Armando Muis, CEO of La Souris, the largest seller of electric fatbikes in the Netherlands, offers users the option of physically limiting their fatbike to 15 km/h, “ lack of appropriate legislation“. A laudable measure on paper. Let us remember, however, that the person concerned was accused of selling illegal models with full knowledge of the facts.
Since this summer, electric fatbikes have been at the heart of a media storm in the Netherlands. Mass seizures, incriminated journalistic investigations, criminal investigations, motions voted by majority, withdrawal from the market, development of a label in cooperation with the authorities: everything is done to better regulate them, or even slow down their proliferation.
The subject has recently come up in France, but we should not put all fatbikes in the same basket: some respect the laws and are indeed limited to 25 km/h. Others, often models imported from China, nevertheless exceed the red line. For what ? Because they are terribly easy to unclamp.
Limit electric fatbikes to 15 km/h, really?
Slightly going against this trend, Armando Muis, CEO of La Souris, the largest seller of electric fatbikes in the Netherlands, formulated a strong proposal: limit fatbikes to 15 km/h, thanks to a hardware limitation made in the brand's workshops, which no software manipulation (application, code, button) could thwart.
«The majority of fatbikes involved in an accident are unrestrained and travel much faster than the limit of 25 km/h. As a market leader, we are committed to ensuring the safety of fatbikes and further reducing speed, alongside strict enforcement, is the best way to achieve this“, he said.
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As we learnNews bikeany owner of a fatbike can go to one of the 24 branches of La Souris to come and throttle their model at 15 km/h. Two-wheelers belonging to the Ouxi and QM Wheels brands, the most popular on the market, will be the store chain's priority.
Armando Muis continues: “This only makes transportation safer. If cyclists want to ride faster, they can pedal the old-fashioned way. La Souris is taking this measure in the absence of suitable legislation and also hopes to send a signal to the legislator».
La Souris, several disturbing pans
This statement may naturally raise eyebrows, given the role of La Souris in the democratization of sometimes illegal electric fatbikes.
Remember that La Souris was the target of a criminal investigation launched by the Public Prosecutor's Office: it was accused of having sold electric fatbikes with a nominal power of 500 or 750 W – when the European legal limit is 250 W – in claiming they were legal e-bikes.
La Souris was also singled out by the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT), which seized hundreds of fatbikes in its stores. Once again, the ease of unlocking the fatbikes sold by La Souris was at the heart of this operation.
Certainly, the group quickly issued a recall to make the unblocking of its sold fatbikes more difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, according to Armando Muis at the time, this update was carried out in just 5 minutes: we then wondered why the company had not done it before if it was so easy to complicate the unclamping process. .
Who will really take the plunge?
Implicitly, we actually perceive a real battle linked to brand image. All the cases – investigation, seizures – which shook La Souris do not speak much in its favor. Yes, La Souris offers to limit its fatbikes to 15 km/h: but between us, who will really take the plunge and complete this process?
Doubts are allowed, especially when we know that customers have purchased this type of machine to generally be able to unblock them.
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