Electric bikes - such a missed opportunity

[The exile]

Correlation is not causation. Dutch cities like Maastricht and Arnhem are just as hilly as many UK towns and cities. Likewise Bristol is very hilly but more folk there cycle because there has been some investment in safe cycle lanes. Not enough IMO, but enough to begin to make a bit of a difference. The key point is you have to make it safe to attract the masses.

It’s not as simple as “is it hilly or not” (and I spent many years cycling in Bristol). The key factor is more likely to be “what proportion of the journeys I make are steep hills / dangerous roads etc).
As an example, the viability / desirability of non-assisted cycling in my now home-city of Bath will be determined by whether your journey is principally East - West or principally North - South. Of course hills matter.

 

[Silent]

A bugbear of mine is that the rail industry has been very slow to adapt to the increase in the number of cyclists that the e-bike revolution has brought. 10-15 years ago when i was taking my road bike on trains in Northern England, most times I was the only person bringing a bike on the train, now it's very common to see 4 or 5 bikes on trains, even on local stopping services. And yet TOCs such as Northern and EMR still only "officially" allow a maximum of two bikes on their trains on a first-come, first-served basis, which is pretty uesless if your train has already called at several stops before it gets to your local station and the bike space is already full.

TOCs really need to increase capacity on train to make combined journeys by rail and bike more practical. It's very frustrating to plan a day's cycling when you don't even know if you'll be allowed to get to the start of your planned ride until the train pulls in.

When I’ve seen videos of other European train stock they seem much more bike friendly, as in maybe having more space for more bicycles to be comfortably stored.

 

[Noddy]

It’s not as simple as “is it hilly or not” (and I spent many years cycling in Bristol). The key factor is more likely to be “what proportion of the journeys I make are steep hills / dangerous roads etc).
As an example, the viability / desirability of non-assisted cycling in my now home-city of Bath will be determined by whether your journey is principally East - West or principally North - South. Of course hills matter.

Oh I don’t doubt severe hills matter. Bath (along with aforementioned Bristol as well as Sheffield and Edinburgh) is regarded as one of the of the most hilly cities in the UK. But Bristol has built a local cycling culture by investing in infrastructure-some of that infrastructure (such as Concorde Way) attempts to follow better topography as well as being segregated which is something you can do when investing in cycling infrastructure.

The point I’m making was that if hills were the primary issue of whether bikes were widely used for commuting and local journeys relatively flatter towns and cities in the vicinity (eg Gloucester, Cheltenham, Weston-S-Mare/Worle, Swindon) would have had an ongoing (since the 1950s) and much bigger cycling culture than say Bristol. However, they didn’t because most folk don’t feel safe or think it’s safe for their kids. Things are visibly changing in Cheltenham and Gloucester now with the construction of the Gloucestershire Cycle Spine and other associated improvements-every time I visit Cheltenham there are more and more folk cycling along the new safe and segregated cycle route alongside the A40.

 

[Jim the Jim]

Electric bike or not, cycling is still off-putting to a lot of people without the right infrastructure, and most places still don't have much or have it only inconsistently (it's no good having good cycle lanes for 95% of your route if the remaining 5% is scarily dangerous).

They also present infrastructure challenges of their own. The speed and acceleration of e-bikes (even when capped) often exceeds that of regular cyclists, and is considerably greater than many pedestrians are happy with on shared-use paths. So wider paths and cycle lanes are needed for safe overtaking. An e-bike is expensive but, left outside, really very easy to steal, so e-bike users depend on secure cycle parking at both ends of their journey. This is often absent, and it's difficult to see how it could work for many trips, such as popping to the shops.

 

[johncrossley]

The police are now destroying legal e-bikes

Police seize and destroy delivery cyclist’s legal e-bike hired through council-funded scheme after “bogus” test – but officers claim rider didn’t have insurance | electric bike reviews, buying advice and news - ebiketips

Cycling and disability groups have called for the UK’s police forces to be properly trained and educated on the laws surround e-bikes, after officers in Birmingham seized and destroyed a fully legal electric cargo bike hired as part of a council-funded scheme, claiming it was an illegal...

road.cc

Cycling and disability groups have called for the UK’s police forces to be properly trained and educated on the laws surround e-bikes, after officers in Birmingham seized and destroyed a fully legal electric cargo bike hired as part of a council-funded scheme, claiming it was an illegal e-motorbike.

Campaigners, who have helped support the rider and the shop which loaned him the bike in their appeal against the decision, have argued that the methods used to test the legality of e-bikes are faulty, after bodycam footage showed the officers raising the back wheel of the bike and spinning its pedals, before determining that the bike’s speed had exceeded the legal limit.

However, West Midlands Police has said that the cyclist, believed to be a delivery rider, was stopped and handed a fixed penalty notice for “riding without insurance” – despite cyclists not being required by law to have insurance in the UK.

 

[thejuggler]

The police are now destroying legal e-bikes

Police seize and destroy delivery cyclist’s legal e-bike hired through council-funded scheme after “bogus” test – but officers claim rider didn’t have insurance | electric bike reviews, buying advice and news - ebiketips

Cycling and disability groups have called for the UK’s police forces to be properly trained and educated on the laws surround e-bikes, after officers in Birmingham seized and destroyed a fully legal electric cargo bike hired as part of a council-funded scheme, claiming it was an illegal...

road.cc

Saw that yesterday. Crazy that the 'test' is to turn the pedals with the back wheel off the ground, of course it will exceed the maximum speed allowed on a motor when just being pedalled with no motor assitance, any bike will!

Are the police really so stupid they believe a legal electric bike cannot ever be pedalled to go faster than 15.5mph?

 

[Ediswan]

Saw that yesterday. Crazy that the 'test' is to turn the pedals with the back wheel off the ground, of course it will exceed the maximum speed allowed on a motor when just being pedalled with no motor assitance, any bike will!

Are the police really so stupid they believe a legal electric bike cannot ever be pedalled to go faster than 15.5mph?

I had assumed the police 'spin the rear wheel' test used the motor. Looks like a classic 'hold the thin blue line' reaction.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I had assumed the police 'spin the rear wheel' test used the motor. Looks like a classic 'hold the thin blue line' reaction.

That sounds like someone who doesn't understand how to conduct the test. You upend the bike, spin the pedals (not the wheel) and check the motor cuts out when the display (which is fitted to all legal e-bikes and works off the back wheel) reaches 15.5mph or 25km/h, which with no resistance will happen very quickly.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Jul 2026 ==

Saw that yesterday. Crazy that the 'test' is to turn the pedals with the back wheel off the ground, of course it will exceed the maximum speed allowed on a motor when just being pedalled with no motor assitance, any bike will!

Are the police really so stupid they believe a legal electric bike cannot ever be pedalled to go faster than 15.5mph?

You're not checking you can't pedal it faster (as there's nothing in the spec preventing you pedalling it at any speed), you're checking that the motor cuts off when the indicated speed reaches the cap.

 

[Ediswan]

It appears West Midlands Police have accepted they were wrong:
https://road.cc/ebiketips/news/poli...0-cargo-bike-seized-and-destroyed-are-dropped

West Midlands Police is exploring alternative methods of spotting illegal e-motorbike use after the force apologised for seizing and destroying a legal e-cargo bike hired by a delivery cyclist as part of a council-funded scheme.

The charges against the cyclist, which West Midlands Police initially claimed related to him riding without insurance, have also been dropped, with the force agreeing to reimburse the Birmingham Bike Foundry, a co-operative bike shop in the city, for the loss of the bike.

 

[johncrossley]

Cycling UK is challenging Merseyrail's crazy ban on electric bikes.

Cycling UK to challenge Merseyrail e-bike ban | Cycling UK

Merseyrail recently announced that it would ban electric bikes from its entire network – a move that will have a devastating impact on e-bike users. Supported by the Cyclists’ Defence Fund, we are set to challenge this decision

www.cyclinguk.org

Cycling UK is challenging Merseyrail’s decision to ban non-folding electric bikes from its entire network, due to the devastating effect a blanket ban would have on some of the region’s residents, particularly older and disabled people.

The ban will worsen isolation, wellbeing and household finances, as it limits people’s independence, ability to stay active, get to work, visit friends and family and spend time outdoors. The challenge is supported by the Cyclists’ Defence Fund.

 

[Noddy]

Cycling UK is challenging Merseyrail's crazy ban on electric bikes.

Cycling UK to challenge Merseyrail e-bike ban | Cycling UK

Merseyrail recently announced that it would ban electric bikes from its entire network – a move that will have a devastating impact on e-bike users. Supported by the Cyclists’ Defence Fund, we are set to challenge this decision

www.cyclinguk.org

Good, fingers crossed CyclingUK win.

 

[styles]

It appears West Midlands Police have accepted they were wrong:
https://road.cc/ebiketips/news/poli...0-cargo-bike-seized-and-destroyed-are-dropped

I'm surprised they didn't hang onto it for a while so the rider or owner had a chance to contest it. It should be a pretty quick thing to prove, especially from a reputable outlet who bought it with council-issued grants!

Cycling UK is challenging Merseyrail's crazy ban on electric bikes.

Cycling UK to challenge Merseyrail e-bike ban | Cycling UK

Merseyrail recently announced that it would ban electric bikes from its entire network – a move that will have a devastating impact on e-bike users. Supported by the Cyclists’ Defence Fund, we are set to challenge this decision

www.cyclinguk.org

As they should. I'm glad I switched my membership from British Cycling to Cycling UK - they're way better at actually campaigning.

Hopefully GBR can also manage to standardise the policies on bikes and e-bikes. c2c have a policy which states they need to be in a case, for example.

 

[Bletchleyite]

As they should. I'm glad I switched my membership from British Cycling to Cycling UK - they're way better at actually campaigning.

Not surprising there. British Cycling is the sports body, Cycling UK is what used to be called the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC) and has always been more about the utility and hobby cyclist which is most of them. It's one of those renames I really wish they hadn't done as it's both confusing and gets rid of a great traditional name, a similar one I rue is the loss of the Grand National Archery Society name (even though I don't do that sport), oh, and the United Counties Omnibus Co Ltd which still appeared on Stagecoach buses until about 10 years ago when a restructure put the operations around MK into Cambus Ltd, a post-deregulation name I believe.

 

[styles]

Not surprising there. British Cycling is the sports body, Cycling UK is what used to be called the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC) and has always been more about the utility and hobby cyclist which is most of them. It's one of those renames I really wish they hadn't done as it's both confusing and gets rid of a great traditional name, a similar one I rue is the loss of the Grand National Archery Society name (even though I don't do that sport), oh, and the United Counties Omnibus Co Ltd which still appeared on Stagecoach buses until about 10 years ago when a restructure put the operations around MK into Cambus Ltd, a post-deregulation name I believe.

Yeah I joined when I was doing a couple of sportives, though I think even in terms of advocating for cycling sports they're not very good. They've faced a lot of criticisms over the years not effectively not tackling things like bullying and doping, and then I made the switch not long after British Cycling took Shell on as a sponsor. Part of the reason I ride [electric and non-electric] bikes and take public transport is for the environmental aspect. It just didn't sit right with me to have a cycling body sponsored by Shell.