France bans illegal eMTB tuning with fines up to € 30,000

[John in CR]

What's really sad about those draconian laws is that it's our other brothers on 2 wheels who push for and help craft those ridiculous laws. I live where there's the best ebike law on the planet. An electric motor of 5,000W and up is a motorcycle which has several classes depending on max power. Below 5,000 is a moped with no pedal requirements. As long as you're at least 16 and wear a helmet along with proper lights if you ride at night you're good to go, though I always suggest full lighting since brake lights and turn signals make sense day or night. The wording of the motor power limit is vague enough that going by manufacturers rating is fine. I carry a manufacturer's motor test report that includes a picture of the motor as my proof that I'm operating within the law.

 

[markz]

I carry a manufacturer's motor test report that includes a picture of the motor as my proof that I'm operating within the law.

I bet you carry some bills to, for some payoff bribes :wink:

 

[John in CR]

I carry a manufacturer's motor test report that includes a picture of the motor as my proof that I'm operating within the law.

I bet you carry some bills to, for some payoff bribes :wink:

I'm 100% legal so that would only come into play for speeding. You gotta be careful with that kind of thing though as many of the Transitos are straight arrows.

I actually got flagged over to stop the other day. The sun was in exactly the wrong position to my right to see well enough for me to cross and go left on a 4 lane road, so I waited for clear traffic and turned right and proceeded half a block to a left turn lane where I could better see oncoming traffic. When it was totally clear I did a U turn. Then about a block and a half later get flagged over by the older Transito in a group of 3 ticket writers. That road is right lane for buses only that time of day, so the traffic police are out daily filling their quotas that way. It must have been a really slow day for him to try to call what I did on my motorcycle looking bike something illegal, because it was really the only safe way for me to get on that road in the direction I needed. First the cop tried to tell me I was doing crazy U turns and then that I needed a license followed with that I needed plates and registration.

I calmly and respectfully refuted each point. When I got to the point of pulling my only "papers" that prove the motor to be less than 5000W, he realized that I knew the law well and told me to just get out of there. The younger officers with him laughed and smiled as I left. I've been pulled over a handful of times over the past 12 years, usually at just random stops, but sometimes by transit police who at first think I'm riding an unplated motor vehicle and I have to explain the law. I've actually been surprised that most actually know the law and just wanted to ask questions after seeing me around. A couple of years ago one suggested that I carry papers about the motor, since my performance level so far beyond the quite common stinkbike mopeds.

I love talking about ebikes to anyone who'll listen, so police stops are always pleasant...unlike every stop during 3 decades of driving cars where each was getting pulled over for doing something wrong.

 

[miro13car]

here in Calgary I was stopped several times in industrial zone by police investigating brake ins.
all police wanted to know what I was doing in industrial zone on beautiful weekend weather, if I didnt noticed any suspicious people
eventually...
they got interested in my ebike and some admired it.
They had no idea about pathways/parks bylaws.
police here is too busy with serious crimes to deal with legality of ebikes.
French should be dealing with illegal migrants from Africa who turn France into third country cesspool.

 

[markz]

here in Calgary I was stopped several times in industrial zone by police investigating brake ins.
all police wanted to know what I was doing in industrial zone on beautiful weekend weather, if I didnt noticed any suspicious people
eventually...
they got interested in my ebike and some admired it.
They had no idea about pathways/parks bylaws.
police here is too busy with serious crimes to deal with legality of ebikes.
French should be dealing with illegal migrants from Africa who turn France into third country cesspool.

I was riding in similar industrial zones and I knew about the more patrols in commercial biz parks and industrial areas. I stayed to the sidewalk or road cuz sometimes I'd mix it up by riding in parking lots. Like by Princess Auto.

Tell me, when they stopped you how fast were you going? Whats your ebike look like? What area of town?
Did they come up from behind you or from in front of you?

My run ins with the pigs are the same, they are more interested in the ebike, you know mines got black duct tape battery in triangle and silver controller on top tube but I go 15-25kph all the time, rear hub, no bag no pannier no rack.

 

[miro13car]

MarkZ
I visit electronic recycling places quite often , of course on weekends.
Pathways in the parks are busy so I avoid them .
Police got in front of me , get out of patrol car and walk up to me , I was riding below 30km/h.
they had no problem with me digging , searching stuff at electronic recycling.
this drop off places are advertised on CofCalgary web site so it is public access places.
I am mostly in SE.

 

[Neo709]

I am moving to France after COVID19

 

[momus3]

Yeah, at one time most of the world made weed illegal too, with large fines and stiff jail and prison sentences for those dangerous criminals. That worked real well.

Look on the bright side. If you hot rod your bike well enough, they won't be able to catch you.

Do they have similar draconian laws for people who hot rod their cars? If this is true about the eBikes (and this IS the internet let's not forget), I would say that people should move from France. Walmart has wine and cheese here in the US. Not sure about the snails. You can probably find those in the Louisiana Walmarts. If it ain't quick enough to get off the plate, it's supper down there. Snails are pretty slow.

Of course, the way things are headed world wide, let's just hope they get an interplanetary shuttle going soon.

 

[markz]

https://www.freewheelingfrance.com/planning-a-trip/electric-bike-touring-in-france.html

It is possible to hire batteries once in France tough, if you are able to bring your bike without the battery. You can use Freewheeling France's bespoke bike hire service to find a suitable hire outlet.

 

[markz]

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/09/electric-bikes-paris-bicycle-rental-france-e-bike-subsidy/598192/

How Paris Hopes to Build an E-Bike Boom

Feargus O'Sullivan

September 24, 2019

The Greater Paris region, known in French as Île-de-France, launched an unprecedented 10,000-vehicle e-bikeshare program earlier this month. Then, just a few weeks later, Île-de-France came back with another offer: Anyone in the region who buys an electric bike can get €500 toward its cost, paid by the regional government. Consider this alongside the City of Paris’s existing e-bike subsidy (with a cap of €400), and it’s clear that e-bike boosterism is alive and well in Greater Paris.

 

[jetpilot]

Why would the manufacturers be liable? Cowboy, Cobolt and Ampler all removed the "off-road" mode they had, Im assuming its due to this.

 

[john61ct]

Why would the manufacturers be liable?

If you want to strictly but cost-effectively regulate a product category, you need to do so over the whole supply / distribution chain.

Thus in effect make DIYing illegal, and put in place meaningful penalties so that the vendors have incentives to make their products very hard to mod.

Otherwise police will need training and equipment to keep up with an "arms race" of stealth-mode solutions and vendors have incentives to just wink-nudge only appear to comply with the legal limits.

 

[markz]

stealth-mode solutions

Thats all it is, making your DIY built ebike stealthy so you can ride and people find it very hard to impossible to tell if its electrons or muscle power. That method of ebiking, eliminates mid drives, and you are left with only a rear hub, hidden behind a large pannier bag to hide the hub motor. Putting the controller+battery in the bag, then its up to the rider to ride stealthily. Fake/Ghost pedaling where you just act as if you are pedaling, but you are only using the throttle, no PAS installed, no need for it until the crackdowns then it might be a good idea to have no throttle only and have PAS. Even then the cheap PAS you can fake pedal and you get power, upgrade to torque sensing like what Grintech sells and that will force you to break a sweat while ebiking. I wouldnt go beyond 36V, might even consider 24V if I was scared and in France, but I'm not scared and I would still use 1500W Leaf, 36V40A controller, and throttle-only. Im so used to fake pedaling by now.

 

[john61ct]

You are really going to assume "les flics" are so laisser faire over there?

French legislation now bans the practice of eMTB tuning. If an individual or retailer are caught modifying an ebike to derestrict its maximum speed, the offence is now punishable by up to one-year imprisonment (two year for retailers) and up to a €30,000 fine.

Mais je crois que non

too big a risk, just buy a legal bike from a shop