Regulation changes good news for bikies

Police will again be able to auction bicycles left in their lost property stores following changes today to the Product Safety Standards (Pedal Bicycles) Amendments Regulations 2003.

The joint New Zealand and Australian national standard AS/NZS 1927:1998 – Pedal Bicycles, contained within the Product Safety (Pedal Bicycles) Regulations 2000, required an owners’ manual to be supplied with a bicycle, but did not differentiate between new and second hand products.

“This led to recent publicity about Police not being unable to auction bicycles left as lost property because an owners’ manual could not be supplied,” Police Minister George Hawkins said.

The definition of ‘supply’ under the Fair Trading Act 1986 also extended to private sales and ‘not for profit’ transactions, meaning private owners could not legally sell or pass on a bicycle if it did not fully meet the standard’s technical requirements, including an owner’s manual.

Mr Hawkins said that while bicycle regulations needed to include adequate safety provisions, it was never the intention of the regulations that people selling their bicycles second hand should be acting illegally, or that gifting bicycles down through families should be an offence.

“Today’s changes address this anomaly and exclude second hand pedal bicycles from the Product Safety (Pedal Bicycles) Regulations 2000,” Mr Hawkins said.

“Hopefully, this will see less second hand bikes cluttering police stations and save otherwise safe and expensive bikes from becoming scrap metal,” he said.

More than 2000 lost or stolen bicycles are handed into police every year. Over half of all second hand bikes are sold privately or gifted among family or friends.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs will work with bicycle user and industry groups to familiarise them with the changes.

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