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

Several government’s have recently introduced a ‘Scrappage’ scheme which guarantees a trade-in value of several thousand pounds, dollars or euro’s etc for *any* vehicle over 10 years old against the cost of a brand new car. The poor, long suffering, ‘wreck’ then has to be crushed, never to be seen again.

According to all the publicity these schemes are environmentally motivated carrots. Get the old bangers off the street and replace them with nice shiny, eco-friendly new cars. Some countries, such as France and Italy, even go so far as to specify the emission requirements for the vehicles being purchased under the scheme.

One of Britain’s motor industry spokesmen, Paul Everitt the chief executive of SMMT (The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd), said recently on the subject of Britain’s version of the scheme, “smaller, lower CO2-emitting cars are taking the lion’s share of registrations, which will have a positive impact in reducing emissions…”

I’m sorry but what a crock. These schemes are designed to boost flagging economies and increase public spending in certain areas, specifically the new car market. Anyone who’s anyone in the world of ‘green’ can tell you that it takes *far* more energy to build one brand new car than it does to run an ‘old banger’ for over 100,000 miles…

So is Mr Brown (and the rest of the world leaders) being ill-advised? Of course he isn’t. It’s simply that his motivations are not, and almost certainly never will be, environmentally motivated. They’re always economic.

Oh wait! I hear cries of slander or misrepresentation. The old bangers cough out choking black smoke, leaving waves of pestilence in their putrid wake and they’re better off on the scrap heap! Again I cry nonsense. The fact is that the people who continue to drive the ghastly heaps which cough and splutter their fuel-sucking way up our neglected estates are simply *not* the people who are about to take advantage of the opportunity.

I’d hazard a guess that it’s the slightly better off, the middle class, the Mr I-can’t-quite-justify-the-expense’s of the world; the fence-sitters, the Librans, the people who have been considering it for a while but just haven’t got around to it, that will take advantage. And these people will almost certainly be driving perfectly serviceable, yet old vehicles. Vehicles with several years of life still left in them and many, many miles. Vehicles which, with continued usage, would probably do far less ecological damage to our environment than the production of a brand new ‘eco’ friendly model.

Don’t believe me? Go to your local participating dealer and ask them what quality of vehicles are actually being traded in and crushed under the Scrappage scheme… Environmentally motivated? No I don’t think so. Maybe they should offer free bicycles and bus passes in return for your older car. Or even better a moped for each family member. Now *that* would make environmental sense

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