25/07/2026
Hopefully Australia have better testing and education on what is street legal and what is not.
West Midlands Police have been told to stop using the wheel-spin method they used to determine that a delivery rider's electric cargo bike was an illegal motor vehicle. The bike, hired through a council-funded scheme run by the Birmingham Bike Foundry, was seized and destroyed. The charges against the rider have now been dropped.
The test in question involved officers lifting the rear wheel of the bike off the ground and spinning the pedals to measure speed at the wheel. Bodycam footage of the stop showed the officers concluding on that basis that the bike had exceeded the 15.5mph legal assistance limit that applies to electrically assisted pedal cycles in the UK. Cycling and disability groups argued the method has no relationship to how the bike behaves under load on the road.
The force initially issued the rider with a fixed penalty notice for riding without insurance, despite cyclists not being required to carry insurance in the UK. The Birmingham Bike Foundry, which loaned the bike, backed the appeal alongside campaigners, arguing that officers across UK forces need proper training on how EAPC rules actually work.
The immediate cost was one ÂŁ6,000 cargo bike, no longer recoverable, and a livelihood interrupted. The wider question is how many bikes have been seized under the same method by other forces, and how many riders have simply not had the support to fight the charge.
