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

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'.
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Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
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