The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition weighed in with a pointed response, arguing that the state should be making it easier, not harder, to own and use e-bikes. Their senior organizer echoed the sentiment shared by many riders: the real confusion and danger comes from people not being able to tell the difference between a legal e-bike and an electric moped, not from the bikes themselves.
Brett Thurber, co-owner of a San Francisco e-bike shop, raised a practical industry concern about AB 1557. Restricting California’s speed limits below what manufacturers currently build for the U.S. market could push companies to skip California customers entirely, shrinking the supply available to local shops and consumers.
Is it really so hard to make a chip that cuts the motor off at a certain speed?
If such a law did pass, they would become so mass produced that they would only cost a few pennies to add.
Class 1, 2, and 3 ebikes already have speed limiters on them. There are just companies out there making electric mopeds / motorcycles with pedals and calling them bicycles.
Certified “didn’t read the article” moment, those things are already mandated in California.
It is already law in several EU countries but people just pay a guy who knows a guy to remove the limiter
I always hear this, but do they really?
The way you are describing it makes it seem like it happens on a very different scale to e-bike sales in general. Any source on how many people tune their bikes?
Yep. It is mainly an issue with a certain type of “e-bike”, namely so-called fat bikes, which are chunky low-ride bikes more resembling e-scooters, that have pedals mainly for show to circumvent rules. I don’t have exact numbers but it is estimated about half of them have the limiter removed and often a throttle in the handlebar installed. You can just order them from China or have it retrofitted and they go up to 45 kph.
For example, The Netherlands seized about 10k of them in 2024 alone.
They’re very dangerous as well. These numbers just show the cases where the ones who got injured were riders of a fat bike themselves, but often regular cyclists or pedestrians are hit by one of these and end up in the hospital.
Hold on, it does not say why those bikes were seized. It does not say anything on if they had no limiter, a thottle or if they were manufactured to go faster. But that is what I’m asking about, is the manufacturer/importer breaking the law or is it the consumer? Well, the consumer is either way for using it, but they could be just unaware. You know what I mean, it is different if you deliberately mess with the electronics to go faster.
The VVN spokesperson saying “the limiter can easily be removed” doesn’t convince me either, is that a huge problem or an edge case?
Is there any credible source on around half of fat-bikes have their limiters removed?
It kinda does. The roller benches they mention are the way they test it. If they go too fast they are illegal, either by not having the limiter in the first place or having it removed. Both happens, like I mentioned before.
Original article in Dutch.
This mentions they are fined €310 the first time and it is only seized the second time they get caught. So yeah, I’m pretty sure they know.
And here is the source for the more than half claim, although a small sample size.