The difference here is we already have motor vehicles, and already have 2 wheeled motor vehicles, they’re called motorcycles and they’re highly regulated and require a special license. Just because the motor is electric doesn’t make it not a motor vehicle.

There was literally a mother in the article that helped her son remove the speed governor on the bike and allowed it to go 70mph and even admitted that she thinks these companies make them easy to remove for better sales and no liability. She said she got him the bike when he was 14.

Rollerblades, skateboards, and bikes only go so fast. Even at the regulated limit of 20 mph that is a speed kids are not hitting on their own. Have you ever tried to ride your bicycle at a sign that detects your speed? It is REALLY hard to hit 20mph let alone sustain that speed. And that’s the speed these kids are going all the time if they haven’t messed with the bike to make it go even faster. There needs to be better regulation with these.

The most hilarious example is that 80s video about snowboards… ah, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZDEWBzneY

Very true.

However I wouldn’t want to share a bike path with individuals riding carelessly at 40kmh/30mph. At least here where there is some semblance of ‘bike culture’, unrestricteds do ride slowly on paths and walkable areas, and usually only let it rip in the road.

Teens might not necessarily abide by that, or understand the risks. They tend to prefer escooters here anyway, and those top out at a much slower 20kmh/15mph… could be worse I guess 🤷‍♂️

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Anything over a class 2 should be licensed and require insurance. In the US if you are traveling faster than 12mph you are required to follow traffic laws. Some states even require vehicle insurance if there is an incident above 12mph.

Eh, people riding an ebike everywhere probably wouldn’t be riding a bike anyways if they didn’t have that ebike. It just offers a larger range of area they can go to. I bet most would just be sitting at home if they couldn’t ride their ebike to their friend’s house or wherever they want to meet their friends.

One thing to consider here is the potential for heat stress. We don’t want to depend on a mode of transportation that’s unusable in the summer.

We have the same/similar regulations in norway as well. I don’t have an e bike, but I guess the speed limit must be annoyingly low. I often pass them on my regular bike in like 30 km/h.

It’s 25km/h. There is also a 45km/h category with stricter regulation.

Freedom is inherently dangerous

Only to a degree. Letting your child run free on a playground is significantly less dangerous than letting them run free in a hazardous waste landfill. We can absolutely design safe and free places. We just need to stop designing our cities for the sole use of hazardous waste (cars).

your average cyclist can sprint to over 30 mph without much trouble.

I don’t believe that. That’s 50kph!! Your average cyclist will be pedaling 12 to 15 mph (20 to 25 kph) and at that point you’ll be sweating, it’s not “leisure” speed. That would be up to 9mph/15kph.

You are not reaching 30mph unless you are fully sprinting on a descent with a gravel bike (maybe a mountain bike if it’s a long, long, stretch) or have a road bicycle on a flat/slight slope and you are full sending it (even on a flat road I’m assuming, I’ve never ridden one). Not to mention these people will be using protective gear.

I have a gravel bicycle and on a flat road I can get up to 23mph (37 kph) with me going full beans (occasionally fighting the wind). For reference, I’ve only reached 30mph a couple times in 1,100km and it’s been only on a 3km long downward stretch of road. Also because there’s no point to waste that energy when you are transversing double digits distances, and it gets really scary to be at those speeds anyways.

You certainly cannot get those speeds on a city bike or mountain bike on flat asphalt since they are not as aerodynamic, and often more heavier.

Okay, so there is actually a valid reason why children on e-bikes should be limited to a 20mph speed limit: children do genuinely have difficulty with the visual processing of objects moving faster than 20mph. If a kid is on an e-bike going at 30mph (a speed most children can’t do on a regular bike for any serious length of time), they’re likely to have some difficulties perceiving the world around them because of the relative difference in speed between the bike and everything else. Add into that the fact that the danger of a collision increases massively as speed increases, a kid going at 30mph on an e-bike is literally an accident waiting to happen, either to themselves or one of their peers on foot (who won’t be able to see or hear them coming).

I’m not a fan of healthy young people using e-bikes but the speed argument is in bad faith. To hit 20mph for more than a short moment you have to be a fit, experienced rider unless you have a fancy race bike which is tricky to ride and will massively limit where you can ride, the comfort and safety for anyone who doesn’t basically live on their bike.

30mph on a pedal bicycle is very very difficult to keep and maintain. Even on a road bike designed to fast on pavement, breaking 20mph sustained on a flat road requires you to be extremely fit and streamlined.

I don’t think this is in any way comparable to an ebike where anyone can jump on and break 20 with no issues.

Source: bicycle was my primary mode of transport for 5 years; rode about 20 miles a day, with an attached speedometer, on a fancy road bike.

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And while 70mph seems excessive by any standard, you can easily achieve 40mph with a normal bike downhill and injure/maim/kill yourself.

The media is afraid they’ll have to concede any amount of space, attention, or time to anything that isn’t an automobile.

Can I have some of whatever supplements you’ve been taking. 48km/h is really fast. If you have a fast bike and you’re trying hard some cyclists could hit that speed briefly on the flat before they become exhausted. With a tailwind or a downhill it’s easy, but then you don’t need the help from the motor.

But I agree that we need to focus on the real danger, which is cars.

I disagree. My eFatbike has 250W mid-drive motor and is limited to 15mph and thus is considered a bicycle by law. You can drive faster than that but it stops assisting you at 15mph. In my opinion anything faster than that doesn’t belong to the sidewalks and since you’re now driving in traffic you should be registered and insured.

I quite often see people zooming past pedestrians on sidewalks with their surrons and modified ebikes and these assholes are what’s going to ruin the fun for everyone else too. These are not bicycles - they’re light electric motorbikes.

your average cyclist can sprint to over 30 mph without much trouble

Sprint yeah but unlike ebikes they can’t maintain that speed. I can basically keep up with roadbikers despite my ridicilously fat 4.8" mushy tires. They gain distance on flat and downhill and I catch them in uphill.

It’s much more difficult to reach and sustain 30 mph on a pedal bike, and if you’re doing that you’re typically quite invested in it. E-bikes on the other hand it’s really easy to get to a very high speed, and I frequently see people doing it while on their phone, without wearing a helmet, and/or with additional passengers.

I think a little bit of education here could go a long way.

average cyclist can sprint to over 30 mph

I’m on the fitter end of average cyclists and I certainly can’t reach 30 mph without a gradient or massive tailwind. In normal conditions an average cyclist can reach 20 mph under quite a lot of effort, not much more.

In the EU, ebikes are limited to 16 mph and I think that’s plenty to cause lots of accidents with elderlies not being used to such speeds. 20 mph e-support limit is quite fast, but it’s still fine I guess.

Cycling as transportation rather than fitness does require a compromise. A swimming athlete might be able to swim in open waters, but a lifeguard isn’t gonna let you leave the boundaries. However yea this is absolutely fear mongering bs and you are right.

It is an absurd statement to argue that the average cyclist on the average bike can sprint to over 30mph “without much trouble.” Maybe with a tailwind going downhill, and even that is, ahem, dangerous.

This basically sounds like the regulation in Germany. Bike safety is being taught at schools, and there is a discrete distinction between e-bikes and Pedelecs. Pedelecs, which only support while pedalling, are legally bicycles with a speed limit of 25 km/h (15 mp/h). Everything above this limit or with the capability to drive without pedalling are called E-Bikes and need insurance and some sort of license.

Who’s complaining in here?

Please kindly point to the whining and complaining.

Even better is that you wouldn’t need an e-bike either, as frankly the high speed ones are incredibly dangerous especially when there’s good infrastructure for bicycling.

Because of sprawl

Whatever it takes to get fewer people on cars

Hills exist, sometimes you need to go 20 miles, we have record setting temperatures every day, public transit sucks most places, and a lot of areas don’t have bike lanes so you keep up with traffic or get ran over. E-bikes are good for everybody.

In addition to RiderExMachina’s point, an e-bike will get you to your destination quicker, and with less effort. With how hot things are getting, it’s much more preferable to not arrive sweaty as hell due to how much work it can take, plus it’s better to spend less time in the heat.

I am long since past my teen years, but as an avid traditional cyclist who is now an ebike enthusiast, here are a few points off the top of my head:

• ebikes are consistently faster. It is easier to plan your day around ebike trips, since they take about the same amount of time every day. With a regular bike, your trip could be twice as long today because yesterday’s tail wind has been replaced by a stiff head wind.
• Issues involving extreme heat and poor air quality (in my experience, these often go hand-in-hand) have less impact on ebiking.
• Terrain not being an impediment gives you more options. There may be some path you’d never have contemplated before since it is hilly or goes down into a deep ravine you will eventually have to slog your way out of, and so you’d wind up taking busy city streets instead with the danger that entails.
• ebikes do give you exercise. You can usually control the amount of pedal assist or even turn it off for a real workout. When off, you will get more exercise than with a traditional bike since ebikes are heavier. But you can do this exercise wherever it is safest to do so and go electric when you need to move with traffic.
• If your city has a main corridor for cycling in terms of say an off-road paved trail to downtown, but you’d have to go out of your way to an extent to reach it, you will be more likely to do so on an ebike. It is just not as much of bother to seek out the better and safer routes.

With my e-bike I’m as fast as cars in city traffic, which means they don’t attempt to do horribly dangerous overtakes, keeping me alive for longer.

Why do perfectly healthy adults need cars? Or regular bikes? Has everyone forgotten how to use their legs?

I think you’re being needlessly judgy, ebikes are great and it’s never been about whether you “need” one or not.

They’re faster than regular bikes, allowing you to cover a larger distance in the same amount of time, especially if you’re fit. They’re very fun to ride in general, and they can take some of the misery out of climbing hills or otherwise challenging/tedious parts of your commute. Cargo ebikes can carry a decent amount of stuff and even one or two small passengers in some cases, and in other cases they can replace your need for a car (like quickly getting to a store for something small). And they give you the ability to balance exercise vs convenience as the situation or your personalty demands (you get to decide how much work your body does and how much the motor does).

Finally, ebikes open the door for people to get into using active transportation instead of cars for people who normally wouldn’t want to, whether they need help because of fitness, want help because of living in a hilly environment, or because they just want to get from point A to B in a reasonable amount of time. Riding my ebike in an urban environment, I find that I can actually get around just as fast as in a car, if not faster due to traffic.

Because I’m not super fit and live in a very unforgiving and hilly American neighborhood (where I also have to ride on curvy roads where people drive too damn fast) I would have never ever considered getting a regular bike. I’m now riding a bike somewhat regularly, getting a bit of exercise (or not, depending on the circumstances), and having a great time riding on roads, bike lanes, sidewalks, through parks (at a reasonable speed for pedestrians), etc.

Yes, they’re more expensive than a regular bike.
Yes, they’re heavier than a regular bike.
Yes, having to worry about battery charge is inconvenient.
Yes, it can be dangerous to ride any bike at >20mph.

But as the old saying goes “don’t knock it until you try it”. Even if you think you’re a cycling purist, I recommend at least giving ebikes a try before judging others for using them. I think if you did you’d find that ebikes are an ally of and complement to normal bikes, and just like an electric guitar amplifies your strings, ebikes are amplifying your legs and not rendering them obsolete.

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FWIW, I used to have an ebike that went up to 70, as an adult, that I used to commute to work and do shopping. New regulations came in restricting all new ebikes to 25 km/h, and now a shopping run takes an hour one-way.