New Federal E-Bike Legislation March 2026

[stompandgo]

I think that the only saving grace for MA not doing bans so far is that they shelled out for a massive voucher program the past two years that subsidized e-bike sales for low income residents that had no other means of transportation. Thousands were sold on my tax dollars dime. It cost the shop money in the end.

It would be quite embarrassing if they were banned from the safest places to ride them.

That said, the politicians in this state are some of the stupidest in the nation. No decision they make would surprise me.

 

[Ken M]

There was once a law that cars were required to have a flagger walk 1/8 mile ahead of the automobile to warn people of the approaching vehicle

That was a "use" law - an example of when a state does something stupid like the 3-class legislation (this was not a "use" law). For interstate commerce we need federal definitions for what is legal for sale in all 50 states (HR727 did that for low power electric bikes but also established that they were just another type of bike...not a motor vehicle so long as compliant). These are two mutually exclusive things that is causing much of the confusion. HR727 (what defines a "low speed electric bike" for the CPSC) is very basic and established that under motor power alone the speed was limited to 20mph (that did not mean that level of assist could not continue to avoid the cut-off that the EU pushed). It did not distinguish between pedal assist or throttle because they guy that wrote it was smart enough to know that would have zero merit (no safety merit, no real performance merit).

You have been dealing with state "use" regulations. Somehow states are thinking a Surron with pedals is a compliant ebike and they are not. When they think that they want to ban them but they are not even compliant LSEBs so a separate product all together anyway.

 

[Chargeride]

Theres an awful lot of misinformation, misconceptions and purposeful ignorance.
The only thing preventing complete lockdown is climate change.
Its not a good look to be clamping down on zero emission ,personal low speed transport.
Speed is relative, I have got used to 16mph, and tbh in such a small country as mine its a good idea to slow to see its endless hidden history.

Millions of people, myself included walk around the countryside at 3mph, an ebike is powered to 5X that speed.

10X downhill

 

[Ken M]

10X downhill

Yes....10X downhill is easy to do without a motor or even pedaling which is why the 28-30mph top assist makes a little sense as an ebike would not really exceed a speed commonly achieved on traditional bikes. Going downhill is also when a lot of accidents happen...maybe the largest %.