No pedals? Its instantly not-a-bike.

Given you have over 300W of power as well, even having pedals would make no difference. You’re building an **electric car** so if you use it on the road then needs registration and WOF, and require a valid drivers license. It would also have to drive in the traffic lanes and would be excluded from cycle facilities.

Consider discussing your plans with one of the LVV certifiers. There is no motorcycle LVV specialist in Chch, but there is one in Temuka and another in Timaru. https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/suplementary_information/certifier_lists/lvv_certifier_list_motorcycles_and_trikes.pdf

There are two LVV general certification guys in Christchurch, but neither does Electric according to the list. The nearest Electric guy is Dunedin according to https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/suplementary_information/certifier_lists/lvv_certifier_list_website_general_motor_vehicles.pdf
I suggest you run your plans past one of them for discussion – not sure what they cost per hour.

If you only ever use it on private property only then there are no rules and you can do what you want. Note, a park is public property, as is a beach or a riverbed.

Try talking to someone who rides a motorcycle trike. Many of them are converted “cars” and the builders have experience with meeting the legal requirements.

Hi Rollo, a 4-wheeled vehicle with a 2kW motor is basically a motor vehicle. It doesn’t meet the requirements for definitions of cycles, wheeled recreational devices, mopeds or motorcycles due to its motor size or number of wheels. In theory this means that to operate it on the road you would need to get it registered and properly warranted – probably difficult considering it is likely to be missing some of the required vehicle systems expected of a motor vehicle. So in practice you would need to limit your use of this “vehicle” to off-road locations…

You might want to have a look at NZTA Research Report 621 on e-bikes and other low powered devices for more info (https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/research/reports/621/), but in a nutshell: (1) an e-bike has to be propelled predominantly using pedal power (i.e. not just pedals as vestigial decorations), so most scooter-style electric cycles would be considered a moped; there is NZ case law on this. (2) The law only refers to “cycles” (except for that weird bike-helmet clause), so a bike towing a trailer is still a cycle. (3) a uni-cycle would be a “wheeled recreational device”; cycles have at least 2 wheels.

Does towing a trailer make your bicycle into a cycle by the above definition?

Unicycles – absolutely have less than two wheels, so where do they sit on the legal spectrum? One chap here at work has ridden the width of the UK on a unicycle, he commutes to work on it now.

Cameras (gopro/action cameras) on your bike – admissible as evidence ? A good idea legally?