New Legal Speed Limit: What should it be?

[Gubbins]

Average 20? Wow what's your top speed

You must have thighs the equivalent of Popeyes forearms

That's what I was thinking but then I realised that I was falling into the ebike trap! Assuming every ebike owner was over 70...

 

[SHAN]

Average 20? Wow what's your top speed

You must have thighs the equivalent of Popeyes forearms

Years of hill climbing on single speeds has its advantages.

 

[flecc]

Years of hill climbing on single speeds has its advantages.

Like free replacement knee joints from the NHS when you're older.
.

 

[Kizza]

20mph is safe than 15.5, for everyone, when you're on a busy 30mph road

 

[SHAN]

Like free replacement knee joints from the NHS when you're older.
.

Honesty, I find the opposite. I've had problems with my left knee on and off, and a swift outing with a fixed cog clears it up. I run 42 / 16 in the winter and 48 /16 the rest of the time.

 

[flecc]

Honesty, I find the opposite. I've had problems with my left knee on and off, and a swift outing with a fixed cog clears it up. I run 42 / 16 in the winter and 48 /16 the rest of the time.

Yes, exercising is the best way to ease any arthritic pain. But the joint is still wearing further.

The big problem with single speed is if slogging at low cadences on climbs. That always comes at a cost in later life, it's the most common problem that cyclists suffer from.

Not a big problem if you keep the cadences quite high.
.

 

[mike killay]

I would like to know exactly what some people on here call hills.
Where I live, as a teenager, I was standing on the pedal of my old bike on a HILL. The bike was in bottom gear of my Sturmey Archer 3 speed.
The bike remained stationary.
That's what I call a hill. Everything else is just a slope.

 

[Gubbins]

To go to my daughters house in ilkley its in excess of 20% in places, but I am surrounded by hills, definately not slopes!
Never been too impressed with this percentage thing as it doesnt really sound steep. I prefer old money....

 

[Powerbikes]

As much as I like the idea of speed there is always a time and place for that. I do find the current limit a little low. 20mph, as many people have said, is easily doable for most cyclists so at least for road use I think Pedelecs should assist up to that speed.

If you're really wanting to go faster, buy a motorbike!

 

[Gubbins]

As much as I like the idea of speed there is always a time and place for that. I do find the current limit a little low. 20mph, as many people have said, is easily doable for most cyclists so at least for road use I think Pedelecs should assist up to that speed.

If you're really wanting to go faster, buy a motorbike!

Yes! And a prpper E-Motorcycles are just around the corner.. A little behind the cars I think but its an area I am intersted in..

 

[anotherkiwi]

I have a pedelec limited to 25 km/h (27km/h set on the LCD to compensate for the bigger tyres). That speed works for me everywhere except on the open road so I have changed my ride for a trike - it will go over the cut off much easier on the flat mostly because of better aerodynamics. The longer term plan is to add a vélomobile shell to the trike frame. Many people who have done that observe a 30% increase in average speed.

1. I can set the cut off to 30% higher for the same battery usage - 32.5 km/h
2. I can keep the cut off at 25 km/h and go 30% further on the same amount of electricity.

I will of course experiment with both options but I think that a 30% increase in efficiency makes option 2 the best value, there will be an increase in range but also in average speed.

The long distance traveller in me wants a third option:

3. Unrestricted and a huge battery giving an average speed on the open road of 50km/h or so (fit young (wo)men in un-powered vélomobiles achieve such speeds). And the daily range goal is around 250 km.

Because I am building this myself I can of course choose each of these options whenever I please to solve different travel problems.

 

[SHAN]

Yes! And a prpper E-Motorcycles are just around the corner.. A little behind the cars I think but its an area I am intersted in..

Check out Zero. There have been a few decent ones on the go for a while, just as usual, the UK seems to be the last to embrace/ accept them. Through personal experience from a few years ago, insurance company's didn't recognise them. I bought a personal import from Germany without doing my homework properly and couldn't get it insured.

 

[flecc]

I would like to know exactly what some people on here call hills.
Where I live, as a teenager, I was standing on the pedal of my old bike on a HILL. The bike was in bottom gear of my Sturmey Archer 3 speed.
The bike remained stationary.
That's what I call a hill. Everything else is just a slope.

I've always said that up to 10% is a slope, from there up to the practical limit they're hills.
.

 

[Damian.Doherty]

On the flat with a moderate degree of leg power and the bike on full assist I can move along and between 21 and 23 MPH.....

However, no matter how hard I pedal I have never been able to get the bike over 25 MPH.

(On my road bike I could get to 30 MPH on the flat when pedaling as hard as I could)

I ride a Woosh Rio MTB and it weighs 22Kgs. I think it must be a combination of the weight of the bike plus my 85 Kgs, the gearing and the limits of the 250W electric motor.

Its weird because I can get to 21-22MPH with little to medium effort but I seem to hit a wall at 23-24 which I simply can't get past.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with the performance of this bike, it takes me home uphill for 2 miles at around 18mph with moderate input from my legs but I'm not completely knackered the way I used to be going up the same hill on my road bike....averaging about 6mph by the time I was at the top!

I vote for 25 MPH as our new limit!

 

[flecc]

I vote for 25 MPH as our new limit!

Well there's sexist and racist, but you're alphabetist:

You've got 25 Kph but want 25 Mph.
.

 

[Powerbikes]

Yes! And a prpper E-Motorcycles are just around the corner.. A little behind the cars I think but its an area I am intersted in..

There are some seriously good electric motorbikes out now and coming in the very near future. Watch this space!

 

[anotherkiwi]

On the flat with a moderate degree of leg power and the bike on full assist I can move along and between 21 and 23 MPH.....

However, no matter how hard I pedal I have never been able to get the bike over 25 MPH.

(On my road bike I could get to 30 MPH on the flat when pedaling as hard as I could)

I ride a Woosh Rio MTB and it weighs 22Kgs. I think it must be a combination of the weight of the bike plus my 85 Kgs, the gearing and the limits of the 250W electric motor.

Its weird because I can get to 21-22MPH with little to medium effort but I seem to hit a wall at 23-24 which I simply can't get past.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with the performance of this bike, it takes me home uphill for 2 miles at around 18mph with moderate input from my legs but I'm not completely knackered the way I used to be going up the same hill on my road bike....averaging about 6mph by the time I was at the top!

I vote for 25 MPH as our new limit!

My personal record on a road racing bike (Columbus frame, insane chainwheel...) and on a false flat (ever so slight downhill but head wind) at age 24 or so is 60 km/h (37.29 mph).

Back then brakes and tyres were scary but in your 20's...

 

[Danidl]

My personal record on a road racing bike (Columbus frame, insane chainwheel...) and on a false flat (ever so slight downhill but head wind) at age 24 or so is 60 km/h (37.29 mph).

Back then brakes and tyres were scary but in your 20's...

I hit 50km hr on my motus ebike a number of months ago, a decent hill and a tail wind of about 20km hr. , I would have had another 10km in me and the gears, but I chickened out...
A few days ago travelling at 25km hr the wind and rain chill froze my face,.. as in could not move lips or wrinkle cheeks and freeze headache on the way i realised maybe ok in summer but in winter, but at these speeds one would need a windshield..
Overall I think the 25km hr is a reasonable limit...

 

[Steb]

My personal record on a road racing bike (Columbus frame, insane chainwheel...) and on a false flat (ever so slight downhill but head wind) at age 24 or so is 60 km/h (37.29 mph).

Back then brakes and tyres were scary but in your 20's...

my personal best (I kid you not) on a very serious, long downhill in the alps on a mezzo folder was (measured on a garmin satnav watch) 48 mph. the terrible part of it was that I just couldn't muster the courage to tuck in a bit more and push past 50 (the front wheel began to develop a terrifying secondary wobble)

 

[anotherkiwi]

Ah downhill! Now there my first bike reached 67 km/h and was kind of scary because it was too small for me. Number Two has never gone past 62 km/h regularly and is as solid as a rock, the Big Bens make it as reassuring as a motorbike at those speeds.

Then we have the trike (which isn't a pedelec yet), the other day I am pretty sure I did reach the mythical 80.5 km/h... Difficult to tell without a speedo, wind resistance is so small and having ones bum 32 cm above the ground alters perception etc. Now that I know how to steer such speeds aren't scary as long as I can see that I have enough time to brake for corners or intersections. It spins out at about 69 km/h according to bikecalc.com and I am regularly unable to pedal.