Electric bicycles are rapidly becoming popular mobility solutions for folks residing in urban areas. Depending on where in the world you’re from, your e-bike should not exceed a certain level of power for you to be able to ride it without a license. In the US, this is a somewhat reasonable 750 watts. However, across the pond in Europe and the UK, the limit is much lower at 250 watts.
So what do you do if you want a faster e-bike—perhaps one that can hit speeds closer to that of a full on electric motorcycle? Well, you modify it of course. Indeed, electric motors on e-bikes are fairly easy to boost, with the removal of a speed governor providing quite a lot more oomph. That said, there’s a big problem when it comes to boosting e-bikes for more power: it’s illegal.
And a certain e-bike rider in the UK learned this the hard way when their souped up electric two-wheeler was seized by police.
Cycle Team were at Bank Junction this morning when PC 612 spotted this homemade monster of an illegal e-bike. Video shows top speed of 73mph with no pedalling, and it has an almost 2000 watt motor (legal limits are 15.5mph & 250w). We seized it. PS10 FORD pic.twitter.com/0TowGuwr9R
— City Police Officers (@CityPoliceCops) February 16, 2024
A recent Tweet (I still call it Twitter, fight me) by the City Police Cycle Team showed what appears to be a heavily modified electric bicycle rocking a powerful hub motor. The e-bike looks pretty much like a homemade electric motorcycle, rocking pedals just for the sake of being called a bicycle.
The video on the City Police Cycle Team’s post shows an unloaded top speed of 73 miles per hour on the speedometer.
It’s estimated that this e-bike has about 2,000 watts of power on tap, nearly 10 times the legal limit allowed on UK streets. UK police described the modified two-wheeler as a “homemade monster,” and emphasized that the legal limits for e-bike performance are 250 watts and 15.5 miles per hour.
It goes without saying that electric bicycles are super cool and tons of fun. But modifying them to go way faster than they were designed to do so is illegal for a reason. Not only are they potentially dangerous given their drastically increased top speed, they could also be fire hazards, as a lot of these modified e-bikes were built in a basement or backyard, with high-powered motors and batteries bought online.
With more and more e-bikes hitting the market, and more and more illegal activity involving these two-wheelers occurring, it’s only a matter of time until law enforcement rolls out stricter regulations surrounding their use.
And for law-abiding e-bike riders, this sucks big time.
