Here is my 2c worth on the Australian electric bike laws. My understanding is they are a bit of a mess. They limit the power to 200W, but don't specify how it is measured. It could mean delivered to the motor or delivered to the road. It could also be peak or continuous. The law doesn't say.

More to the point, the law doesn't work. Put a 200W peak bike on a downhill slope and it will easily assist the rider over 40 km/h. Put a heavy person on it trying to use the motor going up a hill on the other hand and he may well find himself going backwards.

Other countries, like Canada for example, define a maximum speed. In the US it is 32 km/h. Beyond that the motor cuts out. I presume that speed came from what a fit unassisted road bike rider does, as they average around the 30 km/h mark on long (100km) journeys. The advertising often claims an engine will let you "keep up with the pack", but it can't do that unless it can at assist you up their average speed.

To go that speed on flat ground on a windless day requires about 700W continuous (1400W peak). By comparison a typical 50cc scooter engine is 2,000W continuous, so on one is going to be doing wheelies with a 700W motor.

Handily, it also turns out to be a practical maximum. 7kg of the most expensive batteries money can buy will last 30 km (1 hour) at that speed. All up the motor + batteries + bike will weigh over 20 kg - which is dammed heavy for a push bike. Anything above that and no one is going to use it without electric assist. If you are going to use it like that then be honest and get yourself a scooter.

So I think 700W continuous is a justifiable figure. But my point is really that 200W continuous isn't, and I don't know how they came up with it. Interpreting the law as 200W peak (ie 100W continuous) is just absurd.

It SURE is NOT healthy for those morons who block tunnels with bikes during peak hour.

Or..for those 'fools' who ride 2 abreast on roads where there is not enough room for a car to overtake safely without incringing over the centre line.

That is MOST unhealthy.

Agreed. Once again it boils down to cycleways & cycling facilities.
Everyone tells me Perth is a wonderful to ride a bike in.

Ah!! A subject close to an ex-Dutch girl's heart.

That cycling is still being discussed as an option and not the necessity that it should be is the ridiculous part.

When there are bike ways on the roads, you know the white line with a bike stencil, they are: too narrow, used my motorist as a parking lane, used by motorists as a left turning lane, used by motorists to increase the width of their driving lane, and most ridiculous of all-abruptly finish at the most dangerous spots.

It is beyond me why it is not possible to have a look at how other countries deal with cyclists. The Netherlands comes to mind. Much greater distances than 5km are ridden by bike. Mostly very safely, I saw some stats, can't remember where, that proportionally there are fewer cyclists killed or maimed in Holland (without bike helmets!)than here in Australia.

If public transport and cycling were properly integrated as they should be, so that it is possible to travel a distance too far to walk but easy to cycle, public transport wouldn't be such a pain either. Also, it wouldn't be necessary for a bus to take 40 minutes for a normally 20 minute journey, because it has to go through every street in the suburb. Proper bike racks should be available at a number of bus stops.

If school children could travel safely to school by bike, like millions of Dutch school kids, it would massively reduce traffic on roads AND it would resolve the obesity problem in one fell swoop. Nothing like 40 minutes/day on the bike five days a week to burn up those fast food calories.

Good points yvonne. Well, I reckon cycling is going to be upgraded big-time and integrated into the transport regime in a major way in the very near future.

Here’s hoping

I have been riding for more than thirtyfive years, but only in the last two years have I abandoned my car. I shop twice-weekly for three people by hitching a trailer to my bike and purchasing less bulky products. I am not in a hurry to get to the shops, even less so to get home as the extra weight in the trailer slows me down. It is only a four kilometre ride and I get to see footy and bowls in the park before spending my money. The biggest step is the first one. Work to eat, eat to live, live to bike, bike to work.