Mastodawn

A rant about electric bicycles:

* For e-bikes to be viable car replacements they need cargo-carrying and hill-climb capacity. The practicality test for an e-bike is to carry four bags of grocieries, or a child.

* The 250W and 20km/h limit for unlicensed bicycles is *far* too low. Human cyclists comfortably exceed this in both power and speed leading to e-bikes holding up traffic. When. I ride the bikeways, human-powered traffic cruises at around 35 km/h.

* The "you must pedal or the motor stops" requirement is some Calvinist bullshit.

* The perl-clutching "but the children" scare in the news about "unlicensed motorbikes" HAS to be some kind of car-industry astroturfing. From what I can see on the bikeways, commuter e-bikes and scooters are HOT items and anyone with a head can see a dent in vehicle sales coming. Users LOVE this emerging mobility sector.

* I work in an industrial area with zero public transport service. I observe large numbers of workers riding scooters in the direction of the nearest train station.

* If governments *really* want to stick to the 250w 25km/h bullshit for "bicycles" then we need URGENT legislation to create a vehicle class for say 1000W 45km/h vehicles. The Australia post electric delivery tricycles are a worked example of the practicality of this class; I don't hear *anyone* having a meltdown about "dangerous monster tricycles on our footpaths".

#MicroMobility #ebikes #solarpunk

ETA: absurd panic-fueled legislation from the fossil-fuel captured Literal Nazi Party: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-24/queensland-ebike-escooter-ban-children-licence-reforms/106487910

E-bike and e-scooter riders to require a licence in Qld under proposed laws

A raft of new rules around the use of e-mobility devices will be ushered in after the Queensland government accepted the recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry.

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Iron Helmet Games 8h ago

@Unixbigot Hey Kit, I ride a 250W bike 10 km every day to work.. Just wanted to share my view.

I very rarely see a traditional cycles going faster than my 25km per hour. I overtake every non e bike I see. 4 bags of groceries would not impact the ride at all.

I would love to see 1000w motorbikes, but at 45km/h I really think you need be on the road only, not bike paths, and you should have a motorbike license and training.

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Kit Bashir 6h ago

@IHG I’m a big chonker which is why I’m trying to bike as much as possible! I need to lose about six more bags of groceries, lost four already.

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mr_harm 5h ago

@Unixbigot @IHG I understand some of your points, but not all.
Especially if you say you use it for weight loss, why are you objecting to having to pedal?

Is the legislation capping at 250W peak or the more diffuse 250W permanent thing like eg in Europe? All bike systems can do way more, some are even up to 1000W.

And this is where I subject: I see people on the regular not being able to handle even 250W (mostly old and/or out of shape). Handing them more would dramatically increase risks.

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mr_harm

@Unixbigot @IHG risks for them (crashing) and others (not being able to stop in time, the driver generally being overwhelmed and doing stupid stuff etc.)

I would maybe be okay with raising the speed limit to about 30, but not more for the same reason. I live in a quite hilly area, there's a lot of crashes with ebikes since people cannot handle speed. They are just plain inexperienced bike riders but if they can go fast they will.

The E-Bike is great for getting people to bike that otherwise..

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mr_harm 5h ago

@Unixbigot @IHG would not be capable and I love it for that. But as you say "reasonable fit bikers can do 35kph easily". Yes, and they mostly got reasonable fit by riding a lot on their bike gaining experience.

There may be some riders that are experienced but can only ride their bike due to conditions. But from a legislation perspective you have to consider there will be a lot of inexperienced riders wanting to go fast. And therefore make it as safe as possible for everyone.