Comment by Animats
4 days ago
I thought from the title this was going to be about admitting that electric bikes have become light motorcycles.
This is a 1926 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.[1]
This is a fat-tire "ebike".[2] Take the pedals off, and it's a motorcycle.
[1] https://kbcmotorcycles.com/1926-aa-harley-davidson-ohv-024/
[2] https://bestelectricbikesmade.com/product/addmotor-motan-m-6...
My local trails all allow ebikes. Which could be bad with kids destroying the trails (I remember riding dirt bikes as a kid). But... kids don't go out or do anything. Turns out all the ebike riders are old people.
I have an older uncle (early 70s). He told me that he switched in an ebike for trail riding when his strength began to fade with age. He said now he can use 25% power to get over the hardest parts of his favourite trails. He also told me that he scoffed at ebikes for years as "cheating", but then tried one after struggling on his favourite trails.
kids certainly are riding them like motorcycles. there are a few young whippersnappers that ride around doing crazy wheelies at high speed in my neighborhood
shakes fist
(good for them, kids need more ways to rebel nowadays)
"Take the pedals off, and it's a motorcycle."
Someone's never ridden an e-bike before. 500 watts on an 80 pound fat-tire bike is gonna get you like 10-15 mph cruising speed max.
That statement is just wrong. 500 watts is enough to get a road bike to 50mph on a flat road. Most of the energy goes to wind resistance at that speed. The weight of the bike and rider is only relevant when going uphill, not “cruising”
Yah, it is wrong. But most e-bike controllers have been engineered to have a top speed to comply with legal restrictions (or because of cost).
Just because something provides 500W at low speed intermittnet cycle, doesn't mean that it does so indefinitely with lots of back-EMF.
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They're saying from a legal standpoint. As far as CPSC is concerned, they're not bicycles if they don't have pedals, and under many states' laws, pedals are a requirement to not be a motorcycle or moped.