this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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Pedal assist and max speed that pedal assist works until (I want to say 18kph, but I might be wrong) is how it works in Japan and it seems to work fairly well. Anything bigger or with a throttle must have a plate and be registered as a moped.
That is roughly the rule in the UK but few people follow it and enforcement is minimal. Plus a lot of people just don't understand the laws on them in the first place.
It got to be such a problem in the big cities, especially with those rental scooter (as in kickboards or whatever, not actual motorbike-style vehicles), that they cracked down hard. A Chinese tourist even got arrested for using one of those powered suitcase things that exist for running afoul of the law (particularly because it was on a sidewalk).
32kph in Canada (since the post references Toronto) for pedal-assist (level 1) e-bikes.
This makes even the limited / legal ones little fast, but not beyond what a human is capable of.
Unfortunately It’s very easy to de-limit the inexpensive ones or the DIY ones and there’s no checking. :/
At least here in Japan, it's definitely a non-zero chance of getting pulled over if you delimit it. Harder to catch, but people have been busted