You should follow the law and adjust your settings of the VESC with a max speed of 6 km/h. This would make it legal because 6 km/h is allowed. And then when you ride on private property where nobody cares what you do you can use the app and unlock the VESC and have full power. And when you go back on the public road you only need to switch your board off and on again and it is automatically at 6 km/h max again because by changing the mode you don’t change the default settings. That’s a slow ride home but i think it is the only option to ride it legally in germany at the moment.
And if you are SMART you just simply accept my advice’s and buy a bluetooth module and do it that way. Then they can take away the board from you but they will only find out that you use it in the limits.
Please don’t discuss this advice any further.
And if they ask me why i have the motors i tell them the truth. I just need them for braking. Because i am too scared and not skilled enough to brake with sliding. And the tiny little motors at least have enough power to ride you home at a walking speed if you are tired which is a cool side effect. But they are too weak to push you any faster. So motor amps also need to be very low.
Just be serious. How could these tiny little RC toy motors push a human body. But luckily they brake very well by shortening the motors.
Sad to hear this news from fellow esk8rs from Germany. This is something we should all be concerned about, it’s not logical and it goes against every common sense. Electrical is the future, being cars, bikes or esk8s. Hope someone smart from the german government takes action and help to create fair law for esk8s
right now i’ve got my board set up as assist only. meaning it wont accelerate, only hold the speed i achieve by pushing it.
i wonder if this is legal …
Just a follow-up to my story here.
For those who don’t remember, I was caught in Berlin riding my Evolve board. (more on that in this thread above). My board was confiscated and I had to wait until last week once Police decided to return the board from their HQ.
At the police station, I was notified that I will receive the decision from the court and that I will have to pay around 500 euro penalty.
So then, last Saturday court’s letter came via mail. I have to pay 1200 euro. ;(
I will be trying to get penalty lowered by a lawyer.
I was hoping they would drop the case entirely, but as it turns out they treat it very seriously. They were definitely testing the board. I saw unusual chalk marks at the wheel as if they were testing the speed on some kind of track.
I will be selling the board to cover the costs. Otherwise, I can’t afford the penalty.
Perhaps someone wants to buy it? (Evolve Bamboo in great condition) If anyone here has any inexpensive traffic lawyer contact, please share
this type of shit makes me really want to pack my bags and gtfo of GER. I have seen so many instances of people getting bankrupted because of bored cops. The police apparently has too little serious stuff to take care of.
you can try to find something like this in your city.
Wow… That sucks. Sorry on your behalf. Maybe they have seen that esk8ing is getting more and more popular and wants to set an example, to scare people off, before esk8ing explode in popularity.
Man I live in Berlin as well and am super sorry to hear about your penalty- that really sucks.
Isn’t there any other way for you than selling the board? It would be such a shame to let these guys win.
For me my golden rule is to just act like a bicycle, always take the routes with bike lanes because its just where we fit in best. I have seen many cops either on foot or by car and none of them seemed like they were very interested in stopping me.
Wow, sorry to hear that, @Woytec. Can you elaborate a bit what exactly they finally pinned on you? What does the penalty consist of? I mean how much for what? Pflichtversicherung, Betriebserlaubnis, Zulassung, KFZ-Steuer, Führerschein?
According to German law your board is probably car. Driving it in the bike lane is not gonna make it better. Look at @Ackmaniac’s workaround and make your board technically not qualify as a motor vehicle…
If they are charging your board as a motor vehicle or charging you for no insurance you might be able to use this European law to help you reclassify this board to a different category so you can avoid those expensive fines.
Wow, thank you guys for such an amazing support. I really appreciate this. It’s such a bummer…
Maybe German laws are bad, but at least eSk8 community is good.
@Achmed20 Yeah, they told me they would. The only thing I can do with it is to sell it or destroy (police was suggesting destroying it)
@koralle In the last 6-8 months I have seen several electric vehicles ‘from the future’. They are disappeared!
I am not a student and I am based in Berlin. I found one law firm, they charge 350€ to start the case. I think I will try with them. It’s a gamble and it could mean I will pay more at the end…
@davidbonde Thanks, man. I think Evolve board with off road wheels was just too extreme looking to ignore it. There is no real sign in esk8 becoming legal here anytime soon.
@florensvb Thanks for kind words of support! Even if the penalty is lowered, I still can’t ride it ;/ Not even in the woods. I would not dare to ride it in Tempelhof either. Who knows, one day they might decide to storm the place and just scoop innovators of modern commuting there too.
I used to follow that rule exactly. Bike lanes whenever possible, be kind and considerate etc. They stopped me at the pedestrian crossing. I was riding super slowly. They came and knew exactly what this is and what will happen next. There was no room for negotiation. This would play out differently in other German cities I am sure.
but at least you got the board back.