No mention of electric motorbikes? Police say they have seized “illegal e-bikes” which can reach 72mph; Children tell parliament they want to cycle safely; Finally a sprint stage at the Tour de France + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
A choice of language
We’ve been fighting a never-ending battle over the language used by media and authorities alike over the use of the term e-bike, mainly when the word is misused to describe what is an illegally modified electric motorcycle. That’s admittedly a clunky term, but “illegal e-motorbike” is significantly shorter.
We even reported in the autumn on a small victory, when road.cc user Constantine managed to convince the BBC to correct their use of language on this issue…
But what are we to make of the term “illegal e-bike”? Because that’s what we’re faced with courtesy of Nottinghamshire Police, and also the BBC who wrote it up…
In their press release, Nottinghamshire Police do a reasonable job of making clear that the ‘e-bikes’ they have seized are “illegal”, including one that they found to reach speeds of 72mph. In contrast, legal e-bikes have a motor that tops out at 15.5mph. The BBC also make clear this caveat in their article, but irritatingly don’t describe the ‘e-bikes’ legality in their headline.
“E-bike capable of 72mph seized in crackdown” instead only furthers the idea that e-bikes are a menace and a danger to society, when in reality anything capable of breaking a motorway speed limit really ought to be called something else.
This is one of the dangers of using “illegal e-bikes” as a term, in that it opens the door to misunderstanding and stigmatisation of one of the key tools towards improving active travel and sustainable transport outcomes. It’s why ultimately, if an e-bike isn’t legal, it’s best not to call it an e-bike.
Unfortunately though, this is neither the police nor the BBC’s first rodeo, having made a Panorama documentary rife with such conflation…
Children tell parliament they want to cycle safely
Ok it’s Guernsey’s Parliament, and not Westminster, but don’t let that get in the way of a quite sweet story.
Sixth form students are meeting deputies from the States of Guernsey to discuss establishing safe routes for them to walk and cycle to college. Among the ideas they want to propose are cycle-only roads and making roads with cycle paths one-way, as reported by the BBC.
Many of the island’s proposals also have the support of the chair of the island’s active travel officer for the Health Improvement Commission.
“Active travel is one of the best ways to build activity into busy lives,” Amy Woollaston said.
“It can prevent some quite scary diseases – cardiovascular disease, cancers – I think healthcare providers now more than ever are seeing active travel as a way to prevent that.”
How to photograph the Tour de France
Literally the most beautiful bike lane I've ever seen
Still, probably one to avoid in the wet with all those white lines. Vision, dreams and passion…
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Sweet dreams - Excellent content
As a team, Uno-X’s social media content is pretty unremarkable. Thankfully their riders more than pick up the slack, celebrating their teammate’s yellow jersey and emphatic lead…
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And of course, when Magnus Cort is on the team, you can gate crash the maillot jaune into your Rooms and Ratings series…
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Semi-relatedly, one of my favourite genre of photos is teammates celebrating one another’s victories at the podium…
“I thought this is going to be a long day”: Tadej Pogačar relaxed after losing Tour de France lead
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'Children tell parliament they want to cycle safely' and me .... dont watch this - how Utrecht became the word's best cycling city.... https://youtu.be/MHFUBzE_EjQ?si=oLigq2p-4l-qk7MF
@mdavidford dangerously close to introducing contributory negligence perhaps ; ) (Though I have to admit, I decided not to mention the red man, given the illegal scootering + no apparent attempt to avoid + scarpering).
I think they're trolling me now - the story has been updated with this pic
@quiff Fair point (that was a long way back up thread!). Although as well as saying that she thought she would be safe because she was on a crossing, that comment also said "she was carelessly crossing on a red man", which is straying perilously close to introducing 'jaywalking' to the discussion.
@mdavidford yes, of course the signals are advisory etc - but I think this tangent started in reference to the victim's reported comment "I was on a crossing. I thought it was safe, you just don't expect it".
I think anyone 'looking for a serious relationship' with Torstein Træen is going to be out of luck anyway - he looks pretty attached to that lion.
Just checked Continentals own data here: https://www.continental-tires.com/tire-knowledge/tire-rim-combinations-etrto-standards/#text-f52364d480) As expected, a 28mm tire only becomes 28.8mm wide on a 21mm rim.
You know the article has gone live when Surreyrider arrives to explain why it shouldn't be on road.cc.
"ETRTO requires that 28mm (stated) tyres should measure 28mm on a 19mm internal rim width, and 30mm (stated) tyres should measure 30mm on a 21mm internal rim width. If you take these requirements to real life, you will find that the casing width on a 28mm tyre can be close to, if not identical to, a 30mm tyre of the same make/model." This sounds like BS to me. The thickest part of the tyre is not at the bead, but more than halfway up the side of the tyre. Moving the bead 2 mm (or, 1 mm each side) should move the thickest part of the tyre less than 1 mm (0.5 mm each side). So a 30mm tyre would be at least 1mm wider before installation than a 28mm tire, probably more.
In any case, though, the signalling is entirely advisory for the pedestrians, and regardless of whether or not they have a green light there is a responsibility on other road users to take due care for their safety, just as there would be if they were crossing at any other part of the road where there was no crossing.
2 thoughts on “No mention of electric motorbikes? Police say they have seized “illegal e-bikes” which can reach 72mph; Children tell parliament they want to cycle safely; Finally a sprint stage at the Tour de France + more on the live blog”
I think anyone ‘looking for a serious relationship’ with Torstein Træen is going to be out of luck anyway – he looks pretty attached to that lion.
‘Children tell parliament they want to cycle safely’
and me ….
dont watch this – how Utrecht became the word’s best cycling city….