Making a board legal in the UK

Reading about the recent scooter fines and board confiscations in London got me wondering, what would it take to or if it’s even possible to make a typical electric skateboard road legal in the UK.

Before I go down a rabbit hole this weekend finding this information I thought I’d ask here first to see if anyone has already done this research.


This thread has a few comments about current situation in the UK. I try to avoid police whenever I can, which isn’t too hard since there’s so little where I live.

Having read through some of the information available it really isn’t possible. Under the current rules I would need to get an IVA and that has entire sections on things like ‘interior fittings’ and ‘seat belts’, you need to have approved ‘tyres’ and so on. Essentially the problem is with the power our boards are capable of outputting and because they have 4 wheels as far as the law is concerned you are a small passenger vehicle, at which point you have to comply with the regulations for vehicles ‘with no more than 8 seats’.

If you don’t have an MTB it’s not too bad, just start kicking the moment to you see anything suspicious. You can leave the throttle on a little in your pocket so it’s not actually much effort to kick

No no no. I would Never put a remote that’s on in my pocket. Asking for an accident to happen.

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I cruise the streets at max speed with my TSG pass though lol

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The 2 things I think they would need are mechanical brakes, just incase there is a power failure, and a handle to aid balancing.

From waht I can make out, if esk8’s had that, there is a chance.

:nauseated_face:

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yep. i remember reading when they banned the hoverboards a while back, one of the things that stuck out was the gov’s dislike of anything self balancing or where the user has to balance without additional support, like a handle.

These guys are working hard to get legislation changed - https://rideables.org/

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That’s what I’m working up to now, ERPM capping at 15mph because everything still hurts but flooring it after that

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Don’t ride like a cunt and wait for the scooter stuff to blow over :man_shrugging:t3:

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Until then if you have a MTB ride in the woods. That’s what me and @Tonkatron have been doing

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So gross. Almost like it’s a scooter or something, who would want to ride that :joy:

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With the current madness going on in this country waiting for stuff to blow over seems an unlikely winner.

Where abouts are you? London will be touchy but out in the burbs no one cares.

I’ve been bombing around Bournemouth and surrounding areas giving the fuzz hi5’s.

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Cambridge, I’ve never ridden past police here yet, my usual route they can’t be on unless they are taking the bus/cycling.

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Just watched the BBC program Click (season 11 episode 42) and it was discussing the legality of esk8 in the UK. It was funny to see the likes of Unik and Enertion on the BBC :grinning:

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So I know I am bringing up a really old topic but wasn’t just thinking and saw an article that electric vehicles like escooters and esk8s could be on their way to becoming legal in the uk

Has anyone else heard about this

@Ricardo may know more than most.
@Halbj613 search rideables, I believe that is the group at the forefront of this movement.

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Searched on their site but it seemed a bit dead atm and they hadn’t been putting up any major news pieces

Also out of interest how many uk riders are there