All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

The most common safety risks that we come across in our daily work around bicycle safety, technology and operating instructions are also published by us in articles in the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR (Europe's road bike magazine no. 1), BIKE (Europe's mountain bike magazine no. 1), MYBIKE and EMTB in order to make this information, which is important for the industry, available to a wider public.

For many years now, the Eurobike Show Daily, trade fair magazine of the annual Eurobike Show, has also given us the opportunity to publish our view of major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent expert presentations about all areas of bicycle technology and the bicycle market. In addition, we are quoted by further special-interest magazines of the industry and the trade as well as increasingly by radio and television in their media reports, which shows us that we are spot on with our advice. The section "News" informs you about the latest news from our specialist areas. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to areas of interest.

sueddeutsche.de, 2024/01/03
Reading time 6:00 minutes

E-bike for self-assembly

Retrofit motors for bicycles are cheap and can breathe new life into old bikes. However, are they safe, as well? And what about insurance coverage? The matter is tricky.

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Who is liable?

If you call on the help of the experts, you are playing it safe. However, according to the German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV) and the German Cyclists' Federation (ADFC), among others, dealers themselves are operating in a legal grey area. As by converting a bicycle into an e-bike, they themselves would turn from a dealer into a manufacturer. And this entails obligations that they must fulfil: “Dealers legally turn into the manufacturer of a completely new vehicle and are fully liable", the German Cyclists' Federation (ADFC) refers to the expert Dirk Zedler from the Institute for Bicycle Technology and Safety in Ludwigsburg. His opinion is clear: “Hands off retrofit kits. There is a high risk of failure with unforeseeable consequences.”

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Read the entire German article free of charge with a Sueddeutsche Zeitung subscription or for a fee.

Author: Steffen Kanduth

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