Limited review of the pedal bicycles mandatory safety standard

This page provides background information about the questions in this survey. You can save your answers and come back to this page at any time when completing this survey.

About the pedal bicycles mandatory standard

The mandatory standard for pedal bicycles came into effect in 1979 to address concerns about the safety of pedal bicycles being supplied in Australia, and covers requirements for design, construction, performance, testing and labelling.

The mandatory standard was last updated in 2004 and references the 1998 version of the voluntary Australian standard for pedal bicycles (AS/NZS 1927). This voluntary Australian standard was since updated in 2010.

Find out more about the mandatory standard on the ACCC Product Safety website.

Consultation issues

Accepting other voluntary standards as compliance options

We have identified voluntary Australian, international and overseas standards that may provide an equivalent level of safety to the mandatory standard. We consider that these could be listed as compliance options in the mandatory standard.

• AS/NZS 1927:2010 Pedal bicycles – Safety requirements; this standard applies to pedal bicycles broadly, including adult, young children’s, and BMX bicycles.
• ISO 4210:2023 Cycles – Safety requirements for bicycles, Parts 1-9; this standard does not apply to young children’s bicycles or BMX bicycles.
• ISO 8098:2023 Cycles – Safety requirements for bicycles for young children; this standard does not apply to BMX bicycles.
• EN 16054:2012 BMX bicycles – Safety requirements and test methods; this standard does not apply to BMX bicycles for use in sanctioned competitions.

Where a mandatory standard allows for more than one voluntary standard as a compliance option, suppliers can be required by the mandatory standard to include information on which compliance option(s) the product complies with. This compliance information could be marked on the product itself, the packaging, or in information provided with the product.

Specifying certain requirements

While we consider these 4 voluntary standards offer comparable levels of safety, we recognise a lack of specificity for certain requirements in the voluntary ISO and EN standards compared to the voluntary Australian standard. For example, the ISO and EN standards refer to complying with local legislation for handbrake lever location, audible warning devices and reflectors.

Where these occur, we propose specifying supplementary requirements to make them all consistent.

We propose requirements for:

• pedal bicycles to have an audible warning device fitted (e.g., a bell)
• pedal bicycles to have the left handbrake operate on the rear wheel, and the right handbrake operate on the front wheel
• children’s pedal bicycles to have a back pedal brake
• pedal bicycles to have specified colour reflectors fitted.

Allowing mandatory standards to be dynamic

Dynamic referencing means that the mandatory standard references a voluntary standard as it exists from time-to-time, rather than only the version at the time the mandatory standard was updated. This will allow updates to the voluntary standards listed as compliance options to then flow through to the mandatory standard, keeping pace with global product safety developments.

We propose allowing a 6-month review period before any updates take effect in the mandatory standard. During this time, we will review these updates to ensure they are appropriate.

We can recommend to the Minister to stop an update flowing through to the mandatory standard where necessary.

Transition periods

Appropriate transition periods in the mandatory standard allow for:

• changes arising from this review to take effect
• superseded versions of the referenced standards remaining as compliance options for a specified time.

Transition periods allow businesses to:

• sell existing stock
• make manufacturing and design changes
• undertake testing to ensure compliance with an updated standard.

Retain the current mandatory safety standard (maintain the status quo)

If the status quo is maintained, there would be no change to the mandatory standard, and it would continue to reference the 1998 voluntary Australian standard. This voluntary standard has been superseded.

Maintaining the status quo would mean that the mandatory safety standard would not reference the latest voluntary Australian, international or overseas standards. Businesses will continue to incur additional regulatory and testing costs, and they will not be able to supply products that comply with updated Australian and comparable voluntary overseas standards.

Consumers will have the same level of protection they have now but miss out on a greater variety of products and safety improvements.