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Archive indexCan anyone shed any legal light on the use of a Lohmann on the public roads? My question is aimed at its fuel which is a non-taxed mixture and not diesel fuel as per a garage pump. The second question (clever dick) is, if a sidecar is attached to a motorised bicycle and used on the public roads, how is its status altered, does it become a three-wheeler and have to be declared? ie: registration details, insurance, road fund levy.
I knew of a chap several years ago who developed a cowled engine fan unit to propel a bicycle; his argument or point of view to the DoT was: it's not mechanically propelled so it didn't need a licence. That's something else I never found out about, ah well.
Over to all you learned chaps.
Editor's two-penn'orth: This is what I think the answers are; if anyone knows better, please write in and correct me. An exemption has recently been made by HM Customs & Excise allowing untaxed paraffin to be mixed with petrol for use in vehicles that do not run satisfactorily on modern petrol. I don't think this applies to a Lohmann that is run on paraffin only but would guess that HM C&E would not be particularly interested as the cost of collecting the duty on a couple of gallons a year would probably be greater than the money received. As I intend to have a Lohmann on the road this year, I too would be interested if anyone knows the definitive answer. A sidecar makes no difference to Vehicle Excise Duty and it always used to make insurance cheaper - but only if you never ride the machine as a solo. Incidentally, the recent change in the law that allows solo motor cycles to haul a trailer does not apply to our small-capacity machines - if you want to pull a trailer with a moped, you've got to have a sidecar too! Lastly, if a propeller is fitted to a bicycle it becomes a mechanically-propelled vehicle but, if the engine and propeller are attached to the rider and not to the cycle, it's the rider who is mechanically propelled, not the vehicle. Therefore, no licence is needed (fortunately, very few people are daft enough to actually do it).
First published - February 1995
Following on from M Elkington-Roth's letter about the legality of sidecars, propellor-driven cycles, etc, in February's "Buzzing"; I have had a letter from Bill Goldie. Bill had been considering some of the anomalies thrown up by the 1983 Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations. For example, a readily-available (but somewhat dangerous looking) device called a Cycle-Mate (no connection with the moped of the same name) will join two solo bicycles to make a tandem. The cycles can be coupled and uncoupled at will. If both cycles are electrically-powered and conform to the regulations, they do not need to be registered but, as soon as you join them together their combined power exceeds the maximum allowed and they become an electric motor cycle, which has to be registered.
Other points in Bill's letter concerned the definition of an electric vehicle - can it carry a generator that charges a spare set of batteries, what if some of the generator power goes straight to the motor, etc? Unfortunately, Bill's letter set me off on a rather bizarre train of thought, resulting in the following question: If you have an electrically powered tandem that carries its batteries (or generator) on a trailer, it is "a passenger carrying vehicle moved by power transmitted thereto by some external source"; could you, therefore, be prosecuted for operating a trolleybus service without a Light Railway Order?
First published - April 1995