Re: e-bikes are low powered motorcycles, not bicycles

On Mon, 22 Apr 2024 21:29:50 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com>
wrote:

AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 4/21/2024 9:07 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 4/21/2024 4:09 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:

 
A motor doesn’t make it a motor bike other than the very
narrows of
definitions.

 
From a pure logic standpoint, I think that statement is
precisely backwards. A bike with a motor is quite obviously
a motor bike. The manufacturers lobbied legislatures very
heavily to carve a very narrow exception into the laws, for
legal and sales purposes.
 
Which is not to say I totally condemn eBikes. There are
legitimate uses for them, and I suspect many of us will
someday require them. But they are problematic in several ways.
 
I definitely think the upper speed for power assist is far
too high in the U.S. I think eBikes should give no assist
above 12 mph.
 

 
Without parsing the actual limit, Mr Merriman has a point.
 
In plain English, a bicycle with assisted power is a 'motor
bike' but statutorily there's a distinction between 'assist'
and 'motor vehicle'.

>
Indeed while a E bike has a motor it’s power out put and weight and how
it’s delivered are quite some distance away from a Motorbike, for example
just commuting into central london as I did last week.
>
Arriving at the lights with an annoyingly ridden E hire bike and a
motorbike. The Motorbike from experience would easily out accelerate me,
the E bike while faster than say a roadie is comfortably within my ability
to out accelerate and also out pace. They where one of many E bikes that I
passed, I passed no motorcycles they all passed me.
>
Roger Merriman

There's a bigger difference between a Honda 125cc and a Harley
Davidson than between an ebike and the Honda 125cc