Ebike motor system designers themselves are also arguably going to have to be seen to be ‘doing their bit’ to counter the chipping balck market.

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It’s fairly safe to say that it won’t just be Bosch who introduce anti-tuning software detection into new ebike system.

As reported by the ever-excellent Cycling Industry News, this week the French government have started to go for ebike owners who deliberately hack or ‘chip’ their ebike motors to go beyond the assistance speed restriction ie. 25kmh for ebikes.

The leigislation covers bike owners, and also any bike manufacturers or bike shop owners who carry out such de-restricting operations. Should any/all of these parties be found guilty they’ll have to either pay a €30,000 fine or face up to a year in jail.

An interesting UK court case worth referencing here – and covered by our sister site Cycling Weekly – involved a de-restricted ebike and a fatal incident with a pedestrian. The ebike rider was later cleared of killing the pedestrian.

As well as personal injury suits like these, ebikers with de-restricted bikes also run the risk of losing their driving license, general insurance complications and other offences. Ant retailers found culpable may also face charges of incitement as well as losing business insurance cover and no doubt loss of supply contracts with bike brands.