I have seen kids ride e-bikes resembling motorcycles. Some kids wear full-face helmets, while others wear regular helmets. I’m no stranger to riding motorcycles with full gear, but I have concerns when I see e-bikes on the sidewalk, local parking lots, bike paths, and fire roads. These kids have good handling skills doing wheelies on the sidewalk. Seems dangerous to me.
There are several other classifications of bicycles in California, and this new wave of electric motorbikes will likely fall into one of these classifications. The difference between these below classifications is the type of license needed and how fast the vehicles can be.Knowing these three classifications informs us already that riders of these motorized bikes should have licenses.
As a society, we have built a world of cars, trucks, and other massive, metal, high-speed tools that can devastate, injure and kill at a moment’s notice. This devastation is amplified when someone is riding on an unprotected, two-wheeled, hard-to-see machine. These new motorized bikes are not “e-bikes” and certainly not bicycles.