Throttles NOT illegal in EU
- Thread starter hoppy
- Start date
That's good to know then, it seems to make it even more difficult then for the police to do anything or even be willing to stop and check bikes.. unless they're obviously high powered ones (500W+) and travelling in a way which makes them clearly not ordinary bikes..
Nice idea, but not true in practice, the pedals need to do more than just turn in EU law. For example, the power has to be applied to some extent by pedalling and has to phase down as it approaches 25 kph (15.6 mph). A throttle wouldn't do that phase down.
This is why their bikes don't have throttles, implementation would be far too difficult. They can and sometimes do have walk alongside throttles.
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So basically the EU law on throttle is that it is intended to be used exactly like a PAS (pedal crank sensor assistance) feature with the controller? So if you had the throttle fully open and you stopped pedalling the motor cuts out instantly.. and once you hit 15.5mph of course. The throttle should only provide power assistance proportional to how fast the sensor detects you're pedalling? What's the point of having a throttle at all then? It's basically just like an on/off switch for the PAS sensor?
So basically all you need is the throttle set to 6mph max to comply with the law, and discrete override switch, (or a speedict)... the law is pretty much unenforceable in that context.. certainly stop and check would be very difficult and time consuming for the police.. I see the e-bike law as more of a "guideline" for for the industry and for e-bike owners to follow..."ignore it at your peril/face consequences" if involved in an accident etc..type law.
In other words, I don't see the police actively stopping all e-bikes and checking them for compliance any time soon. And I don't think e-bikes with throttles need to worry or become paranoid. Just be sensible, ride safely and keep your bike 250W and you won't have any worries. The police won't bother you, they got better things to do.
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If the pedals are turning forward they are contributing to forward motion;the regs do not specify how much.The gradual reduction in power is achieved by an electric motor's inherent decrease in power as revs pass peak power point.
QED!
To get anywhere approaching 15 mph on my Batribike Folder I would need to lie prone and have 10 miles of flat windless road available . The motor seems gutless unless the silence is fooling me . I can honestly state that the buildings are not flying past anyway . Time for an experiment with my Holux GPS and get the Council to close a suitable road for my record attempt .
I wouldn't peddle in public unless I had a license for it. But I might pedal like crazy!When overtaking police cars or in a radar area.. peddle like crazy
Is your bike highly geared enough to keep up with the motor when it's going full power?
My 26" bike does 15.5mph on throttle-only on flat road.. if I pedal I can get up to and maintain 22-23mph without much effort due to the high gearing.
Not so, no QED. Many if not most e-bikes have controller limiting of power well short of the motor maximum. Others with natural voltage limiting tend to run out of steam before the motor power tails off, the speed limit being due to rising demand with speed.
Yet others like some crank drives use pulsed power which goes nowhere near the motors fall off in power, their motors tending to operate like servo ones.
No Morphix the folder is way too low geared at least when pedalling . The Motor is only 200 W and the Voltage 24 . I`ve felt more power coming out of a fresh bottle of Tesco shandy .
I had to modify the gears on my 26" to keep up with my motor, there was no way I could pedal at full power even in 6th gear. Since the bike was originally a 21-speed I just used a bigger chainwheel to get it more highly geared and manually slipped the chain. I don't know what gear it's in (the shift doesn't even work), probably 18 or something crazy! It works beautifully now though..warp 11.5. Full speed ahead!
Seriously though, I think gearing makes all the difference on e-bikes and is what some people over-look. I don't think the freewheels that come with kits (or on ready-built bikes) are highly geared enough for the average joe to get up to speeds above 15-16mph comfortably. Maybe that's why people try and use bigger motors and batteries and put more power on, when all they need is a smaller freewheel and/or bigger chainwheel and a wee bit of pedalling.
That for me, is what makes e-bikes so fun and easy to ride.. once the motor is going full power there's a perfect synergy between the high gearing and motor...your effort is amplified many times and the high gearing just feels like riding in a low-to-mid gear yet moves you along much quicker of course..very efficient way to pedal... There's a video on YouTube I saw which shows how dramatic high gearing is, like a single rotation of the crank arm moves the bike several meters completely off the screen.
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On full assist and pedalling hard I can reach about 14.6 mph but can`t keep it up for long . It would be a choice between falling off through exhaustion or friction burns in places that I wouldn`t want to show the Nurse . The Malmesbury Batribike Agent was altering the sprockets for £100 when new to improve the low gearing . I have never folded the bike in the two years that I have had it and with my present knowledge, I would go for a 26 inch wheeled step- over framed machine again . The advantages of the folder are being able to carry it up steps and it`s compact nature when storing it in my shed with my Scooters and Motorcycle . Of course the main advantage is still the ability to fold it , if required .
Yeah I know what you mean, folders are great when you got limited space..even my 26" full size MTB fits nicely in the hallway or in a cupboard. I've had to retire it though as the weight (even at 21kg) is too much for me with the stairs as I'm right on the 2nd floor. Now I got the Mezzo it's such a difference! So tiny by comparison I can put it under my desk or on a shelf in a cupboard...carry it with one hand
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