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An ‘illegal class’ of e-bike brings friction, complaints on Minnesota trails
(www.startribune.com)
this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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It was not in my vocabulary before, but it will be now: the word "overmatched" succinctly describes the dilemma when a particular bike requires more skill than what its rider can safely manage. The word doesn't imply any sort of age-gating but rather one of experience and risk-assessment.
In all regulated or licensed endeavors, the regulatory structure should help guide people to correctly match with appropriate challenges, within reason. Obviously, public policy might have to simplify some rules or delegate to parental authority, but the gist is that it's a public hazard when insufficiently-trained riders attempt to bite off more than they can chew.
But not giving people a space to learn and build experience also feeds the same hazard, and if there is to be sustainable growth in the broad universe of two-wheeled activities, we're going to have to address this problem at some point.
I personally am a fan of legalizing an approximate spectrum of two-wheel machines. After all, one must first walk before running. And an intuitive spectrum of two-wheelers in the USA could look like: balance bike, acoustic bike, class 1 ebike, class 2 ebike, dirt bikes, class 3 ebikes and mopeds, motorbikes. The learning curve progressively adds complexity and develops valuable skills in different directions (eg on-street vs off-street, traffic laws, different environments and speeds). Plus, one can choose to stop climbing at any time and pocket the lifelong skills at that level.
You'd put dirt bikes below class 3 e-bikes?
If you asked me a few years ago, I would have put all the non-electric motorized bikes right below street-legal motorcycles. But then I chatted with family friends who all rode dirt bikes in their youth and have dirt bikes for their children. And I'm now fairly convinced that development of off-road handling of motorized two-wheelers is a separate, valuable skill.
If it's just a matter of operating a bike with a throttle, class 2 ebikes can teach that, at a lower cost point while operating legally on-street and at a fairly sane speed of 20 MPH (32 km/h).
But class 3 ebikes and dirt bikes are different animals. The latter is only off-road, but some/many class 3 ebikes can be on- or off-road. In the latter case, dirt bikes are purpose-built rugged and can really be thrown around. But on-road, ebikes require substantial attention to road conditions, because while the max speed is 27 MPH (45 km/h), that's on the edge of what can safely be ridden on USA bike lanes or shoulders, which aren't as well-maintained as auto lanes.
I'd also consider downhill MTB as a comparable activity to dirt bikes, since split-second terrain handling is valuable for riding in road conditions too.
But what I outlined was just one possible example route, and like all great human endeavors, there are multiple ways to get to the same end.
Thanks AI.