Not a bad day for getting out there. :)

[LeighPing]

 

[Benjahmin]

Another LP production, hooning round the park, this time minus dog. Hope you took him home a bonio to compensate.

 

[LeighPing]

Another LP production, hooning round the park, this time minus dog. Hope you took him home a bonio to compensate.

Thanks for watching.

 

[LeighPing]

Note my road crossing technique folks.

 

[mike killay]

Do you really ride around with that appalling music, or is it dubbed on afterwards?

 

[LeighPing]

Do you really ride around with that appalling music, or is it dubbed on afterwards?

Yes I do. I have an mp3 player, playing the UK top 40, on my handlebars.



Surprisingly, it's as good as a bell or horn for alerting pedestrians.

 

[TedG]

We would settle on getting out anywhere at the moment

 

[Nealh]

52 miles today, a very pleasant Mid Sx ride taking in Ashdown Forest.
Averaged 16.98 mph, 40.5 mph max in approx. 2hrs 55mins. 1220m ascent and 1228 descent.
Mp3 player I have one buried somewhere ,might be an idea.
A nice bit of Dvorjak's 'new world symphony' or Katchurion's 'adagio of Spartacus' and other classicals mixed in with a bit of pop and rock hmmm !!!

 

[Nealh]

We would settle on getting out anywhere at the moment

hmmm !!! In a bit of a pickle over their across the North Channel.
Is it instant proscecution that rules at the mo or pot luck ?

 

[TedG]

hmmm !!! In a bit of a pickle over their across the North Channel.
Is it instant prosecution that rules at the mo or pot luck ?

As you will have seen on several threads there is certainly a pickle - or fiasco - or indeed debacle in this small part of the UK. One of the many in common use in the Bickering Capital of Great Britain.

The bottom line is that the police will have been informed that this law, which has been running for many years, has been updated to sensible status in the rest of the UK where pedelecs are accepted as bicycles with a bit of assistance for the weak of body or advanced in years. - myself and my wife being two of many here in that situation.

I understand since our return from our 33 years living in England that this law is always as it has been as well as the one outlawing shooting antelope on Thursdays in the area bordering Lough Neagh.

However in true Northern Ireland tradition laws move at a leisurely pace and therefore this law has yet to be updated to bring us in line and into parity with the rest of the UK.

Letters have been written to powerful people and replies received and the general consensus is that all is in order for a stuffed shirt to glide gracefully across an oak panelled office to another desk and put a tick in a box to enable pedelec users here to join in with the rest of you guys regarding legality. Nobody in power appears to be disputing this action - there are no massed ranks in the streets with placards calling for the ban on pedelecs, it is just that the official updating department are moving at the pace of a bicycle with two flat tyres, no saddle and one badly buckled wheel.

To be fair to the police, they could invoke this rule should they so desire as it is still law that battery assisted pedal bicycles are indeed still officially illegal here. The implications of Plod doing this would be as a "test case" and the result of this would actually have to carry a guilty verdict with associated fines and penalty points etc (assuming of course that the cyclist is also a motorist.......)
The regulations concerning rear brake lights, MOT and rear number plate don't seem to have been thought through in any detail.

To my knowledge there hasn’t as yet been such a prosecution but if one does occur it will send the media here into an undiluted frenzy and the hosts of ubiquitous talk shows for the hard of thinking into apoplexy.

Pot luck is indeed an option to instigate such a test case but who wants to be the celebrity unless someone is looking for their fifteen minutes of fame and personally I am too tired and old to be a star so we are lying low in the hope that common sense will soon prevail.

It would be interesting to dispute with Plod that my battery is simply there to enable the changing of the rear hub electronic gears and was not being used to power the central crank motor as I would have switched this mode to off just as the authorities wedged me in a T Pac manoeuvre.

Due to my health issues and left leg destruction I am unable to dust off my push bike because I simply can't pedal it without pain and discomfort but as the summer rolls on it is getting very boring because our £4k's worth of excellent e-bikes are locked away until this is resolved.

 

[LeighPing]

It's ludicrous and I fear that it will take them forever to change the law to how it should be!

The law's an ass in many cases. If I ride my bike with my dog safely attached to it by a bike-joring leashed, safe setup, I commit an offence. If I let him run freely with me, whilst I ride my bike near him, none is committed! It's crazy, but I use that loophole. Ride your bikes and get yourself an agent. Then, if you get your 15 minutes of fame, you can charge for the story.

 

[tommie]

Ted, not sure if you drive or not, but notwithstanding the present impasse i`ve thrown the ebike on the back of the car and headed for one of the nearest forest parks, in fact i`ve found them more enjoyable than our local roads, quiet and peaceful.
I`ve no intention of sitting around waiting on this shower to get a move on, summer will soon be over.

 

[TedG]

Ted, not sure if you drive or not, but notwithstanding the present impasse i`ve thrown the ebike on the back of the car and headed for one of the nearest forest parks, in fact i`ve found them more enjoyable than our local roads, quiet and peaceful.
I`ve no intention of sitting around waiting on this shower to get a move on, summer will soon be over.

Yes we had been using the extensive and excellent tow path network to the Titanic Quarter, Bangor, Portadown and Newry etc and they are much preferable to roads but as you say we would need our car adapted with towbar and strong carrier as our bikes are heavy. We felt this was unnecessary and quite expensive as the towpath network was in relatively easy reach, and it is although there are main roads to use for part of the way and also to get to the train station. We are trying to be patient but it is disappointing that this issue will be well down the list in the corridors of power.

 

[topographer]

I doubt you could be successfully prosecuted when there is no way currently to register your bike to follow the law. Perhaps they could endorse your driving licence and fine you with actually prosecuting... and then the onus would be on you to take it to court to show that you've been punished for not doing something that's not possible to do.