Why E-Bike Crackdowns Will Lead To More Mid-Drives

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The Crackdown on E-Bike Rule-Bending Starts in California

Recently, California decided to do what it normally does: strictly regulate just about everything. Automotive technology, firearms, the little tags on mattresses — you can count on California to lead the way to exerting maximum control. It’s what the legislature does, and has done for decades going back at least to the governorship of Ronald Reagan. There are some upsides to this, of course, but not everyone is always happy with the heavy-handed approach.

Sadly, this time it’s the e-bike’s turn to get regulated hard. (Article continues after video.)

With a couple of small but important differences, this isn’t really different from existing law. As has been the case for years, California subscribes to the standard three classes of e-bikes. These are:

• Class 1 — pedal assist only, up to 20 MPH, 750 watts max motor
• Class 2 — pedal assist or throttle, up to 20 MPH, 750 watts max motor
• Class 3 — pedal assist only up to 28 MPH, 750 watts max motor

But, as usual, state lawmakers aren’t experts and sometimes make stupid mistakes. For e-bikes, the biggest issue is that the new law doesn’t allow for bikes that blend the properties of Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes. Many e-bikes have sold for years with throttle working until 20 MPH and then only pedal assist until 28 MPH. Now, all of these bikes are technically illegal to ride in California unless the throttle is removed.

The other problem is that many e-bikes can be easily modified to do things not allowed by the three-class system. For example, if you change a setting in the computer, many e-bikes can go faster under throttle power or go faster than 28 MPH with pedal assistance. Some bikes are only electronically limited to 750 watts, but can provide far more power if you change the settings or cut a wire. Under the new law, bikes intended by the manufacturer to break the rules are also not considered e-bikes, even if riders keep the legal settings/configuration.

One further problem that the video doesn’t get into is that e-bikes often label the motors with the nominal, continuous power rating. While this means 750 watts or under under continuous riding, many bikes can produce more power (sometimes much more) for short bursts to do things like ride hills.

If California does the usual thing and strictly enforces this, most e-bikes will be illegal. Many people will have to buy new ones or work with the manufacturer to come up with a compliant computer that isn’t easy to change (assuming that’s even possible).

On the other hand, we have to remember that the average cop really doesn’t know the law all that well. This could lead to lots of illegal enforcement decisions because police won’t know all of the complexities of e-bike laws. People with bikes that are perfectly compliant could face harassment, arrest, and impound and then have to fight in court to get their bikes back and charges dropped.

The complexity of the law could also turn out better if police decide to prioritize enforcement against bikes that are blatantly not e-bikes. If your bike looks like a bike, they’ll probably leave you alone. But if you are riding something that looks like a motorcycle and doesn’t have pedals, they’ll hammer you.

Sadly, we’ll see some mix of all this all over the state and in other states that follow California down this road. In some places, everyone riding an e-bike will suffer under poor enforcement and police ignoring things like the Fourth Amendment and due process. In others, police will be smarter and only go after obvious public safety problems.

E-Bikes All Over The US Will Change Because Of This

While it will continue to be either legal or tolerated to ride Class 2/3 bikes and other non-compliant e-bikes in other states, we have to keep in mind that the sheer size of the California e-bike market means that this will affect what’s sold to everyone. This will lead to a short “malaise era” of sorts for bikes as Chinese manufacturers change programming to put in strict limits without changing the hardware.

Hub motor bikes will be the biggest problem. When limited to 750 watts maximum, hill-climbing ability will be pretty sub-par. A lack of throttle or a maximum assist limit of 20 MPH with a throttle will make life harder for e-bike riders and take some choices away. Worse, riding in traffic will be less safe because there will be a larger difference in speed between e-bikes and cars.

This will be even worse for electric mountain bikes with hub motors, as the bikes will be very limited in hill climbing performance when limited to 750 watts with only one relatively high gear ratio.

The Way Out: Mid-Drive E-Bikes

Unlike hub motors, e-bikes with a mid-drive motor feed the power through the multi-speed drivetrain that your pedal power goes through. Being able to select different gears will be good for electric motors in exactly the same way it’s good for pedaling with your feet. Torque multiplication in lower gears means better hill-climbing ability, while going into “overdrive” in the top gear means it’s easier to maintain speed at 20 or 28 MPH with less motor power.

A 750-watt hub motor struggles to climb steep hills, while a 750-watt mid-drive in the lowest gear can climb most hills with ease. Even a 250-watt or 500-watt mid-drive motor can often outperform a 750-watt maximum hub motor when the proper gear is selected for the task at hand. For European limits (250 watts), this is particularly important.

There are disadvantages to mid-drive bikes, of course. The cost of building them is higher (probably the reason cheap bikes tend to have hub motors), the throttle response will differ depending on gear, and riders have to think a little more about gear selection than they do with a hub bike. On many models, riders have to remember to not switch gears under load to prevent damaging the chain and gears.

But, all in all, this is probably where the budget end of the e-bike industry is going. Without being able to bend/break the rules and play numbers games, manufacturers will have to give people the kind of performance they want within the letter of the law.

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba, showing an e-bike hub motor.