Update on N.I. e-bike regs.

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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When my paper licence was returned for a plastic one a few years back the motorcycle section was "omitted" apparently due to an oversight and I never noticed.
No records apparently go back to 1965 to confirm this.
That may not be a problem in respect of a licence for your e-bike, since N.I. law so often follows UK law.

In UK law, any full car driving licence valid from before 1st February 2001 automatically qualifies as a group P moped licence. It therefore also covers groups AM and Q.
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LeighPing

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That may not be a problem in respect of a licence for your e-bike, since N.I. law so often follows UK law.

In UK law, any full car driving licence valid from before 1st February 2001 automatically qualifies as a group P moped licence. It therefore also covers groups AM and Q.
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So, TedG does in fact have a licence for his ebike then?
 

flecc

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So, TedG does in fact have a licence for his ebike then?
If N.I. law in this respect tracked UK law, yes.

Basically the position is that when mopeds were introduced it was considered that a qualified car driver had the roadcraft so could be trusted with a two wheeler restricted to 30mph. Hopefully N.I. also adopted that policy.

Second thoughts on that introduced a moped licence group P on 1st February 2001 for them as well, but pre-qualified car drivers could just carry on riding mopeds.
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TedG

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I really don't want to go down this road so to speak with registration etc because we are still effectively part of the UK and deserve to have the same regulations.
My latest understanding is that something heavy legal wise is being commenced and I will keep you all updated as it blunders along at the pace of a disabled snail.
If however the powers that be can eventually agree on parity then legal will not be necessary.
Which comes first is anyone's guess.
 
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flecc

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My latest understanding is that something heavy legal wise is being commenced and I will keep you all updated as it blunders along at the pace of a disabled snail.
If the snail's pace ends up beyond March 2019, you might possibly end up better off than us with full acting throttles, since the EU restriction on those won't apply there if we've left.

We're stuck with that unless the DfT makes a change, but since the last change which was legally important took them 12 years, your snail is likely to win any race between them.
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Rouge Rider

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More sad than a joke for us who are no longer able to cycle on a conventional bike but I know what you mean.
These set of unacceptable rules would without doubt stop me from ever buying..I'd guess that 70% would feel the same.with such drops in sales the majority of retailers,especially ebike specific would go out of business,the bigger company would slow down and eventually stop research and production.
 
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TedG

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It isn't impossible that we might in the end have to go down the "miss-sold" route to get the retailer to take them back.
We are both 100% sure that we were never at any time during the sale told that these types of bikes, either were, or were going to be illegal soon in N.I.
During our 33 years living in England I had the faithful Powabyke and had never heard of restrictions such as these.
Moving to another part of the UK I expected it to be the same.
If during the sale discussions the dealer had even hinted that there was a grey area about usage we would simply have walked away.
 

flecc

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It isn't impossible that we might in the end have to go down the "miss-sold" route to get the retailer to take them back.
We are both 100% sure that we were never at any time during the sale told that these types of bikes, either were, or were going to be illegal soon in N.I.
During our 33 years living in England I had the faithful Powabyke and had never heard of restrictions such as these.
Moving to another part of the UK I expected it to be the same.
If during the sale discussions the dealer had even hinted that there was a grey area about usage we would simply have walked away.
In law you are undoubtedly right since they've always been illegal, but I suppose the dealers are just as much victims of this situation. Any who have sold a number of e-bikes could be bankrupted by a legal class action.
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TedG

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In law you are undoubtedly right since they've always been illegal, but I suppose the dealers are just as much victims of this situation. Any who have sold a number of e-bikes could be bankrupted by a legal class action.
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I suppose the dealer should have known before taking the supply of e-bikes from the manufacturer for sale to the public if they had always been illegal here.
I can say with honesty that I never knew that since coming back "home" - or indeed when we were away in England.

I have been in contact with the manufacturer several times and he is of the opinion that it will be "sorted soon" from whatever info he is getting.
However the dealer should probably be my first port of call and let him deal with the manufacturer.
Halfords appear to be moving the goalposts slightly now by saying that until it is sorted e-bikes sold by them should be used a pedal cycles and perhaps no longer refunding but I might not have got that right. Correct me as necessary.

The truth is we really don't want our money back, we want our bikes back.
 
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mike killay

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Being of a malicious mind, I wonder what would happen if a citizen of the Republic were to ride over the yet as non existent border and get themselves booked etc.
If they were convicted, the resultant appeals to the ECJ could cause enormous embarrassment to the UK in the sense that an EU citizen, observing EU law got themselves convicted in a backward, inefficient part of the UK.
Clearly, when the NI government was suspended, the UK government should have provided proper legal cover.
But, perhaps they did?
 

anotherkiwi

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Demand compensation from the government as well as your money back from the seller. Stir up hell on earth, make them suffer as much as you are if not more.
 
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Danidl

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Being of a malicious mind, I wonder what would happen if a citizen of the Republic were to ride over the yet as non existent border and get themselves booked etc.
If they were convicted, the resultant appeals to the ECJ could cause enormous embarrassment to the UK in the sense that an EU citizen, observing EU law got themselves convicted in a backward, inefficient part of the UK.
Clearly, when the NI government was suspended, the UK government should have provided proper legal cover.
But, perhaps they did?
. No it would not. All those people resident in the ni are actually eu citizens anyway. .. at least pro tem. As flecc has indicated that it is a devolved matter and the ni executive have the authority in that matter. It's a case of" when in Rome do as the Romans do"... which is particularly rich in a ni context. The sole problem is that ni does not currently have an executive!. And Westminster is unwilling to take responsibility.
What is doubly interesting is that I believe that recently a decision has been made that penalty points awards in one jurisdiction would be honoured in the other. .. this was to stop ni Tyrone loons zooming with impunity on our better motorways on their way to croke park and the reverse where Dubliners were going up for the cheap booze. (This sentence added for Tommie benefit.
The nett effect of that is that a roi cyclist might have penalty points assigned to their licence for an action which is permitted in their homeland.!
 
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TedG

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For those still interested - received just now.
I obviously won't be heading out to pump the tyres up, we can but hope.

Thanks ***,
After speaking with the lawyer he is now under the impression that this will be passed pretty quickly so I won't need to ask for your participation.
You will be cycling again soon.
Thanks.
****