Speed and responsibility

[Tree]

I'm baffled by the logic of those who want extreme speed on their e-bikes, and chalk it up to over compensation.

My RR6+ hits 20 like it's nothing, 23 to 25 downhill, and i've gotten it up to 27.5 pedaling downhill, and jesus h, that was fast enough.

Maybe it's because I'm 50 and not 25 anymore, but i still do stupid stuff like jumping over dirt hills, but i also use the bike to commute to work, and sure, i'd love to get there more quickly, but instead of modding my bike up to an unsafe speed, i just take my car if i'm in that much of a hurry.

i just don't get it, and agree that these sorts of things are gonna eff it up for the rest of us - i feel like i'm back in the '80 when we had the "skateboarding is not a crime" campaign, and 35 years later, towns and cities are now building skate parks for skaters.

[Slowrider]

Things like this cause problems with ebike riders

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/brooklyn-woman-dies-after-getting-hit-by-e-bike-rider/ar-AAUUdHD

[Altema]

I just think the class thing looks like some e-bike exec had their kid write it up.  If you look at any other motor vehicle classification system it's not just three sentences.  It's like they're not taking it seriously and that's my issue.  How this usually works is when companies don't take stuff like this seriously it leaves governments wanting to step in.  It's a good start but I think it needs to be better. What I don't want to see is some politician that doesn't know anything about e-bikes making some law.

I think part of it could be e-bikes are usually more significant looking.  Sure you have those stealth e-bikes that look normal but for example my RadCity 5 looks much more impressive.  I think it's up to all of us to try and be on our best behavior since e-bikes are newish and sometimes you might be the first experience that person has with someone on an e-bike.  I try to be overly friendly and so far I've gotten positive responses.  If someone has a rotten attitude like a Karen I don't engage but just smile and say "Good morning" or whatever.

A big issue that's going to hit the fan with e-bikes is mods.  I know I'm going to get some hate for this one.  For example out of the box Rad bikes have a top speed of 20 MPH but with a few easy mods you can get that to 30 MPH.  That's a significant increase in speed.  Of course with a little bit of $$$$ it's not hard to bring it over 50 MPH.  This combined with no system of enforcement is just a bad situation. 

I'm really not against modding and I want a super fast e-bike but at what modification level do you say that's not allowed on a multi use trail with pedestrians and how do you even enforce that?  Before it was simple because if it had a motor it wasn't going on the sidewalk but an electric motor is treated differently.  I've seen a video of a guy with I want to say was a 2k watt e-bike getting questioned by the police and they didn't know how to deal with it.  He just said it was 750 watts and the cops were clueless.  He wasn't doing anything bad because he was on the road but it just shows it's like the wild west when it comes to regulations and laws.  I worry it's going to swing far the other way and e-bikes will only be allowed where other motorized vehicles can travel.  I guarantee you my local police officers don't know what class 2 means and would have no way to verify mine is indeed such a bike other than the sticker.  Do a quick search on Amazon for "Class 2 ebike sticker" and you'll see how meaningless that sticker is.

I wonder if when cars first came out people had these same discussions... Obviously not online 🤣

I don't think we need to make e-bike classes more complicated. The more complicated a regulation, the harder it is to enforce. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are not even motor vehicles in most states, and when someone questions the "No motorized vehicles" sign on bike paths, I just let them know our bikes are exempt because they are, and the law clearly states it. I had a police car pace me a few weeks ago, and there was no reason for them to ask questions because I was going my usual 10 to 14mph. But if they had questions beyond my original Rad sticker, I could easily show them my configuration which is clearly set to limits of 20mph and 750 watts. Most of the time in parks, I don't even use the throttle; just pedal assist at about 275 to 350 watts with an average speed of 11mph.

It's not what you ride, but how you ride that becomes the problem. I live near Detroit Michigan, and we have weekly group rides in and around the city (which is remarkably clean now, BTW). We keep our act together and enjoy ourselves without attracting attention, usually passing a half dozen police who either smile or greet us. The only noteworthy incident was when some outsiders tried to join in and were acting like idiots on Lime rental scooters, directly causing an accident with bloody injuries. Meanwhile the people in our group, including those on Onyx RCR's, were riding responsibly.