Australian governments are considering mandatory product standards under the Australian Consumer Law for e-bikes, which would ban the sale of non-compliant devices.
The 500w have only been legal briefly due to a loophole. They were never meant to be so
Got a source on that? All NSW’s pages describing the law, which presumably had to be specifically written describing the intent of the law, said 500 W.
a 500w bike won’t do what I need
What is it that you need? If you can make a good case I might be convinced. So far, nothing I’ve thought of fits the bill, since 500 W + a bit of leg power is enough to be able to get up hills while carrying heavy loads, as far as I can tell.
What’s “some reason”? I’m primarily concerned with letting people get about their cities to go places. To get to work or school, to do their shopping, to ride the kids to their cricket club, etc. With cycling for its own sake, I am far less concerned about making ebikes relevant. Whether that’s mountain, road, or gravel biking.
I don’t know what reason they could possibly have, tbh.
I imagine that car drivers see the people on bikes and scooters, and just get mad.
They’ll say it is for safety or whatever, and I do think people on bikes and scooters underestimate how scary it feels to be a pedestrian and have a bike pass by closely, but if you keep asking questions, it seems like they just want cars to predominate and are threatened by non-cars.
That’s not accurate at all The 500w have only been legal briefly due to a loophole. They were never meant to be so.
So to posit your position back at your - a 500w bike won’t do what I need, why can’t I have a 1000w?
Got a source on that? All NSW’s pages describing the law, which presumably had to be specifically written describing the intent of the law, said 500 W.
What is it that you need? If you can make a good case I might be convinced. So far, nothing I’ve thought of fits the bill, since 500 W + a bit of leg power is enough to be able to get up hills while carrying heavy loads, as far as I can tell.
What if they need to have 500W e-bikes off the road for some reason?
What’s “some reason”? I’m primarily concerned with letting people get about their cities to go places. To get to work or school, to do their shopping, to ride the kids to their cricket club, etc. With cycling for its own sake, I am far less concerned about making ebikes relevant. Whether that’s mountain, road, or gravel biking.
I don’t know what reason they could possibly have, tbh.
I imagine that car drivers see the people on bikes and scooters, and just get mad.
They’ll say it is for safety or whatever, and I do think people on bikes and scooters underestimate how scary it feels to be a pedestrian and have a bike pass by closely, but if you keep asking questions, it seems like they just want cars to predominate and are threatened by non-cars.