How cops enforce HR727- electric bicycles

Plain and simple
cops are trained to catch speeders.
I've been clocked on the bike path going 15 on my psev. Once he saw the speed he drove off.
Never mind it doesn't have the required pedals, and who knows what motor.
So if you don't have a DMV tag, that's what they watch. Assuming of course they have any idea about HR727.
I've read in the local paper that they are told not to ticket anyone less than 5 mph over the limit, and they are supposed to time speeders over quite a distance, like a mile or more. So i guess anything under 25 would be OK on a 20 limit.
Report your actual police experiences here! Nobody wants their ev impounded!

On the 18th of December as I was waiting for a red light in the straight through lane, a cop pulled next to me in the right turn lane & we chatted while waiting for the light (cops seem to enjoy cruising around with the heater on full blast and windows rolled down). Anyways when the light turned green I went full throttle peeling off the intersection in a skidding start, but they didn't bother me for it.

So let's total this up, shall we? Skidding one's tires needlessly is an offence worth 2 demerit points off your licence, there's also a fine for this however it appears to not apply to bikes/ebikes for some reason. I was not wearing a helmet as required for ebikes, a 200$ fine. Also my bike did not have a front light, no yellow reflector in the front wheel and no brake cutoff switches, 15 to 60$ fines right there.

My e-bike had about a 30 mph max speed. That was under ideal conditions such as no wind, level ground, full battery, etc. I could pedal it up to 35 mph with some effort and that was about the max the controller would do before it started to do some regen back into the batteries and slow me down (that invisible wall).

Given that, I ride around downtown where the speed limit is 30 mph just about everywhere. So the bike does fine and cops don't care, even if I don't pedal a lot of the time. As long as I obey the road like a car (stop at stop signs, stop lights, etc) then I'm out of site for them. I did have a few of them ask about the bike, thought it was cool. I haven't really met anyone that was hellbent on "impounding" anyone with an e-bike. Lucky for me :wink:

Recently though, I've upgraded my e-bike to a crystalyte 405 motor and a controller that can do up to 72 volts. My top speed has jumped to 40 mph (ideal conditions of course) now without any effort, same 24 volt 12AH battery packs too.

I'm about to upgrade to one more 24 volt @ 13AH NiMH packs to jump the system up to 72 volts. As you can see from the second chart, it falls off the side so I don't really know how fast the bike is going to go then. I think I might have cops chasing me then :lol: :lol:

I'm about to upgrade to one more 24 volt @ 13AH NiMH packs to jump the system up to 72 volts.

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Hey that's great! As bikes don't make good platforms for safe riding above 35mph or so, I get my kicks out-accelerating cars at stop lights. I pedal just as hard as I can too, making it look like I'm beating their overweight gas hog with leg power alone! I figure this'll only fool 'em for another year or few at most. So I better get my kicks now, before we all get 'found out' Then, sadly, the bionic superman act falls flat.

If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em!

next time we see a cop, say, in a donut shop, might be good to ask for "riding ebike" tips.
If they say the car mph is OK. GET HIS NAME AND WRITE IT DOWN!

xyster said:

I'm about to upgrade to one more 24 volt @ 13AH NiMH packs to jump the system up to 72 volts.

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Hey that's great! As bikes don't make good platforms for safe riding above 35mph or so, I get my kicks out-accelerating cars at stop lights. I pedal just as hard as I can too, making it look like I'm beating their overweight gas hog with leg power alone! I figure this'll only fool 'em for another year or few at most. So I better get my kicks now, before we all get 'found out' Then, sadly, the bionic superman act falls flat.

If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em!

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I have to agree, 35 mph on my e-bike is ok, but once it gets higher (since I've only gotten over 35 mph going down really steep hills with the motor turned off), 45 mph is the max speed of my bike in a realistic sense because after that the "vibration" from the wheel starts to affect the steering. I've actually gone about trying to "balance" the wheel for the higher speed but with no luck. The wheel is just too light and certainly not designed for this type of speed.

With that said, the extra power might be more of a "hey why not try it" just to see how much I can push the motor and controller. Good thing the front fork is old school steel :wink: I have yet to destroy it.

I ride around my town so much I think everyone knows my "secret", especially after it was broadcast on the local news 8)
Except now, I can go faster in an insane but cool to kids kind of way.

Good thing the front fork is old school steel I have yet to destroy it.

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Didn't you destroy a different steel fork already? I'd be very nervous riding with any front hubmotor being fed over 1000 W of power. The torque needed to rip itself right out of the dropouts (whether or not the dropout fails) is independent of the motor's weight.

My brother in law is an RCMP.. i sent him on a joyride on my Norco.. he came back all smiles and giggley... 8) No problems with the law around here.

Pocket bikes = no.

Bicycle with gas motor = ok

Bicycle with electric motor = Anything goes.

RCMP?

Radio Controlled Miniature Puppet?

oh...stupid me, while writing that I just got it!

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Hmmm....pretty similar if you think about it

xyster said:

Good thing the front fork is old school steel I have yet to destroy it.

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Didn't you destroy a different steel fork already? I'd be very nervous riding with any front hubmotor being fed over 1000 W of power. The torque needed to rip itself right out of the dropouts (whether or not the dropout fails) is independent of the motor's weight.

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Yes, the first time was my own fault. I put too much current to the controller and it had a meltdown. When it had a meltdown, it shorted the motor turning it into a brake and ripped out the steel forks and wire and messing up the motor. So in a sense, the motor didn't rip itself out from torque, but from becoming a "brake" while in the middle of a ride.

The new fork is actually some thicker steel, the dropouts are half-inch steel now instead of 1/4 inch like before. The new controller is "well I hope" can handle higher voltages without having a meltdown. I've also put some fuses on the motor to prevent any "shorts" that may turn it into another brake and causing a really bad accident.

There is a local "custom" bike shop near me that will build just about anything you want. Building a steel fork for a 700CX35 wheel was easy for them. Making it "insanely" thick steel only cost me about $300 for the custom job. Has all the places for disc brakes and cantilever brakes, who could ask for more?

This happened to me while ebikes were illegal in Ontario about 2 years ago.

We've got an annual festival here called The Grape and Wine Festival after 2 weeks worth of festivities we have the Grand Parade where they shut down most downtown streets. I was riding my ebike to a buddy's house downtown to watch the parade.I was riding up to a barricaded road where two policemen stood to redirect traffic the other way. I was entering the intersection and noticed one of the cops looking at me as I was motoring through. He pointed directy at me and yelled out YOU GET OVER HERE. I then slowed down and rolled over to where they were and stopped.The one cop was still redirecting traffic and the one who hailed me over asked if I was headed to the parade to which I replied,Yes Sir...He then smiled and said "you damn well be careful out here,there's alot of drunks out on the road today" I replied You Betcha,and off I drove. I actually thought I was gonna get a ticket.

In Ontario we now have a 3 year pilot project allowing e bike use by people over 16, 500watt max. motor size and not faster than 32 km/hr and a helmet is also required.

To me the 3 year thing is just a way for them to buy some time so they can figure out how to licence ebikes,or in other words another tax grab.

Eric G