Charged Up: The Rise of E-bikes, series Part 3: E-motos and amped-up bikes add twists

This is the third part of a series exploring electric bicycles, their local impact and the ongoing controversy that surrounds them.

Love them or hate them, electric bikes are legal to ride on public streets. 

E-motorcycles, or e-motos, are another matter, as are e-bikes that are modified to increase their capabilities.

The question of what is and isn’t legal for those more powerful bikes adds to already complicated discussions about safe ridership. 

Series story gallery: Charged Up: The Rise of E-bikes

E-motorcycles

Though e-motos, also called e-dirt bikes, are now widely available, they are not legal on any roadway in San Diego. 

San Diego Police Department Officer Dustin Welsh said an e-moto is “like a dirt bike but electric and a little smaller in size, but it operates the same way … without the assistance of pedals.” 

“An e-bike has to have a pedal assist. It can have a throttle, but it has to have a pedal,” Welsh said. “E-motos do not have … pedals and operate at higher speeds” — up to 50 mph or more.

Class 3 e-bikes, which have a motor that provides assistance when the rider is pedaling and is not capable of exclusively propelling the bike, are the fastest class of e-bikes, maxing out at 28 mph.  

E-motos “look like dirt bikes, vs. a motorcycle designed for road use. But other features are like those of motorcycles,” Welsh added.

However, e-motos lack some of the safety features of street motorcycles, such as a headlight. And unlike motorcycles, which can be registered for street use through the California Department of Motor Vehicles and whose riders are permitted through an established process, e-motos “are illegal on the roadways,” Welsh said.

“But they are sellable because, when used legally, they are used like a dirt bike, so they can be sold for off-highway use only,” he added.

“Kids think they are legal. … [But] the ones the kids have, there are none that are street-legal.” 

Thus, he said, when SDPD officers see an e-moto on the street, they go right to enforcement via impoundment. 

“They used to be more popular until we started taking enforcement actions,” Welsh said. “When officers see them, they get impounded automatically because you cannot ride it anywhere [on the street] in the city of San Diego. Kids got their bikes taken away, so parents would switch back to e-bikes, so we haven’t seen a huge uptick in [e-motos]. But they are all over the city, county and state. It’s a large problem.” 

When an e-moto is impounded, there is a process for the rider — or the rider’s parents — to pay a fine and register the bike for off-highway use.  

Limited understanding

The understanding, or lack thereof, that many parents and young riders have about e-bikes and e-motos is a challenge in promoting legal and responsible ridership.

The public’s confusion has made its way into the commercial space, according to Tracy Sheffer, co-owner of Pedego Electric Bikes La Jolla.

“Most people have no idea that there are two different categories from a consumer’s standpoint,” Sheffer said. “The education process is in its early stages and it’s really slow in terms of the acceptance of it.”

Sheffer emphasized that e-bikes and e-motos are “not even in the same world.”

“One is an electric bike, which is classified as a bicycle. And e-motos are electric dirt bikes,” she said. “There are all kinds of confusion because people see kids or even adults on these two-wheeled e-motorcycles that work like an electric bike, and the only way they can truly tell a difference is if they look and see that there are pegs and no pedals.”

Pedego La Jolla does not sell e-motos, but Sheffer said that could change if the confusion dissipates and people better understand the laws.

“Unfortunately, electric bikes have gotten a really bad name,” Sheffer said. “The electric bikes have been lumped in with this illegal situation that’s happening in terms of street use.”

A pair of young local e-bike riders, given the pseudonyms Jacob and Mason, said they know e-motos are more of a motorcycle than a bicycle.

Jacob said he’s heard that many of his peers use the throttle feature on Class 2 e-bikes, which allows the motor to power the bike when the rider isn’t pedaling — a choice Jacob said can be “kinda sketchy.” Class 2 e-bikes can reach speeds up to 20 mph.

“Some of them are pretty easy to pedal — that’s the ones we have and some of our friends have. But most people use a throttle because it’s just easier,” Jacob said. “That doesn’t automatically make it an e-moto, but they sometimes go crazy fast … and do wheelies in the street.” 

“When you peddle it, it makes it so you have more control over it,” he continued. “But if you were using the throttle the whole time, having your feet hang on the sides of it … it gets pretty questionable in some scenarios.”

Modified e-bikes

In addition to e-motos, there have been recent reports of young people modifying their e-bikes to increase their speed — sometimes far exceeding their designated limits.

“Now we’ve got a two-fold problem,” Sheffer said. “We’ve got an electric dirt bike that is illegal to start with on the streets. And now you’ve got the ability for the kids to go in and regovern their e-bikes to go in excess of 60 mph.”

Such modifications are legal only to a certain extent, according to San Diego police. 

An electric bike can be modified to enhance its abilities to exceed the class it is rated for ”as long as it is in compliance with the [California] Vehicle Code 312.5 and its new class is affixed to the bike with a new label,” said SDPD Officer Nicholas Tamagni.

Vehicle Code 312.5 states “the following vehicles are not electric bicycles under this code and shall not be advertised, sold, offered for sale or labeled as electric bicycles:”

• A vehicle that is modified to attain a speed greater than 20 mph on motor power alone or to have motor power of more than 750 watts

• A vehicle that is modified to have its operable pedals removed

“Simply riding an electric bicycle is not a violation of the law, and a person cannot be detained for only riding an electric bicycle,” Tamagni said. “Unless there is a visual change to the e-bicycle that is not in compliance with [applicable] vehicle code, the officer would have to observe the bicycle driving at a speed in excess of 28 mph to determine the bicycle has been modified and is no longer in compliance.”

Nevertheless, Tamagni said he has personally trained “every patrol command within the San Diego Police Department” to recognize unlawful e-bikes and e-motos.

In some cases, he said, it isn’t the rider’s fault if an e-bike doesn’t comply with California law. Different states have different qualifications for what constitutes an e-bike vs. an e-moto.   

“An online distributor may advertise a bicycle as a Class 2, but that bicycle may actually be considered a moped or motorcycle in the state of California, as it exceeds the max power and max speed that is lawful per the California Vehicle Code,” Tamagni said. “It is upon the purchaser of the bicycle to read the specifications, specifically the top speed and max power of the bicycle, to determine if it is in compliance with California law.” 

Young e-bike rider Mason said there seems to be a lack of clarity among young people about their bikes.

“I feel like there needs to be more distinction between what you can own and what you can’t, and also more parental guidance,” he said.

A 13-year-old e-bike rider from La Jolla previously told the La Jolla Light that did not receive any informational material before or immediately after getting his e-bike.

SDPD’s Welsh said previously that officers have distributed fliers at schools outlining the dos and don’ts of e-bike ridership and “did an email blast to parents that the schools and school police were involved.”

Officers also held public seminars about bike safety but stopped because of low attendance, he said.

Welsh said the goal is for e-motos and altered e-bikes to be used only in places where they are legal, such as on designated tracks or on private property with consent of the owner.

Next installment

The next article in this series will explore how other locales outside San Diego are dealing with e-bike issues.