Mountain bike had engine with 50cc capacity

DEFENDANT WAS IN BREACH OF SEVERAL LAWS

When is a mountain bike actually a motor powered vehicle – that was the question exercising minds at the District Court sitting in Gorey.

Before the court charged with being the owner of a dangerously defective vehicle was Michael Furlong (42) from 167 Shingán, Enniscorthy.

He was intercepted by traffic corps Garda Vincent Downes at Esmonde Road on January 26, 2017 aboard a pedal cycle which had been fitted with an engine.

The bike was impounded as the garda believed that it should not have been ridden in public without being properly registered and insured.

Furlong pleaded not guilty to any offence, claiming that the bike was merely ‘power assisted’, to quote the phrase on the box in which the engine came.

Evidence was heard from Waterford based garda vehicle inspector Joe Robinson.

He told Judge John Cheatle that the impounded machine had been fitted with an engine of at least 50 c.c. capacity and a clutch.

The engine, of a type which may be bought on line from China, provided power to the rear wheel.

The witness was concerned that the brakes he examined were of mountain bike standard, making it hard to stop safely given the extra power at Furlong’s disposal.

He reckoned that the two-stroke petrol engine made the bike at least as powerful as a Honda 50. He concluded that it should not be on the road. Defending solicitor John O’Leary was able to call on his own past experience as a Honda 50 user when he described the impounded machine as a ‘ home made contraption’.

But Garda Inspector Mark Foley reckoned he held the trump card in the argument as he quoted a definition of a motor powered vehicle included in legislation dating back to 1961.

The relevant section of the relevant act came up on the screen of a mobile phone which passed up to judge and also shown to Mr O’Leary.

The defendant was sworn in to tell the court he bought the engine kit from an electrician outside Enniscorthy.

He said that he attempted to register and insure the modified bike but without success, saying that he intended to break no law.

Judge John Cheatle, however, ruled that Furlong was in fact in breach of several laws and marked the matter ‘facts proven’.

The benefit of the Probation Act was then applied once the accused gave an undertaking not to use the bike again on the public road.