What’s an E-Bike? California Wants You to Know

A few months ago, a family went to Pasadena Cyclery in Pasadena, California to repair what they thought was their teenager’s electric bike. “I can’t fix it here,” store manager and technician Daniel Purnell remembers telling them. “It’s a motorcycle.” The mother got angry. She didn’t realize that what she thought was an electric bike could go much faster, perhaps up to 55 miles per hour.

“There’s definitely an education problem,” Purnell said. In California, bike advocates are pushing a new bill aimed at clearing up this confusion around what counts as an electric bike and what doesn’t.

It’s a delicate balance. On the one hand, funders want to give users access to new, faster and more affordable car-free transportation options that do not require permits and are emissions-free. On the other hand, people, especially children, seem to be suffering. E-bike-related injuries increased by more than 1,020% nationwide between 2020 and 2024, according to hospital data, although it’s unclear whether statistics keepers can consistently distinguish between e-bikes and their faster cousins, “electric motorcycles.” (Injuries from mopeds and power-assisted cycles jumped 67% during the same period.)

“It’s high time we had better regulations on e-bikes,” said California state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat who sponsored the bill and represents parts of North County in San Diego. “This has been a persistent and growing problem for years.”

Senate Bill 1167 would prohibit retailers from labeling more powerful electric vehicles as e-bikes. This would clarify that e-bikes have fully operational pedals and electric motors that do not exceed 750 watts, enough to reach top speeds between 20 and 28 mph.

“We’re not against these devices,” says Kendra Ramsey, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, which represents cyclists and promotes the legislation. “People think they’re e-bikes and they’re not really e-bikes.”

Supporters of the bill say they hope the fix, if passed, will make a difference, especially for teenagers, who like the freedom electric motors give them but can get in trouble if something goes wrong at higher speeds. Children 17 and younger accounted for 20% of e-bike injuries in the United States between 2020 and 2024, roughly the share of the total population. But the headlines – and the laws that follow them – have focused on the injuries, even deaths, of teenagers.

There are no national laws governing e-bike use. But bike advocates have spent years moving between states to pass laws that divide e-bikes into three classes: Class 1, which has pedal assist that only works when actually being pedaled and goes up to 20 mph; Class 2, which have throttles that operate without pedaling but still only reach 20 mph; and Class 3, which use pedal assist to travel up to 28 mph. Many states and cities limit the most powerful Class 3 bikes to people over 16. (Complicatedly, some e-bikes have different “modes,” allowing riders to switch between Class 2 and Class 3.)

Last year, researchers visited 19 middle and high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that 88 percent of the two-wheeled electric contraptions parked there were so powerful and fast that they didn’t follow the three-class system at all.

E-bikes have clearly struck a chord with state policymakers: at least 10 bills introduced this year address e-bikes, according to Ramsey.

Some cycling advocates believe injuries are less linked to electric bikes than to “electric motorcycles,” a category that is less likely to appear in retail stores or in the kind of social media ads that attract teens to the technology. These have more powerful engines and can travel over 30 mph. Vehicles, like the Surron Ultra Bee, which can reach a top speed of 55 mph, or the Tuttio ICT, which can reach 50, are often marketed by retailers as “electric bikes.” Since many sales take place online, it can be difficult for people, and especially parents, to know what they’re getting into.