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.

Hello,

There has never been a better time for a mobility upheaval than in these days. The automotive industry is partly dismantling itself. And only persons living in the past still stick to the persisting monopoly position of the car. Politics is making a turn, as well.
In Baden-Wuerttemberg, the land of Mercedes Benz and Porsche, the government is making efforts to efficiently combine various means of transport and to hereby have a positive influence on traffic and emissions. One of the measures is the campaign "Heldinnen und Helden der neuen Mobilität" (Heroes of the new mobility) which aims at acknowledging merited persons from this sector and showing those standing behind this change.

The fact that I was elected "hero" is for me a clear signal that not only the jury, but also the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure takes notice of the bicycle and the pedelec (EPAC) as an equal means of transport.
There is currently a public vote on the internet, where people are asked to select their three favourites from the ten elected heroes. For this purpose short videos showing the work of the title winners can be watched online. I should be glad to have your vote as favourite to emphasize the value of the title "Hero of the new mobility" and to hereby promote the bicycle still further.

Other issues of this newsletter are the new ISO standard, a training on "Legislation in the world of bicycles" in cooperation with Reuschlaw law office as well as the welcome turn of the hot and much discussed topic "Replacement parts of pedelecs".

Enjoy reading,
Dirk Zedler

 


 

ISO, EN or better still DIN, NF or BS?

"According to which standard are we supposed to test?", is on top of the list of the FAQs of the past weeks. The answer is quite simple: According to ISO and, of course, beyond depending on the requirements to the bicycle.

Since August 1, 2015, the ISO standard 4210 has been the only bicycle standard for city, trekking, mountain, road and youth bikes in force. All ISO related countries had to withdraw their previous national standards and to implement the ISO as national standard. In Germany the standard therefore reads DIN EN ISO 4210, in France NF EN ISO 4210, in Great Britain BS EN ISO 4210 and so on. As regards the minimum requirements concerning bicycle safety, countries from A like Australia to U like United States are on the same level. For this reason the moderately adjusted ISO standard based on the previous EN standard should be considered very positive, as it is in force (almost) all over the world.

However, don’t consider yourself safe after a successfully passed ISO test. Bicycles doing harder service, higher additional loads or in the case of mountain bikes harder conditions of use require harder tests.

We don’t want to hype up scare, but this is simply based on the experiences of our test customers. In the past they had repeatedly been concerned by breakages in the field in spite of successfully passed tests according to the standards by the suppliers in Asia. Smart tests going beyond the standard can decrease the complaint rate significantly, hereby reducing the risk of being held responsible for severe losses and damage.

We’ll provide you with more information on the ISO standard in our next newsletters.

 


 

Excellent heroes of the new mobility: participate and vote online

The official statement of the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure explains:

The state award "Heldinnen und Helden der neuen Mobilität" (Heroes of the new mobility) is close to its climax, i.e. the online election of three favourite heroes. These will be announced on the occasion of an award ceremony on November 25, 2015 in Stuttgart and honoured by the Minister Winfried Hermann.

Since September 14, 2015 citizens have the chance to view diverting short films and elect their three favourites, i.e. their three personal public heroes.
The campaign "Neue Mobilität: bewegt nachhaltig" (New mobility: moves sustainably) of the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure intends to support those who co-create actively sustainable mobility – be it as scientist, bus driver, businessman or in any other function. With this intention in mind the state award "Heroes of the new mobility" was initiated.

In spring 2015 committed professionals of all branches affected by sustainable (personal) mobility could apply or were nominated by third parties. Numerous interesting applications and nominations were handed in to the team organizing the campaign.

An expert jury met in July 2015 and had the onerous task of electing all in all ten award winners from the big number of impressive applications and nominations.

You’ll find portraits of these elected "Heroes of the new mobility" from now on in exciting short films presented online to the broader public.

Now, it’s up to you to make your "Hero of the new mobility" winner via online vote: Every vote counts – support your hero.

 


 

Replacement of parts on pedelecs: yes or no?

For many months we’ve been informing in training courses, lectures and press releases about the risk that the CE-marking may become void by replacing components of pedelecs.
After the Zedler institute had initiated the subject two years ago, different voices were heard interpreting the facts in a different way. Our credo has always been and still is that there is no absolute clarity without judgement.

Last Thursday representatives of the German bicycle association (ZIV e.V.) and the German service and bicycle association (VSF g.e.V.) met with us in our Ludwigsburg office to discuss and prepare a working paper. This guideline will be finally discussed in the boards of both associations and hopefully adopted by October 15, 2015.

It is planned to present it to the bicycle work group (AG Fahrrad) by the end of October 2015 and to reach a still broader consensus. In case it will, this guideline will be a first step for the dealers in terms of safety when repairing and adjusting pedelecs.

 

 


 

Business brunch: liability traps in the bicycle industry

Are you steady in the saddle when it comes to law? You don’t have to? Careful! Lots of staff members of bicycle manufacturers and dealers have already walked right into the trap and spent a lot of time in making up for the omissions.
The law office Reuschlaw specialized in product liability law organizes together with us a free business brunch on this range of topics.

See the flyer to know what you can expect apart from meat and drink. Register here to attend the event on November 13, 2015 at the SRAM training centre in Schweinfurt.

 

 


 

 


 

New! Newsletter testing systems Performance

For many years we’ve not only offered test services in our laboratory, but also sold our Performance testing systems to manufacturers.

Due to the rapid development in the frame and fork construction, we developed new accessories to make sure that bicycle frames and forks with the new axle standards (thru-axle systems, fat-bike tire sizes etc.) can be mounted reliably to the testing systems without allowing any measurement errors.

This newsletter will be published in English language only.

Customers of our testing systems or customers to be can subscribe here.

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