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Author Topic: California's new E-bike laws explained  (Read 14649 times)

Specter

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Re: California's new E-bike laws explained
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2025, 02:31:18 AM »

One of the easiest ways to force some type of enforcement would be to put speed limits up.  15 mph or something of that nature.  The biggest gripe seems to be people speeding on pedestrian walk areas with these bikes.   If it's a bike path / shared WALKWAY then that is plenty fast nuff.  The kids are going to speed anyways, and now you have a solid 'infraction' to go after them for and not some nebulous .. well does this bike qualify.  I don't care what kind of bike you have or ANY of that, you were speeding,  here's your ticket, slow down son!

Aaron
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TheRan

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Re: California's new E-bike laws explained
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2025, 02:47:24 AM »

Yeah speeding will probably be the big gotcha (other than the pedal-less bikes), not like they're going to be going round with radar guns making sure people aren't doing 22 instead of 20 but if someone's keeping up with 30mph+ traffic then something is obviously up. From there, once they're pulled over it's easy enough to determine if the bike has a throttle and even to see what the assist speed limit is by lifting the rear wheel and spinning the cranks.
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Richard230

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Re: California's new E-bike laws explained
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2025, 08:21:06 PM »

For many years, California has had laws restricting loud car and motorcycle mufflers, with regulations permitting only exhaust systems that are approved by the original vehicle manufacturer. You would think that these laws would be easy to enforce. But they never seem to be. This weekend I was trying to carry on a conversation with one of the owners of Alice's Restaurant, when a long line of cars passed by on the adjacent state highway which were so loud that we had to stop talking because we couldn't hear each other. There were so many cars in this group that it took about 5 minutes for all of them to pass and every one had a very loud exhaust system. There was a cop in the parking lot and he didn't even seem concerned about this very loud and continuous noise among the peaceful redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

If loud mufflers and other vehicle equipment regulations don't get enforced in California, why would the cops be concerned about enforcing E-bike riding rules? California has a bazillion laws but in my experience few seem to be enforced by the police once enacted. They apparently have more important things to do, like dealing with murders, robberies, thefts, vehicle crashes, fires and other real emergencies that impact the residents of the state.  ::) I have no doubt that chasing after speeding E-bikes are at the bottom of their enforcement list.
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Richard's motorcycle collection:  2018 16.6 kWh Zero S, 2002 Yamaha FZ1 (FZS1000N) and a 1978 Honda Kick 'N Go Senior.
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