Amsterdam is often held up as the gold standard for bicycle-friendly cities, but even in one of the most bike-centric…
Useful article. As a fat-bike rider, I’ve been expecting this. It was just a matter of time.
At the center of the debate is the growing popularity of fat tire e-bikes that look and ride very differently from traditional European electric bicycles. While most Dutch e-bikes follow the long-established formula – pedal assist capped at 25 km/h (15.5 mph) with a nominal 250W motor and relatively narrow tires city – many fat tire models are visually and functionally closer to mopeds, with oversized frames, powerful motors, and wide tires. Authorities say many are traveling at speeds far beyond what’s legally allowed.
So the central issue is that it’s hard for police to know that a bike is respecting the norms. My Engwe is the EU-certified model but it has a secret jailbreak mode that unlocks the throttle and boosts the motor! The manufacturer even tells you how to do it! Come on.
I’m thinking that it might just be easier to regulate the max weight of the bike, since that’s a major factor in accidents. Plus a clampdown on speeding.
It doesn’t help that there are ENGWEs that look identical (like the EP2, which I have) when it comes to the EU compliant and US compliant variants.
If only the price was identical. 200€ more for the maker to add 3 lines of code to the software. But the certificate got me a 400€ municipal rebate, which I suppose explains the fake cost. What a charade.
I read this somewhere else but people are also modifying these ebikes to no longer be bikes at all including removing pedals and adding a throttle. I don’t know if an outright ban os the proper step but stiff fines and maybe even confiscation of modded bikes seem justified.
Yeah, I have an electric fatbike and it’s my go-to ebike for snow because the tires have such a wide contact patch. Then again, I imagine Amsterdam’s bike paths are pretty well maintained even in bad weather, so it’s probably less of an issue. I bet some e-cargo bikes might run afoul of this too though.
Don’t thinner tires do better in snow?
Kind of depends: Thinner tires “cut” through the snow better, but wider tires grip better overall and handle shitty terrain way better (like busted up city streets). They seem to do better on ice patches to some degree (though if you are in truly icy conditions, studded tires are the way to go).
It snows only a few days per year in amsterdam, so that isn’t really a big issue. I survived my whole youth cycling 3-7km to school in the netherlands through all weather with normal bike tires (and non-electric). I fell only once because of ice during an especially bad wintery week.
I’ve heard the bike infrastructure is legendary over there too, that probably helps a good amount even when it does snow.
There was an article on Lemmy a while ago with a photo of some european cops using some kind of portable dyno to see how these bikes were performing.
It seemed like a really good idea but I couldn’t find the article.I heard those dynamos exaggerate the actual speed because there is no load when they test it.
