this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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I love e-bikes but also think that many of those are motorbikes in disguise. a 250w motor is enough for most people (excluding cargo bikes, of course). I totally agree with you with the rest of points. In general measures that harms adoption of bicycling are a bad idea
I've got a 1000w motor on mine. Is it a motor bike in disguise? Yeah, maybe, since it has a throttle control. Where I live, though, there's no regulations specific to ebikes. I obey traffic laws and stay off of sidewalks and have a drivers license, so as far as I'm concerned it's fine. It does go about 25-30 mph, but in my mind it's a commuter vehicle. I'm not riding on bike trails that share pedestrians and have low speed limits.
If necessary, I could modify it to make it a class three e-bike. The governor, currently off, cuts it to 750w and I could change it from a throttle control to a pedal assist with parts that were part of the kit but are still sitting in the box.
It's in a legal gray area, as my state's definition of what constitutes a "motorized bicycle" was written with gasoline engines in mind. There's lots of unlicensed, uninsured 49cc scooters running around that fall into the same gray area, so it fits right in.