My VicRoads Adventure
Posted: Fri, 28 Jan 2011, 21:26
Hey All
I haven't posted much due to moving house and office, as well as Christmas and other holidays, but our EV Project is still going ahead, I sold my 2 tonne toyota tank and purchased a 1995 Suzuki Swift 2 door and have purchased some old bikes for E-Bike Conversions.
This week I kicked off communications with VicRoads regarding registration of E-Bikes as a Motorbike, as we all know (if not you should)
"If a vehicle has a power output of more than 200 watts, it is considered to be a motor vehicle so it must be registered to be driven on public roads."
The bike I want to build will have 2 x 750 watt motors and obviously well exceeds the 200 watt limit that VicRoads are enforcing, so my question to VicRoads is "What do I need to do, to register my pedal powered electric assisted bicycle with a motor that exceeds the 200 watt limit?"
After about an hour on hold, and speaking to 3 different staff members I found someone in Customer Service who was going to try and answer my question, to try and make things easy I suggested the "Recreational motorcycle registration" which would allow me to ride the E-Bike around state forests and other areas's that motorbike riders are allowed.
However - one of the regulations for the recreational rego, is "If a battery is fitted to the motorcycle, an integrated charging system, such as an alternator, is required." At this point I asked VicRoads how I should wire up an alternator to my electric motor to meet these regulations, fortunately the staff member I spoke to understood that this is impossible and acknowledged there is no actual category for pedal assist vehicles that exceed the 200 watt limit.
I was then told my questions and requests for information will be forwarded to the "Policies Department" of VicRoads, and I would receive a call back from a VicRoads Policy Specialist? or something like that. They gave me a reference number and logged the call into their computer system.
Well, as I suspected, VicRoads never called back - so today I called them again, waited on hold for about 15 minutes and spoke to someone, quoted my reference number, got transferred to someone else who informed me the Policies Department is in a meeting right now (3pm) and one of the members of this meeting is going to call me back. Yer right...
Even though VicRoads have yet to give me any answers or information, I believe that this is a small win for the E-Bike riders of Victoria since they have acknowledged there is a flaw in the system and a new class of vehicle out there, which needs to be addressed - and - I am going to call them every single day until I get my answers.
Sorry about the long post but I thought it was a good story to share here
I haven't posted much due to moving house and office, as well as Christmas and other holidays, but our EV Project is still going ahead, I sold my 2 tonne toyota tank and purchased a 1995 Suzuki Swift 2 door and have purchased some old bikes for E-Bike Conversions.
This week I kicked off communications with VicRoads regarding registration of E-Bikes as a Motorbike, as we all know (if not you should)
"If a vehicle has a power output of more than 200 watts, it is considered to be a motor vehicle so it must be registered to be driven on public roads."
The bike I want to build will have 2 x 750 watt motors and obviously well exceeds the 200 watt limit that VicRoads are enforcing, so my question to VicRoads is "What do I need to do, to register my pedal powered electric assisted bicycle with a motor that exceeds the 200 watt limit?"
After about an hour on hold, and speaking to 3 different staff members I found someone in Customer Service who was going to try and answer my question, to try and make things easy I suggested the "Recreational motorcycle registration" which would allow me to ride the E-Bike around state forests and other areas's that motorbike riders are allowed.
However - one of the regulations for the recreational rego, is "If a battery is fitted to the motorcycle, an integrated charging system, such as an alternator, is required." At this point I asked VicRoads how I should wire up an alternator to my electric motor to meet these regulations, fortunately the staff member I spoke to understood that this is impossible and acknowledged there is no actual category for pedal assist vehicles that exceed the 200 watt limit.
I was then told my questions and requests for information will be forwarded to the "Policies Department" of VicRoads, and I would receive a call back from a VicRoads Policy Specialist? or something like that. They gave me a reference number and logged the call into their computer system.
Well, as I suspected, VicRoads never called back - so today I called them again, waited on hold for about 15 minutes and spoke to someone, quoted my reference number, got transferred to someone else who informed me the Policies Department is in a meeting right now (3pm) and one of the members of this meeting is going to call me back. Yer right...
Even though VicRoads have yet to give me any answers or information, I believe that this is a small win for the E-Bike riders of Victoria since they have acknowledged there is a flaw in the system and a new class of vehicle out there, which needs to be addressed - and - I am going to call them every single day until I get my answers.
Sorry about the long post but I thought it was a good story to share here
