“That test is seriously flawed”: Met Police e-bike stop checks praised for speed but criticised by cyclists for lack of rigour + more on the live blog
Not the hardest test in the world...
“Ever wondered what happens during a London Met Police eBike stop? Wonder no more,” this Reddit poster writes.
Much has been happening with the Met in recent weeks and months that we’ve taken quite an interest in, be it their response to Richmond Park bikejackings, their roll-out of Sur-Ron electric motorbikes, or their rather indifferent attitude to hit-and-runs on cyclists…
It’s the e-bikes that are continuing to hold attention however, not least since there is great scepticism around if even the police know whether a bike is legal or not. After all, who remembers when West Midlands Police destroyed a legal e-bike hired through the local council, causing the force to announce it would stop and re-design its testing for illegal bikes?
So what have we got here? Captured near Tottenham Court Road, the footage shows our cyclist riding past a courier who looks, from a brief cursory look at the battery attached to his frame, to be riding an illegal bike, before our own cyclist is stopped by an officer at the junction ahead.
eBike Police Stop today near TCR
by
u/Jeff46K4 in
londoncycling
“Is it a push button one or is it pedal assisted?”
“It’s pedal assisted.”
“Can we jump round the corner and have a quick test? Hopefully it won’t take too long”
“It’s fully legal.”
“Yeah, well, as you can imagine recently, [unintelligible] so we’ve just got to check everything’s ok.”
What follows is around 20 seconds of the officer struggling before the rider puts out the kickstand, before he then half pedals the bike and watches the front wheel spin freely for a second or two before handing the bike back, and declaring it “all good.” The entire interaction is done in less than a minute.
Fellow cyclists are appreciative of the test, but there’s some questions over to the science behind the system…
“That testing of lifting the wheel and hand pedalling and then observing the speedo is seriously flawed. Who the heck thought that one up? In the OP video it looks like the officer does the same test but he does a half-hearted few turns, so rider was lucky.”
“I thought they were using rolling roads now for the testing. It’s easy to get any bike, even one with no motor, over 25kph by just spinning the wheel with no load. In this video it looks more like the police officer just trusted the guy and didn’t really bother checking anything except that he couldn’t find a throttle.”
“Nice enough policeman but aren’t the criminals they’re looking for just going to skirt around them? Feel like this is just another thing slowing the average person down for no reason.”
“This is a piss poor test. This doesn’t disprove whether the bike is push/throttle enabled nor does it do anything to check whether the motor is under the legal limit of 250W”
Right idea, but you suspect the execution needs a little refining…
Chain gunk!
It’s been a minute since I’ve had one this bad.
by
u/blumpkins_ahoy in
Justridingalong
Feel like there’s a market for short-form video content where people rid of themselves of evil black bike goo – that’s the technical term. I’ll have a word with Liam… that one not the other one.
Lovely relaxing bike ride
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Why don't the rozzers simply equip themselves with a cheap GPS speedometer, or even just download Strava or a similar app on their phones, and hop on the bike for a quick turn up and down the road, they would quickly be able to see if the bike speed was legal or otherwise.
@Pub bike Even in a ULEZ (as I – and I think you? – know, living in one) there is still a lot of pollution and there always will be as long as ICE vehicles are still in use. In London it's made a great improvement but the air quality on busy central roads at rush-hour is still pretty appalling, so mitigation measures are still needed. I didn't see her talking about unbuilt cycle lanes, why not plant trees alongside those that already exist? They can make a tremendous difference, a number of schools in my area have planted "living walls" to separate their playgrounds from the busy roads on which they are located and apparently they make a very significant difference to pollution levels.
Warms the cockles of my heart that the illegal e-motorbike bros put their lung-health first with their black balaclavas.
Children in cars should also wear masks. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/12/children-risk-air-pollution-cars-former-uk-chief-scientist-warns
I've ridden SPDs on the road for years, as I can't stand walking in road shoes with protruding cleats. Having a road system which is easy to walk in sounds very tempting.
@Rendel Harris Yet she then appears to talk about future measures: "Alternatively, surrounding plants and trees near a cycle lane could also improve the quality of air, whilst physical separation preventing cyclists riding in the same lane as polluting vehicles would also be beneficial.". What about increasing the size of the existing LEZ? More feasible than planting trees near as-yet unbuilt cycle lanes.
@Pub bike To be fair to the good professor, I'm sure as an expert in vascular medicine she would like nothing better than to eliminate pollution but she is offering her advice on how to deal with the situation as it is rather than as we, and doubtless she, think it should be.
@Pub bike Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee already have Low Emission Zones. They probably help a bit, especially for the sort of particulates that a mask could actually help with. But there is definitely room for improvement too - if your vehicle is compliant (most cars/vans from the past 10 to 20 years) then you can just drive in with no restrictions or charges.
@mdavidford Agreed. The comment was to make them see how unrealistic their suggestion is.
@RayG This is the wrong solution - if the problem is the nose, remove the nose.
1 thought on ““That test is seriously flawed”: Met Police e-bike stop checks praised for speed but criticised by cyclists for lack of rigour + more on the live blog”
Why don’t the rozzers simply equip themselves with a cheap GPS speedometer, or even just download Strava or a similar app on their phones, and hop on the bike for a quick turn up and down the road, they would quickly be able to see if the bike speed was legal or otherwise.