I Got Smoked By An Illegal E-bike – Does It Matter? | GCN Show Ep. 628

WOW ..SOMEOME JUST DONATED £5000 👏👏
Time to get the bike out Dan

Is the Bristol-Bath cycle path really world-famous? I certainly would like to think so, and it's nice to see it get some love here even if it expressed hyperbolically. Its 13 lovely flat miles is where I accidentally discovered the fitness-enhancing power of a "zone 2 ride" 15 years before I even heard of the term!

Caption comp: OK Dougal one last time, the reason that POC helmet doesnt look feckin ridiculous is that one is far far away.

Still feels wrong that previous subscribers to GCN+ don’t have access to the videos made during our subscription. I understand denying us access to new content. 😔

E-bikes are usually targeted at people with little experience and mindfulness towards cycling. Forcing these folks on the bike path is dangerous for other cyclists and often pedestrians. I dont want to bash on them though, for city commuting I'd rather like to see someone on an E-bike than in a car. But this would requires better cycling infrastructure, which most cities dont want to spend money on.

It’s not the bikes . Whether it’s pedal assist or throttle or even normal bike
It’s not the speed they can travel at.
It’s down to the rider .
Consideration for other users of paths and trails should be on all of our minds.
Unfortunately there are dumb humans in the world and you get one of these on a bike yet alone an unrestricted bike .
That’s what causes the problem.

I think the main problem is that we dedicate 90% of infra to cars (wide lanes, two way streets, signage, plenty of parking etc) and then pack everyone else into these measly paths, so you have regular commuter, ebikers, joggers, people walking their dogs and more avid cyclists all in the same place

Comment to the topic of regulating the speed of e-bikes on bike paths.

I was in Sevilla Spain a couple of years ago and rented an E-Scooter, the type that you stand on, and when going through the City Center the scooter regulated it's speed based on it's GPS Location. Outside of the City Center it went back to it's normal speed it was legally allow. That seems like a beneficial idea for E-Bikes but it will require expense back to the consumer as the manufacturer will need to increase it's engineering and testing.

My city just puts speed limits on the bike path. Then it covers bikes, scooters, those mono wheels. I don't care if you derestrict as long as you are going a reasonable speed.

E-bikes a problem that needs fixing – NO. BUT we need to put things in place to ensure it does not become a problem. So I do like the idea that cycle paths should be restricted to traffic below 25 mph. In The Netherlands they separate traffic that has more than 10 mph speed difference to keep each road participant safe.

Happy to hear that Si and Dan have ordinary HRVs!

12 fatalities caused by E-bikes might be worse than 2000 caused by cars, depends on accidents per capita. Quick google says there's 50 million drivers in the UK. That's 25000 to 1 fatality. If there are 10,000 E-bike users and 12 fatalities (just a guess), that 833 to 1. A monumentally worse statistic. You also have to account for the interaction chance between cars with each other, pedestrians, trees, etc is going to be far higher than bikes, which makes things even worse in terms of safety for e-bikes (there is far more potential interaction going on with cars/used a lot more/more distance covered per car than bike). So if you go by that statistic based on a 10,000 e-bike user rate, and extrapolated it so 50 million drivers are all replaced by e-bikes, you'd have 60,000+ fatalities per year from e-bikes.
(someone please check my math I've not had coffee yet) 😧

I live in Oregon where the bill was introduced. I think the part that makes the bill difficult is the fact that it's kind of impossible to enforce. I wouldn't have been able to tell you the class of my e-bike before this bill, and it's not like there is any clear delineation that makes it readily apparent to an outside observer.

It makes a lot more sense to regulate behavior/speed (like we do for cars), instead of trying to enforce which bikes can use what. I wouldn't care if someone was rode past on a Class 3 going 15 km/hr, but I would if they went 30-45, regardless of what the vehicle is. I also think it would be much easier for most folks to follow (except the jerks) and to enforce. Trying to ban a specific class of bikes from safe infrastructure just has the effect of tossing law-abiding vulnerable road users into traffic (again except the jerks – who won't care what the law says) and would likely hurt more folks than simply doing nothing.

That said, if the bill proceeds, I would argue that we should introduce restrictions on cars accessing low-speed roads, given just how many more people they kill/seriously injure.

In big cities the problem with illegal ebikes is their use by junk food delivery riders. Junk food outlets are often in central areas and often in pedestrianised areas which are often crowded with pedestrians. The deliverers of said junk food most often have illegal E bikes and have no intention of respecting others because they need to maximise their speed to enable them to deliver more junk food in the alotted time. I know the police are stretched but maybe these areas could be raided. If the illegals were prevented from using their dodgy E-mopeds then perhaps the flood of complaints to their employers would encourage them to stop using illegal illegal ebikes?

What happens when every ride is a race. 😅

People are going to get hurt.Very hurt.Insurance will become essential.That will balance itself out because the riders are going to realise how expensive it will become and have second thoughts.

Time to have a speed limit on cycle paths.

What I took from Si’s encounter with the commuter e-bike was that Si needs a bell of his own…lol
Love you guys…

American here, and I think Class 3 should only be allowed on the road, not in bike lanes or trails. Likewise, Class 3 should be recategorized as "not an E-bike", to further clarify that they should be ridden in the road only. Last point, since Lime bikes came up, electric scooters should be banned all together. I can't find numbers online, but last time I was in the hospital a nurse told me that their hospital alone gets nearly a dozen hospitalizations from e-scooter crashes PER DAY! E-bikes are much safer because you have 3 points of contact for stabilization rather than only 2 points on an e-scooter.

The spandex riders on racing bikes are the folks always blowing down the bike paths here in my neighborhood. I've never seen a single one of them get a ticket or stopped by the cops.

I would say it only matters if they were riding in an aggressive or unsafe manner. Be courteous, be careful, and be safe.

#captioncompetiom POCS new Aero helmet the “Slider”, available in a 3 pack

the bell is for pedestrians! bad form to ring bell to fellow cyclists. ‘’pass on right’’ 📣

Caption – Helmet manufacturer causes controversy as they release an addition to their range with the dubiously named "SmallPocs" helmet.

E-Bike = FAKE Bike, simple as that!
When Harley and Davidson put engines in Bicycles, they called it a motor cycle. IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY. But now there's this aberration, which because it has a pedal is called an E-Bike.