Don’t tell that to e-bike fans. They’re very vocal and easily triggered.
And don’t dare suggesting helmets or licenses. They will crucify you.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Ebike fan here. Can confirm. My pitchfork is already out.
The Honda Goldwing is a six cylinder outdoor Campervan Winnebago.
Does it smell like a steak and seat 35?
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
I'm a bit triggered by this, so let me apologize in advance for the incoming rant.
You might be kind of right etymologically, but bikes, e-bikes, motorcycles, and likely in the near future e-motos, are specific things defined by law. The confusion between these vehicle classes is causing harm.
An e-bike is a pedal powered bicycle with an electric motor that assists the rider while pedalling up to 25km/h. You might be able to switch modes between more assistance and less assistance but there is no throttle.
If you purchase a cheap walmart / k-mart bike, swap the rear wheel with a powered hub from alibaba and strap on a battery from temu, that's not an e-bike. They have a throttle and no limiter and in most cases can propel a 12 year old idiot at 50km/h but some times more than 70km/h. This is not an e-bike and more accurately described as an unregulated electric motorbike.
The frame isn't built for this kind of stress, and the riders often have no capacity to understand the danger they're imposing on themselves and others - zipping past kids playing and so on.
It's an emerging disaster in Australia and I imagine other places as well. It's turning the population against e-bikes when they're not the problem.
We urgently need more appropriate legislation drafted to clearly define the classes of vehicle, and we need police with the right skills and equipment to enforce those laws.
Your statement is only partially true. In Florida, where I live, yes Florida, I know . . .there are three classes of ebikes. Class 3 ebikes must have pedals but can have a throttle and can operate without pedaling. By law, it IS still an ebike. So I believe it comes down to jurisdiction.
The rest of what you said is pretty much true and it's a problem here too. I absolutely love riding my ebike. Mine has gears and is every bit a bike. For me the assist helps with hills (yes we have a few small ones here) and mostly wind. But it also serves another purpose. Making the ride either easier since I'm getting older or faster means I'm more likely to use the bike than a normal bike. I believe for these reasons I actually get MORE exercise with my ebike than my normal bike, at least until someone hits me with a car. So yeah, these guys with their over-powered "ebikes" are going to ruin it for the rest of us by getting us banned from trails and such.
There are also fully electric, battery powered, full-on, full-size motorcycles, like those by Zero.
There are also ... I don't even know what you call these, mini-bikes? Mini-motorcycles?
Like the Honda Grom:
https://powersports.honda.com/motorcycle/minimoto/grom
Which, as you can see, are pretty dang close to the same size as some E-Bikes.
Which one is street legal, where?
What exactly is each of these things categorized as, legally, colloquially?
... who the fuck knows!, basically.
This is the correct take.
My feeling is that if it's controlled by a throttle, then it's a motorbike and it should be registered and require a driver's licence to operate, and it shouldn't be on bike paths or footpaths.
Yeah that's the implication, but it's complicated.
e-scooters are controlled by a throttle, so I think there's a debate to be had as to whether that's a defining factor.
IMO the throttle is less critical than speed limiting. Anything you can pilot without a license should be restricted to 25km/h.
The problem is these limitations can easily be removed.
That's why I say it really needs proper policing. You need cops on bikes, and some kind of strategy to establish whether a bike is compliant.
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My country has this legislation and my electric scooter is technically illegal sure to it. As you control the throttle with your thumb.
Now they make really uncomfortable scooters that only power of you move your leg past a sensor as then it would be 'kick assist'. Also those scooters cost the times the amount of regular scooters that are legal in most of Europe.
It's s terribly bad legislation. Speed should be the main differentiator.
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Enginecycles? If you specifically refer to internal combustion engine (ICE) then it'd make sense to call them icecycles. It sounds weird, maybe icicles?
But seriously EU has a definition of what an ebike is, it's not just a bicycle with motor, there's max allowed power, max assistance level, and importantly it should only assist when pedalling. Anything beyond that, yes, is classified as a motorbike.
So does the US, with tiers though so it's a bit less straight forward, and some state laws like in NJ are doing some wacky things. In any event, OP just didn't educate themselves before posting.
Upvote for the main thought, but
- A gasoline engine is a type of motor. You are making a distinction without a difference. A motor is just something that produces mechanical motion. Motor. Motion. Motivate. All come from the same root as “move”
- An “engine” can be the whole apparatus that does the work, not merely the thing that provides the power, and could be powered by a water, beast, or even manually such as the cotton [en]gin[e]. A lot of that usage comes from pre WW2, but it survives in things like “train engine” (the vehicle that pushes or pulls a train) and “game engine” (the program architecture that manages the processing power provided by the computer to convert user interactions, game assets, etc. into something that we recognize as a game).
- It’s not a four-cycle engine. It is a four-stroke engine: each piston makes four strokes each complete engine cycle.
It’s not a four-cycle engine. It is a four-stroke engine: each piston makes four strokes each complete engine cycle.
“A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine”
Touché
Multiple decades on this earth, decent schooling, undergraduate degree in history, and yet today is the day I discover why the cotton gin is called that. Wild. Thank you for sharing.
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Really unfortunate this classification system has happened. What you're thinking of is an electric moped, but it's all getting lumped together. Check this out.
The differentiator is max speed in Canada. Regardless of how they are built. If you can exceed a certain speed, license required.
I think that's a good system. I have a pedal assisted bike and it feels like it'd be ridiculous to need to license it (it does have a "full throttle" mode, but I don't think it can even make it up to 20mph).
There's definitely two stroke/cycle motorcycles out there. They're less popular nowadays due to emissions but have lasted quite a bit longer than 2 stroke cars or trucks have...
I have a really old two smoke dirt bike, it's noisy and smelly and tries to kill me almost every time I ride it.
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Some motorcycles have starter motors, these are hybrids now.
Honda goldwings use the starter motor run backwards and engage to the transmission directly for a reverse gear
OP thinking he cracked the code to ride a motorcycle on the sidewalk.
Really? Because I don't remember pedaling my Honda 750.
I don't remember pedaling my eBike, either. With a big enough motor, they're all but completely vestigal.
It's true that there are different classes of ebikes. Class 3 ebikes with enough power can be basically motorcycles disguised as bikes. Mine is a class 1 and very much a bicycle. If the distinction can be made that some ebikes do not require pedaling and are therefore motorcycles, by extension it is equally valid to say that ALL ebikes must have pedals so all ebikes are bikes. The truth is really somewhere in-between. Not sure how important that is to a shower thought though.
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Try pumping the gear shift lever and rear brake. It'll probably do something. Not sure what.
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Well first off, whether or not an internal combustion engine is called a motor or an engine differs by region for English-speakers and in fact in my language there's only "mootor", for both electric and combustion engines.
Secondly, the engine on an enginecycle could also be a two-cycle engine, that's common in small engined dirtbikes and moped particularly.
Thirdly, this may depend on your local legislation, but where I live, a low-power e-bike would be a moped and a high-power e-bike would be a motorcycle. In terms of the license requirements anyway. If it's limited to 25 km/h and requires pedaling, then it's an assisted bicycle and requires no license and no helmet (provided you're over 16).
k
Anything is everything if you blur the lines enough.
My friend said something similar to me a long time ago. I said, General Motors.....?
This is actually a really good one.
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