Did states have unique descriptions or classifications for Bikes? There was a federal definition and safety standards and states regulated the USE of those compliant bikes. Seems to me that it was working. A Low Speed Electric Bike definition was added to federal regulations in 2001 and there were no tangible issues until People for Bikes received lobby money from the auto industry to push the 3 class definition system. What I'm trying to get everybody that likes ebikes and wants to see the industry successful and to get more people out of cars is that this effort was purely regulatory capture by the auto industry (they were always planning to push license, registration, and insurance requirements on ebikes knowing that would limit their success, but the 2001 HR727 was always intended to get in their way - Currie was way ahead of them).
Note: By the way the class system has the same assist levels (via power rating which is not even a max power limit) in all 3 Classes while there is 2 different top assist speeds.
I have no clue why you would bring up ebike racing as that is entirely a different subject. They can establish what a compliant race ebike just like all other forms of racing. Stop trying to complicate this.
Does each state have safety and product definitions for automobiles, toasters, vacuums, etc. or do they focus on USE of those products and allow the federal regulations via the CPSC and NHTSA to regulate what is legal for sale in the states (read about interstate commerce and why these regulatory agencies we vastly popular when established - rarely does the federal government get some this right).
