E-Bikes Are Actually Cool. But Category Confusion and Pearl-Clutching Are Killing Them

We're going to talk about e-bikes and politics in which our intrepid author attempts Nuance on the Internet™, so please pray for her both now and in the hour of her untimely ratioing.

Photo by: Upway

Janaki Jitchotvisut

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

May 21, at 10:38am ET

Add RideApart as a preferred source in Google

Comment

I haven't been murdered by a teenage e-bike rider yet, though I have come close.

Okay, I might be overstating things slightly, but let me set the scene for you. When we have time, my partner and I like to go out and ride on either motorcycles or e-bikes, weather permitting. Living in Chicago, you see, we have winter; so there is a considerable amount of time each year when it's not much fun to be outside, riding an unenclosed two-wheeled anything at speed.

One day last summer, my partner and I were returning from one of our characteristically long e-bike rides (60-ish miles or so), which we mostly do on the excellent trail system that exists around here. We do our best to be considerate trail users, sharing the space with other trail users, sticking to the right of the path, using our bells, not going too fast when we're near other people (or horses, or other animals), and so on.

So anyway, we're going up a hill and around a curve at the same time. It wasn't a particularly tight curve, but it was situated in such a way that you didn't have a clear view all the way through it from the entrance. I'm pedaling uphill on the right, using the minimum level of pedal assist possible on my machine. And suddenly, there's a kid on an e-bike flying headlong directly at me from the other direction, totally not paying attention because he's too busy intensely staring at his phone.

I didn't even have enough time to ding my bell. Instead, I yelled "hey!" a few times, increasingly frantically. The kid's friend, who was also on an e-bike, also worked hard to get his buddy's attention so we wouldn't crash.

Thankfully, we were both able to take quick evasive action and avoid a collision. I can't say for certain since I'm not the kid in question's friend, but to me, it also seemed like the friend had an air of "I'm getting really sick of covering for you, buddy" right afterward. Again, this could entirely be projection on my part.

After I calmed down (it really was a close call, and my adrenaline totally spiked), I was annoyed. On the one hand, humans (and especially young humans) don't always make the best decisions. We do stupid things, and we make mistakes. Hopefully, we can learn from them and move on. But what if they prove to be deadly? And the other problem is, one or two riders (kids or otherwise) acting like this is what usually ruins it for everyone else.

Are there irresponsible riders out there? Absolutely. Are parents in some cases to blame? Sure. But banning the entire category (or increasingly making it practically impossible for people to take advantage of) is also kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, you guys.

I'm not going to pretend I have all the solutions, because I don't. And I'll maintain, once again, that most people who try to tell you they have all the solutions to a given problem have either a) created the problem in the first place and now want to sell you their solution in exchange for your hard-earned money, or b) are lying (or delusional, but still lying in a more abstract and roundabout way).

As I see it, this is a nuanced problem (gasp!) where multiple factors are in play.

Unclear naming conventions and e-bike miscategorization aren't helping

To put it simply: Words matter. The way we choose to use them affects how people reading (or at least skimming) them come away from what we've written. Not every piece has the impact we might want it to, but a word or a phrase here or there might stick in someone's mind in ways we don't see, and go on to inform how that person thinks about that concept going forward.

As a motorcycle and powersports journalist who has covered (and ridden) both e-bikes and e-motorcycles, I quite naturally pay attention to how other publications, both inside the industry and not, cover those subjects. And I don't know if you know this, but there seems to be A LOT of confusion about what an "e-bike" and what an "e-motorcycle" are. Or an EV motorcycle. Heck, I've seen it in comments on our site before.

People (and yes, contrary to what you may have been told, journalists are also people) frequently miscategorize e-bikes and electric motorcycles, using the word "e-bike" when they really mean to talk about an EV motorcycle, and so on. Here at RideApart, we always try to be clear on that distinction, and that's why you won't see us refer to a Zero DSR/X or a LiveWire S2 Honcho as anything other than an "EV motorcycle" or an "electric motorcycle."Why? Because that's what they are, and e-bikes are a different category, period.

But as readers, you're not privy to our thought processes or the reasoning behind that, so that fine distinction might not necessarily stand out to you. And when regular newspapers write about e-bikes, it's usually because legislation is increasingly cracking down on the broad category in communities all over the place. They don't have powersports specialists on staff, so the mixing up of terms may or may not be intentional, and may or may not be accidental. I'm not trying to assign intent here, though it is probably warranted in at least some cases.

Kids will always be kids, no matter what technology you put in their hands

Whether you have a kid, are a kid, or even used to be a kid, you're probably aware of this on some level. With most (if not all) kids, there comes a time when you're convinced you know it all, and no one can tell you anything. And so, while some of your decisions are probably fine, others may be the kinds of things you will inevitably look back on and cringe.

In an ideal world, they won't make you feel any worse than that. But of course, we don't live in an ideal world, so sometimes worse things happen because of decisions you've made, too.

So while legislators race to keep up with the evolution of technology (as is frequently the case), as our EIC Jonathon Klein pointed out, parents have a role to play, too. And yet, as kids get older and start doing things out of the sight of even the most involved parents, it'll be the kids who make their own decisions on how to move through the world. And at that point, their parents can only hope they've given their kids the tools they need to make the right decisions that keep themselves and those around them safe.

Legislators frequently race to keep up with new technology, fall behind, then overreact. News at 11.

I'm writing this on May 20, 2026, and a quick scan of news headlines involving e-bike legislation shows a confusing patchwork of new laws coming into effect for communities across the nation. New Jersey, Columbus (Ohio), Massachusetts, Wausau (Wisconsin), and Orange County (the one in Florida, not the one in California) are just some of the top results in terms of recency.

Requirements vary, including some laws requiring riders to register their e-bikes with their local jurisdiction (a thing that regular bicyclists don't have to worry about; can you imagine?) , e-bike insurance, and even licensing in some cases.

While safety concerns can and should be paramount, and focusing on better education and safety training should be everyone's concern, some of these moves seem more concerned with potential untapped revenue streams than with safety.

Is it about speed? This is purely anecdotal, but I've been passed on my e-bike by traditional cyclists who are pedaling fast and strong using only their legs way more than once. And strangely, no one's suggesting that cyclists should be required to register/license/insure their machines.

Is it about the proverbial squeaky wheel getting the grease? If enough angry old folks yelling at kids to get off their lawn have the time to complain to their local legislators, then action will likely be taken just to get the angry folks off the local legislators' backs. Maybe that's it.

A lack of care and nuance when legislating and enforcing rules for e-bikes can ruin a seriously good thing for a lot of people

While it's true that kids everywhere seem to be taking to e-bikes in massive numbers, it isn't only kids who ride them. Plenty of adults do, too; from folks who want to commute on a bike, but not get super sweaty because they're just trying to get to work; to delivery riders who just need to get places with maximum efficiency.

Although it's not as strenuous a form of exercise as riding a traditional pedal bicycle that's powered only by a human can be, it's still far better than no exercise. People with limited mobility, people recovering from injuries, and more can (and do) all benefit from e-bikes on a regular basis. Heck, that's honestly how I started riding an e-bike; I was recovering from a bad meniscus tear, and it made a massive difference to both my physical and mental health.

For all that we, as a society, bicker about topics ranging from air quality to needing to get away from all our screens to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels to traffic congestion to why aren't the kids getting into motorcycles, e-bikes are potentially a seriously good answer.

What do you think?

View

Comments

Cars (and some motorcycles) cost too much, yet you don't want to become a hardcore cyclist? Why not try an e-bike? Gas costs too much, but you still need to go a decent distance to school or work? There's an e-bike for that! If we can find ways to use and legislate them responsibly, with the genuine best interests of both riders and their local communities in mind, they can be phenomenal tools to move us forward.

That's a big 'if,' though. While there are serious concerns about safety that need to be tackled, the reactionary pearl-clutching because it's NEW and SCARY really needs to stop. It never gets us anywhere good, and most of us have read this script before. It's time for a rewrite.