This is getting ridiculous. I'm shocked at how far this site and forum has moved since a little over a year from ago. We had sensible e-bike enthusiasts, polite and respectful to each other..and now we have people sticking two fingers up to the law, putting everyones freedoms at risk, and when someone expresses an opinion on it, he's flamed and treated badly by fellow members exchanging personal insults or being rude.
This is a serious issue and it affects us all, so why close down the thread/discussion and pretend it's not a problem?
Yes there's always going to be people who have illegal e-bikes, and yes that's their choice if they want to ride them on the road, risking injury and/or ending up in court with a criminal conviction if they're involved in an accident.
If people want to ride illegal e-bikes, the best thing to do is to keep that as quiet as possible and not brag about it on a forum. In the past, we had people who were border-line or riding 350W, it was known but it was just not openly discussed because of the legal implications and not wanting to seem to encourage this. Now, it seems the site has shifted to just not caring and all common sense has gone out the window for the sake of money some money off advertisers.
E-bikes as an industry in the UK is still tiny and now with no proper association body or government lobbying power the BEBA once had, it would be so easy for the government to apply regulation upon it. They could easily take away our rights to own and use e-bikes without registering them and holding some kind of license. We cannot rule out that possibility so it's surely wise to be careful around the legal side of e-bikes. Especially since the UK may well be outside the EU by the end of June and no longer tied to the EU Directive.
