Vintage E-Tracker: A very modern retro electric bicycle

The Vintage Electric E-Tracker marries 100-year-old styling with modern battery technology to create an exciting electric bicycle/moped hybrid. The £2,700 bike offers a tantalizing glimpse of what commuters could be riding to work if legislation recognised, and promoted, electric vehicles other than cars.

Evoking the elegant lines of the board track racing motorcycles of the early twentieth century, the Vintage E-tracker looks unlike any other electric bike on the market.

The Vintage E-Tracker is a equipped with a 3000W motor that can be ridden in restricted mode at a maximum of 20 mph, or switched to race mode, which makes possible a top speed of 36 mph. Charging takes two hours and the bike's range is 30-35 miles

{{cta-cycling}}

Electric mopeds

The British government has a blind spot where electric vehicles are concerned. The £5,000 grant towards plug-in electric cars costing over £20,000 was launched to great fanfare, but a more significant step towards personal electric transport could have been made had the initiative included electric bicycles and mopeds - not least because such vehicles are more affordable to buy and far less reliant on recharging infrastructure.

Under current British law, if an electric bicycle (pedelec) exceeds 200W or is capable of more than 15.5 mph it is considered a moped. Most fit cyclists on a moderately lightweight bicycle would be capable of prolonged speeds of 16 mph or over, but if that speed is even partially sustained by an electric motor, the law requires the same lights, paperwork and number plate as a moped.

We are decades away from a wholesale switch to electric cars. Electric bicycles and motorcycles are here now. Vintage Electric E-Tracker is too powerful to be considered a pedelec here in Europe, but arguably does not warrant classification as a full-blown motorcycle.

Pedelec power restrictions

Our law will soon catch up with the rest of Europe and raise the maximum permissible power for a pedelec to 250W. In the meantime, the 99 per cent of British pedelec riders who ride a 250W bike can rest assured that the police, Department for Transport and the electric bike insurer ETA, will make allowances until the law finally changes.

{{cta-cycling}}