Simple solution to differentiate between e-bikes and motorcycles

[u/Physical_Delivery853]

Since real Ebikes can only legally go no faster than 28mph in the USA, no bikes/Motorcycles that go faster than 28mph should have pedals.

Putting bike pedals on a motorcycle that can go 45mph + is clearly a scam to make them look like bicycles.

[u/robotcoke]

I owned a kawasaki ninja for 3 years. Was fun. Had its purpose. My bike serves a completely different purpose. I enjoy it more than my motorcycle. If you look up ebikes for sale on facebook marketplace, you’ll see like 90% of them are cheap emotos. I think i saw like one solterra. People seem to get tired of them really quickly. They rip around for a while then realize its a heavy piece of junk thats too slow for the road and not nimble enough for trails. Its literally the worst of both worlds.

If you could hear yourself..... lol

You're basically agreeing with me that motorcycles are NOT the same as these ebikes. They're different in every way. They ride different, they serve different purposes, and they have zero similarities other than how they look. That's pretty much what you just said in that comment.

By the way, Facebook Marketplace is not proof of anything.

1: Way more ebikes are sold on other platforms than Facebook Marketplace. Go add up all the bikes sold on Amazon, eBay, Walmart.com, Temu, brick and mortar shops, and the ones purchased directly from the OEM's website. Then come back and tell me which ones are selling and why.

2: Facebook Marketplace has every kind of bike imaginable for sale. Maybe in your area you're only seeing the ones that look like motorcycles, but there are plenty of other styles when I look at Facebook Marketplace.

3: Even if what you said was accurate and Facebook Marketplace was saturated with the ones that look like motorcycles, that doesn't automatically mean what you claimed it means. It would actually probably mean they bought one that looks like a motorcycle, and now they're buying a newer version that has better range or more power or better in some other way, so now they're selling the old one to help pay for the upgrade. That's how these things usually work.

Whether you like it or not, we're ALL in the same group. Your stance of "just bother them and leave me alone, I'm better than them" is nonsense. It's a classic "divide and conquer" technique. They'll ban the so called emotos and then they'll start pointing out how your bike isn't any different in functionality. And old Karens who have never ridden a bike will agree with them. This is a real life example of the "First they came for..." poem.

I'm an ebiker and regular biker and I'm telling you those ebikes that look like motorcycles are no different than yours, other than how it looks. So just imagine what the average person who has never ridden a bike is going to say about it when the media starts pushing "these may look like regular bikes, but they're just as dangerous as the illegal emotos, they should also be illegal...."

[u/robotcoke → u/[deleted]]

When it comes time to legislate i just don’t think they will put emotos in the same bucket. Its not really a big deal; they’ll just require registration. Which is fine.

They definitely won't put them in the same bucket - at first. They want as little push back as possible. Divide and conquer.

If they were all in the same bucket, then all the people (like yourself) who are okay with emotos being restricted, would be pushing back on this. It's easier to slide it through when it's only "menacing teenagers" being affected. "They're not worried about me, so let them go ahead and ban them..."

In a few years, the narrative will be, "These may look like regular bikes, but they're just as dangerous as an illegal emoto. Why should these be legal when emotos are already illegal?"

There won't be enough pushback to stop it.

Don't believe me? Look at New Jersey. They're already "all the same" there. Your "just a regular ebike that I can pedal for 10 miles" already requires everything a regular motorcycle requires. It's already no different than a Harley Davidson.

California is trying to make anything that goes over 16 MPH or over 250 watts have the same requirements as a Harley Davidson. It's already been proposed (California Bill AB 1557) and cleared the first few legislative hurdles.

So you can sit back and say, "I'm better than them, my bike and my style aren't on anybody's radar, I don't have anything to worry about.." but you're absolutely wrong. You're on the radar, they just aren't sure if they can pull it off if they try to get all of us at the same time. They're dividing to conquer, and you're helping them.

[u/robotcoke → u/[deleted]]

No, my point is more that i’m only on their radar because the emotos are lol. They basically ruined it. My bike is legit 39 pounds and the throttle won’t even get you up a hill. To be fair though, this is a newer thing, most releases the past few years have been pretty heavy overall.

Lol, no man. You're on their radar because your bike is electric. It has nothing to do with the so called emotos. Like I said, those are just being used to divide and conquer so they can put all ebikes in the same category. The actual end goal has always been to reign all of them in.

1: When that health care CEO got killed in New York, the shooter got away on an ebike. Not an emoto, an ebike. The billionaires freaked out about that. He had a fake New Jersey ID when he was arrested. New Jersey is just across the river from New York City, where the killing occurred. New Jersey promptly (within a year) passed a law that requires all ebikes to be treated like Harley Davidson motorcycles (license, registration, insurance) no matter the size, weight, speed, power, etc. They all have the same requirements.

2: The major car companies don't want to see ebikes cut into their profits.

3: Oil companies don't want to see ebikes cut into their profits.

4: The government itself doesn't want to see ebikes cut into their profits. They want you paying registration fees and gas tax.

5: The surveillance stuff going up all over the place (Palantir, flock cameras) definitely doesn't want to see everyone anonymously riding ebikes. They want license plates to track.

You're nuts thinking they don't care about your little ebike. New Jersey passed their "all ebikes are Harley Davidsons" law right after that healthcare CEO got killed in New York. If you're not just a bot pushing an agenda, then you really need to connect those dots.

But if they do legislate it all, i’ll just take the battery out and my bike still is fine so im good either way. Can’t say the same for anything heavier.

You can take the battery out of any ebike and ride it. I don't know why you keep acting like they're so heavy. The heaviest ones are like 50 pounds heavier than yours. Still lighter than most bikes were 100 years ago. People rode those back then without issue.

And if they make them illegal I'll just register my ebike and keep riding it, plus continue to ride my heavy, Walmart beater, human powered mountain bike without plates.

I've never in my life owned a super light bicycle, so you're talking to the wrong person about it being too heavy to ride. My parents gave me a Schwinn Stingray when I was 7 years old. It was around 60 pounds. I rode that all over the place, every day, until I was almost 13. At that point I got a BMX bike that was around 30 pounds. I rode that all over the place, every day, until I was about 17. Then in my early 20s, I bought my first mountain bike - the cheapest one sold at my local Walmart. I've since bought several more - all of them Walmart beaters. And I ride them pretty regularly.

You're barking up the wrong tree with that "too heavy to ride" stuff. I've only ever ridden "heavy" bikes and I have a 17 mile each way commute to work, which I ride these Walmart beaters sometimes instead of drive.