BEBA, is now a part of the Bicycle Association of Great Britain. As many members of the Forum will know, a small but dedicated team of us have been fighting for the throttle for years.
Flecc is, as usual, absolutely on the money, the throttle was never actually stated as legal in the UK, so it is not being taken away from us. However the use of the throttle in the UK has made it very clear that it's inclusion makes cycling more inclusive, hence us fighting for legislation to enable us to keep it.
Because of the involvement of BEBA members, the DFT have already agreed we can keep an independent throttle on an EAPC with out the need for a rider to wear a helmet or register the bike etc, so we are half way there. We need now to be given the method to enable us the get the SVA required. It seems, at the moment, that simply taking the bike WITH the EXACT EN15194 certification to a test centre will achieve SVA, we are hoping this will cost about £50.00.
Through the Electric Bike Group (EBG) of the BAGB we are working on the SVA method now. There is small group of EBG members, Juicy, Batribike and Wisper (Amps) being three of them, who put hundreds of pounds into a fund every year through membership fees to help finance a team of BAGB engineers and lobbyists to take the fight forward. We are doing everything we can. We hope to have some guidance by the end of January.
All the best, David
PS If any manufacturer, importer or distributor would like to become a part of the group, even if you can only help through a membership fee and cannot spare the time to come to the meetings, please drop me a line. If as an industry we really want to be able to use a throttle completely legally and make cycling even more inclusive, please get involved and don't leave it up to the usual suspects! :0)