The Moped Spot

Open up a dictionary – or indeed take a look online – and most places will tell you that a moped is a small motorised bicycle which has pedals as well as a small, low powered motor. In fact the very name itself seems to originate from these two forms of power, motor and pedals. Over time however, the term has come to mean, and even be legally defined in some cases, as something slightly different.

Many countries, throughout Europe especially, have come to define a moped as a specific type of vehicle, typically with no pedals whatsoever! The British Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) legally define a moped as a motorcycle with an engine capacity no greater than 50cc and with a maximum design speed not exceeding 50 kilometres per hour, or about 31 miles mph.

However in the rest of the EU the maximum design speed of a ‘moped’ is restricted to only 45 km which sometimes results in some rather disappointed British teenagers on chic Italian bikes when they attempt to race their, arguably less stylish, Japanese riding friends…

But that is not the end of the story in the UK. These restrictions did not become British law until 1977 and vehicles registered prior to the 1st September 1977 are exempt from the maximum design speed with some of them able to attain speeds in excess of 50mph. And that’s without modification folks.

Unfortunately though, this appears to be loophole reserved for the British. As far as I’m aware the majority of other countries worldwide enforce the speed restriction when it comes to the legal transportation of the young. Although many, including Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal do allow the riding of such vehicles by citizens as young as 14; which arguably increases the general awareness of two wheeled transport amongst the general public as the volume of smaller vehicles is significantly larger in cities than those where the legal requirement is higher.

This site then is dedicated to all of the above and more. Because if you de-restrict a moped then by some definitions it ceases to be one at all and instead becomes a small motorcycle… but I won’t let a minor detail such as that spoil our fun…

Please feel free to add comments or ask questions to your heart’s content people. If you’ve found this site and read this far then I owe you some of my time back in return.

Thanks for reading

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Introduction to Mopeds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.