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Earlier this week we reported on Europe’s bike industry asking Brussels to ban e-bike tuning kits. Now the state of California has passed a law that tackles the same problem from the other end: not legal e-bikes being turned into something faster, but faster things being sold as e-bikes in the first place.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1167 on Wednesday. Written by Senator Catherine Blakespear, it takes effect on 1 January 2027 and is aimed at the growing number of electric motorbikes – ‘e-motos’ – being marketed and sold as if they were bikes.
What the law does
SB 1167 doesn’t change what counts as an e-bike in California. That’s still a bike with pedals, cranks and a motor of no more than 750 watts continuous power, split into three classes: Class 1 is pedal assist up to 20mph, Class 2 has a throttle that cuts out at 20mph, and Class 3 is pedal assist up to 28mph, with riders aged 16 or over.
What changes is what you’re allowed to call one. Under the new law:
- Nothing can be labelled, advertised or sold as an e-bike unless it meets the legal definition.
- Every e-bike must carry a label showing its class and maximum assisted speed.
- Sellers, online included, must tell buyers when a faster or more powerful machine isn’t an e-bike and needs registering, a licence and insurance to ride on the road.
- Higher-powered devices face tougher battery and electrical safety standards.
- Police incident reports must record the vehicle’s classification and labelling, so the state finally gets decent crash data on what’s actually being ridden.
The law also spells out what e-motos are. As Bicycle Retailer reportsan electric moped is now any two or three-wheeler with a motor of less than 4 horsepower (3,000W) that can do up to 30mph, “whether equipped with pedals or not”. Anything with up to 3,750W is a ‘motor-driven cycle’. Both must meet US federal motor vehicle safety standards, and you’ll need an M1 or M2 motorcycle licence in the US to ride one on the road. Sellers also have to state in all their advertising, online included, that these are motor vehicles that need registering, licensing and insuring for road use.
“I thank the Governor for signing SB 1167, which ensures that consumers know if they are buying an e-bike or something else that goes much faster and carries greater risk.”
Senator Catherine Blakespear
The bill went through without opposition – the Assembly vote was 77-0. A report commissioned by the state legislature from the Mineta Transportation Institute had already found that California’s existing categories were “increasingly difficult to apply” to a market full of machines that blur the line between bicycle and motorcycle.
Backed by the bike industry
As with the European manifesto, the push came from inside cycling. SB 1167 was co-sponsored by the industry body PeopleForBikes and the advocacy group CalBike, along with Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.
PeopleForBikes policy counsel Matt Moore said the law “will protect consumers, help preserve access to legitimate low-speed electric bicycles, and promote their adoption and use.” CalBike executive director Kendra Ramsey put it more simply: “Parents should be able to shop for an e-bike without having to investigate whether the product lives up to its description.”
That phrase about preserving access is the key bit for mountain bikers. In the US, whether you can ride an eMTB on a given trail often depends on it being a Class 1 e-bike. If electric motorbikes are being sold under the same name, it doesn’t take long for land managers to start lumping them all together – and the industry knows it.
Two ends of the same problem
Put the two stories side by side and a pattern appears. In Europe, European Cycling Industries wants tuning kits banned, online marketplaces held jointly liable for selling them, and manufacturers to stop building bikes with hidden unlock codes. In California, lawmakers are going after sellers who put the ‘e-bike’ label on things that are really motorbikes.
One deals with legal bikes made illegal after purchase, the other with illegal machines sold as legal ones. But the aims are the same: make it clear at the point of sale what you’re buying, make the people selling it answerable, and collect the data that’s been missing. Both also lean heavily on enforcement that hasn’t really existed so far.
And in both cases it’s the bike industry asking for tighter rules, not fighting them. Having spent years persuading governments and land managers that e-bikes are bicycles, it now has a clear interest in keeping the faster stuff out of that category.
Where does that leave the UK?
Our rules are already much tighter than California’s. A legal UK e-bike is limited to 250W continuous power and 15.5mph (25km/h) of assistance, and has to be pedalled to get the motor going. Anything beyond that is legally a motor vehicle, needing registration, insurance and a licence, whatever the box or online listing calls it.
The trouble, as anyone who has seen a ‘mountain bike’ doing 40mph through a town centre will know, is that the law and what’s on the road aren’t the same thing. Carlisle MP Julie Minns’ Ten Minute Rule bill to ban the marketing and sale of non-compliant e-bikes and conversion kits would cover a lot of the same ground as SB 1167, but it is still waiting for a second reading date.
California is one US state, and Europe’s industry has only put forward proposals so far. But between them they possibly show which way things are heading: the definition of an e-bike is finally being defended more firmly, and the people selling bikes – and kits, and things that are basically motorbikes – are going to be expected to take responsibility for what they sell. It would be no surprise to see the UK follow.
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Earlier this week we reported on Europe’s bike industry asking Brussels to ban e-bike tuning kits. Now the state of California has passed a law that tackles the same problem from the other end: not legal e-bikes being turned into something faster, but faster things being sold as e-bikes in the first place.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1167 on Wednesday. Written by Senator Catherine Blakespear, it takes effect on 1 January 2027 and is aimed at the growing number of electric motorbikes – ‘e-motos’ – being marketed and sold as if they were bikes.
What the law does
SB 1167 doesn’t change what counts as an e-bike in California. That’s still a bike with pedals, cranks and a motor of no more than 750 watts continuous power, split into three classes: Class 1 is pedal assist up to 20mph, Class 2 has a throttle that cuts out at 20mph, and Class 3 is pedal assist up to 28mph, with riders aged 16 or over.
What changes is what you’re allowed to call one. Under the new law:
Nothing can be labelled, advertised or sold as an e-bike unless it meets the legal definition.
Every e-bike must carry a label showing its class and maximum assisted speed.
Sellers, online included, must tell buyers when a faster or more powerful machine isn’t an e-bike and needs registering, a licence and insurance to ride on the road.
Higher-powered devices face tougher battery and electrical safety standards.
Police incident reports must record the vehicle’s classification and labelling, so the state finally gets decent crash data on what’s actually being ridden.
The law also spells out what e-motos are. As Bicycle Retailer reportsan electric moped is now any two or three-wheeler with a motor of less than 4 horsepower (3,000W) that can do up to 30mph, “whether equipped with pedals or not”. Anything with up to 3,750W is a ‘motor-driven cycle’. Both must meet US federal motor vehicle safety standards, and you’ll need an M1 or M2 motorcycle licence in the US to ride one on the road. Sellers also have to state in all their advertising, online included, that these are motor vehicles that need registering, licensing and insuring for road use.
“I thank the Governor for signing SB 1167, which ensures that consumers know if they are buying an e-bike or something else that goes much faster and carries greater risk.”
Senator Catherine Blakespear
The bill went through without opposition – the Assembly vote was 77-0. A report commissioned by the state legislature from the Mineta Transportation Institute had already found that California’s existing categories were “increasingly difficult to apply” to a market full of machines that blur the line between bicycle and motorcycle.
Backed by the bike industry
As with the European manifesto, the push came from inside cycling. SB 1167 was co-sponsored by the industry body PeopleForBikes and the advocacy group CalBike, along with Streets For All and Streets Are For Everyone.
PeopleForBikes policy counsel Matt Moore said the law “will protect consumers, help preserve access to legitimate low-speed electric bicycles, and promote their adoption and use.” CalBike executive director Kendra Ramsey put it more simply: “Parents should be able to shop for an e-bike without having to investigate whether the product lives up to its description.”
That phrase about preserving access is the key bit for mountain bikers. In the US, whether you can ride an eMTB on a given trail often depends on it being a Class 1 e-bike. If electric motorbikes are being sold under the same name, it doesn’t take long for land managers to start lumping them all together – and the industry knows it.
Two ends of the same problem
Put the two stories side by side and a pattern appears. In Europe, European Cycling Industries wants tuning kits banned, online marketplaces held jointly liable for selling them, and manufacturers to stop building bikes with hidden unlock codes. In California, lawmakers are going after sellers who put the ‘e-bike’ label on things that are really motorbikes.
One deals with legal bikes made illegal after purchase, the other with illegal machines sold as legal ones. But the aims are the same: make it clear at the point of sale what you’re buying, make the people selling it answerable, and collect the data that’s been missing. Both also lean heavily on enforcement that hasn’t really existed so far.
And in both cases it’s the bike industry asking for tighter rules, not fighting them. Having spent years persuading governments and land managers that e-bikes are bicycles, it now has a clear interest in keeping the faster stuff out of that category.
Where does that leave the UK?
Our rules are already much tighter than California’s. A legal UK e-bike is limited to 250W continuous power and 15.5mph (25km/h) of assistance, and has to be pedalled to get the motor going. Anything beyond that is legally a motor vehicle, needing registration, insurance and a licence, whatever the box or online listing calls it.
The trouble, as anyone who has seen a ‘mountain bike’ doing 40mph through a town centre will know, is that the law and what’s on the road aren’t the same thing. Carlisle MP Julie Minns’ Ten Minute Rule bill to ban the marketing and sale of non-compliant e-bikes and conversion kits would cover a lot of the same ground as SB 1167, but it is still waiting for a second reading date.
California is one US state, and Europe’s industry has only put forward proposals so far. But between them they possibly show which way things are heading: the definition of an e-bike is finally being defended more firmly, and the people selling bikes – and kits, and things that are basically motorbikes – are going to be expected to take responsibility for what they sell. It would be no surprise to see the UK follow.
