Riding illegal bikes can lead to being charged with driving offences.

[soundwave]

And you'll find it won't have a working gun and to drive it on the road you'll need to take a tank driving test

Guy Martin takes his tank driving test

Drives a tank but doesn't know his traffic lights...

www.visordown.com

you are missing the point i dont need anything bar money to buy it i dont need any tank driving test to send it 40mph thru ppls houses and over cars same as my bike i bought a dongle for.

Vehicle illegality is only about usage, never about supply.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

you are missing the point i dont need anything bar money to buy it i dont need any tank driving test to send it 40mph thru ppls houses and over cars same as my bike i bought a dongle for.

Vehicle illegality is only about usage, never about supply.

Hmmm..... that was flecc's point, what's yours?

 

[sjpt]

He's being charged on 3 counts: causing death by careless driving, causing death while uninsured and causing death while unlicensed. None of those charges could be brought if the bike was legal.

It's not a legal bike.

He's charged with that, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is guilty (of those particular charges). As I said, the prosecutor probably knows what he is up to in making those charges, and the bike was illegal. In that case the reporter misquoted him or at least did not include the full quote. ... but based on the reports I have seen we still can't be sure.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

He's charged with that, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is guilty (of those particular charges). As I said, the prosecutor probably knows what he is up to in making those charges, and the bike was illegal. In that case the reporter misquoted him or at least did not include the full quote. ... but based on the reports I have seen we still can't be sure.

Of course, we won't know whether or not he's been found guilty until after the trial.

And even then we won't know whether the judgement was correct or not.

 

[sjpt]

Of course, we won't know whether or not he's been found guilty until after the trial.

And even then we won't know whether the judgement was correct or not.

We should know much more if the trial is properly reported in the press (or if somebody can find the official trial report). Details such as maximum assisted speed and motor power should definitely come up.

 

[Andy McNish]

Well if he has more than a 250W motor or has dongled an otherwise legal one he is definitely guilty of the electric moped offences and the no insurance one (as any normal bike insurance he has will be invalidated by him driving a speed pedelec).

Assuming an engineer looked at the bike before the CPS decided what to charge him with, he's likely bang to rights on those, even if the causing death offence is much more arguable.

I know the CPS can be total muppets but engineers tend not to be and I'd be surprised if they got the type of bike he was riding that wrong.

 

[bigearsbilly]

What a low life.
if you want to do 30mph + on the road grow up and get a motorbike and a license it's not a playground

 

[BazP]

What a low life.
if you want to do 30mph + on the road grow up and get a motorbike and a license it's not a playground

Who mentioned 30mph+ and I regularly follow cyclists at 25 - 30mph on a slight downhill from my village. To them all roads are a playground.

 

[Wicky]

 

[Nealh]

What a low life.
if you want to do 30mph + on the road grow up and get a motorbike and a license it's not a playground

No one knows what speed he was going at, all that was said by the legal's was he exceeded the speed limit. Could be the posted limit was 20mph.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

No one knows what speed he was going at, all that was said by the legal's was he exceeded the speed limit. Could be the posted limit was 20mph.

Why would 20mph make it any more acceptable?

 

[georgehenry]

I know it is spurious to speculate, and in all likelihood it is an illegal bike,

However with only the smallest of gradients in my favour pedaling my own crank drive Haibike with the assistance from the motor turned off it can easily reach 20mph and beyond.

Downhill with the extra weight I see 37 mph with no assistance from the motor regularly.

So from my experience depending on the gradient and conditions it could be easily possible to ride faster than 20mph with no assistance from the motor.

So a perfectly legal ebike with a 15mph cut off can in my experience easily travel significantly faster than the cut off speed dependent on the circumstances.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

I know it is spurious to speculate, and in all likelihood it is an illegal bike,

However with only the smallest of gradients in my favour pedaling my own crank drive Haibike with the assistance from the motor turned off it can easily reach 20mph and beyond.

Downhill with the extra weight I see 37 mph with no assistance from the motor regularly.

So from my experience depending on the gradient and conditions it could be easily possible to ride faster than 20mph with no assistance from the motor.

So a perfectly legal ebike with a 15mph cut off can in my experience easily travel significantly faster than the cut off speed dependent on the circumstances.

Correct. I'm unclear what your point is, if an ebike's motor can provide assistance above 15.5mph it's illegal.

There's no legal limit to the speed you can do providing the motor isn't assisting above 15.5mph.

 

[georgehenry]

I was responding in I hope a light hearted way to your comment asking why 20mph would make it any more acceptable.

20 mph on a legal ebike would be perfectly acceptable.

I have not read the page or so leading up to your comment so may have misunderstood!

 

[anotherkiwi]

Who mentioned 30mph+ and I regularly follow cyclists at 25 - 30mph on a slight downhill from my village. To them all roads are a playground.

I peak at 44 kph on the way to work. White shirt, tie, dress shoes... The bike has a 25 kph cut off speed.

When I am in shorts I ride like an animal...

 

[Artstu]

They treat non e-bike cyclists in the same way in similar circumstances https://road.cc/content/news/268239-police-said-cyclist-was-doing-38mph-when-he-was-involved-fatal-collision

 

[georgehenry]

That is an interesting case Artstu, it would be interesting to see the outcome.

I think what all these court cases are showing is that whatever bike you are riding you need to proceed very cautiously in high risk collision areas like Towns and Cities and crossing points.

 

[sjpt]

They treat non e-bike cyclists in the same way in similar circumstances https://road.cc/content/news/268239-police-said-cyclist-was-doing-38mph-when-he-was-involved-fatal-collision

Quite correctly, they are quite in both cases. Despite the similarity there remains the big difference that in the e-bike case there is the question as to whether or not it is a pedelec; if it is not then lots of extra sanctions (driving without insurance etc etc) apply.

Arguably more strict on cyclists than they are on motorists in similar circumstances; certainly more press about it than the weekly similar motorist incidents.

 

[Gringo]

I peak at 44 kph on the way to work. White shirt, tie, dress shoes... The bike has a 25 kph cut off speed.

When I am in shorts I ride like an animal...

 

[anotherkiwi]

Example:

The other day I had to go pick up some battery bits from the package reception place. Imagine a slight downhill section of road limited to 30 kph with speed bumps. A BMW caught me and thought about passing just before the first speed bump, he braked, I jumped it at about 38 kph. By the end of the section I had a 200 meter lead. Sometimes I wish I could hear the comments in the car when they see a bald 60+ guy pedalling like the clappers and jumping speed bumps on a step through frame bike...