, they won't bother going down that route. Instead, they'll charge you with reckless or furious cycling, which is much easier to prove.

 

[Handle]

Agree with all of the above that was my intention was to steer it to unless you are a manufacturer compliance with 250w, 15.5mph, no full acting throttle, off road modes, passwords, no dongles etc is all irrelevant unless you have a serious crash which answers the OP's question of how they can sell 1000w bikes or 10000w bikes if they wish

 

[oyster]

let's just ignore the context of a physical switch because there is no switch.
Let's discuss the difference between a physical dongle and going through a menu tree to change the speed setting.
Both mechanisms cannot be performed on the fly. You have to stop the bike and do it.
So it's clear when you ride a legal bike and when you are not. You can't switch from one mode to the other like you can stop using the throttle or switch your lights on and off for example.

Wait for the Sirlexa version: "Sirlexa derestrict now".