As ebike numbers increase, more accidents happen. As a results, several EU countires have pushed so called anti-tuning laws forward, like France recent L317-1: https://www.bike-eu.com/laws-regulations/nieuws/2020/03/e-bike-tuning-now-banned-in-france-with-30000-euro-fine-10137459
This type of legislation targets the purposely modification of commercial system to increase speed an power. Yet some also see a move against aftermarket kits, since basically a conversion could be seen as "tuning". I for once think that high power ebikes are a real danger in crowded cities, but I'm also a strong proponent of the right to build stuff in your garage. A good solution would be to increase legal speed to 30km/h, and introduce nation wide mandatory insurances for all cyclists (not only ebikes), like they had in Swizterland until a few years ago. Like 10 bucks a year to cover all third party damages.
Now the law is one thing; everyday practice another thing. For an instance here in Switzerland I've never seen or heard about police controls of ebikes - aside perhaps some extreme cases where someone would blitz at 50km/h through a city on a diy bike with lipos packs duct taped to the frame. On the other hand, during the 5 least years, I've encountered maybe 1 or 2 diy conversions... Price of commercial ebikes have been divided by 3 in 5 years, and the second hand market is literally flooded with 2nd or 3rd gen bikes in very good shape. So why even bother with diy...
I know that the situation is different in germany, where colleagues report active controls, and france where fines have been reported. So what's your experience ?
This type of legislation targets the purposely modification of commercial system to increase speed an power. Yet some also see a move against aftermarket kits, since basically a conversion could be seen as "tuning". I for once think that high power ebikes are a real danger in crowded cities, but I'm also a strong proponent of the right to build stuff in your garage. A good solution would be to increase legal speed to 30km/h, and introduce nation wide mandatory insurances for all cyclists (not only ebikes), like they had in Swizterland until a few years ago. Like 10 bucks a year to cover all third party damages.
Now the law is one thing; everyday practice another thing. For an instance here in Switzerland I've never seen or heard about police controls of ebikes - aside perhaps some extreme cases where someone would blitz at 50km/h through a city on a diy bike with lipos packs duct taped to the frame. On the other hand, during the 5 least years, I've encountered maybe 1 or 2 diy conversions... Price of commercial ebikes have been divided by 3 in 5 years, and the second hand market is literally flooded with 2nd or 3rd gen bikes in very good shape. So why even bother with diy...
I know that the situation is different in germany, where colleagues report active controls, and france where fines have been reported. So what's your experience ?
