Electric Bikes Are NOT Motorcycles! Why EBikes are Not Meant to be Motorcycles

Electric bikes are not motorcycles, and why they shouldn't be. Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. Today, we're going to talk about why e-bikes are not motorcycles and why they shouldn't be. Right here, I've got two of our best-selling e-bikes, our EVRYjourney Forward Pedaling 500-watt e-bike and our Simple Step Through with the extremely low step-through 500-watt as well. E-bikes are becoming increasingly popular many people are using them as their primary mode of transportation. Makes it easy to take on terrains that maybe prior were challenging to ride up. Now with the introduction of the electric assist, it's expanding the possibilities of what people can do on two wheels and three wheels as well, for the three-wheel electric trikes. Now, the one thing to remember is e-bikes are not motorcycles and they're not designed to be and shouldn't be many people now are turning to e-bikes they're modifying them they're getting e-bikes that can go 40 50 60 miles an hour and taking them on the streets and riding them now this was not what e-bikes were intended to become and now there's become an expectation from a lot of people about how powerful or what an e-bike should be capable of doing. Now, the thing is, a lot of electric bikes come with a throttle here in the United States. Usually, it's either a twist throttle or a thumb press throttle where you can engage those, and your e-bike will go without you pedaling at all.

Now, in the spirit of that, they should be capped at 20 miles an hour. And that is what is deemed a safe speed to go on an e-bike utilizing that throttle. As I said, now many people are modifying or taking e-bikes or getting e-bikes that can go 30, 40, or 50 miles an hour. Many of the manufacturers producing these are claiming that they know they're for off-road use only, but the people buying them are taking them for on-road use. Now, it's making a bad name for e-bikes, and unfortunately, because of this, legislation is going to be in the pipeline because accidents are happening, and a lot of people are riding irresponsibly on e-bikes that have been modified to go speeds that they shouldn't be going. The other thing too is meeting a lot of customers, there's an expectation of how an e-bike should be performing in a given circumstance, right? Let's say you have severe hills, and you want to get an e-bike that can zip you up the hill by just pressing the throttle. Well, depending on the weight of the rider, that's not always going to be possible if you are keeping the motor sizes within the legal limits, which in California is up to 750 watts, right? So, for riders 250 pounds and above, if you're on a severe grade hill, you're not going to be able to press that throttle and just get up the hill without pedaling at all.

Like I said, though, e-bikes were not developed with the intention of that being the purpose. And quite honestly, in most countries across the world, they don't even allow throttles on their electric bikes. It's an electric assist only, and so we are actually sort of lucky here in the United States to even have that option, because the throttle option is still nice to have. I enjoy it to get the e-bike going. It's nice when you want to take a break on a ride if you don't want to pedal anymore. So it is a cool feature to have access to. Unfortunately, like I said, it's been getting abused, and now we're seeing e-bikes that are virtually motorcycles on the street. So e-bikes are not motorcycles. They were designed to provide electric assistance while you pedal and a limited amount of power by just utilizing the throttle. So your expectation if you're buying an e-bike should be just that. You can get assistance while you pedal, and you can limit speed by utilizing the throttle. Now, if you just want to zip around, don't pedal, opt for an electric scooter that you will need a driver's license for, and those are the only other options to be street legal to be able to zip around, again, up serious hills without pedaling at all. The true spirit of e-bikes, again, is to add that assistance to make it easier to take on big hills and longer ranges. It's a great tool for senior riders. It's been a great tool for actually younger riders as well, who can ride responsibly to get to and from places.

 It's expanded the range so that many people can go on two wheels. But e-bikes should not be motorcycles. Motorcycles should be motorcycles. They have their licensing. Testing, driving parameters that they need to follow. The spirit of e-bikes is to keep them classified as a bicycle so we don't have to have as many regulations and people can enjoy them on bike lanes, on bike paths, and they can continue to ride on two wheels for many, many years more than they would have been able to without having the option of an electric assist. So. That's my thoughts on the topic. If you have any other thoughts or comments, reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.com, or call us at 310-982-2877. In addition to that, we offer a 30-day test ride on your e-bike policy. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, send it back. No questions asked, no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we're going to warranty everything for one year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we take care of its parts and labor. In addition to that, we have a test ride location here in beautiful San Clemente, California. We're at 1046 Calle Rocoto, Unit K in San Clemente. Come on out and test-ride all of our e-bikes, all of our e-trikes. You can find the right one for you. Now lastly, we have a, or join our community. We have a Facebook group with thousands of members. Join the group before you purchase to connect with existing riders to ensure you're making the right choice. Then, when you have yours, Host in the group, make friends, and finally download the app to track your rides and compete on the leaderboard. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey or experience. Enjoy the ride.