• Supervisor194@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Pretty cool to think that I could… make my bicycle ride marginally easier by carrying a propane torch with me and blowing fire between my legs?

    • DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Personally, if it’s capable of slow highway speeds (45 and up), has more than 30 miles of range, and full safety lighting, then it’s a low power motorcycle. Anything less is a bike.

      Legally speaking though, it’s actually pretty diverse by area. For instance, California requires pedal assist integration, eg if it can accelerate with no pedal movement it’s a motorcycle, and then the bikes have 3 levels of classification (why though? Not sure), with max output regulated to 1600W (afaik since I don’t live there). In other places they’re more lax with regulation, just depends.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Yeah in Canada we have e-bike classes, the kind that require pedal pressure to engage motor are allowed in same places as bicycles ( like walking trails etc). When they have a throttle the class changes, because more can go wrong

      • SirActionSack@aussie.zone
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        2 days ago

        Torque should also be part of it. Plenty of 250W e bikes that make 80+ Nm.

        That’s similar torque to a 750 - 800cc motorbike.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        An e-bike might only weight 25 kg where a low powered motorcycle is at more than 100 kg.

        More power by weight is faster and can be more dangerous

        • SolacefromSilence@fedia.io
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          1 day ago

          Kind of, in some states it’s regulated like that, but in others it’s not addressed at all. I had a joke in my reply, where it’s true in my state that you need a motorcycle license for anything larger that 50 cc, but cc aka cubic centimeters of air displacement is a measure of Internal Combustion Engine size and has no correlation with electric vehicles. My state needs to update the regs and deal with e bikes going 25-30 mph down bike paths.