If you’ve been looking around at buying an e-bike lately, you’ve surely noticed that they’re categorized into three classes in the US. But the e-bike market is fairly immature, and the laws are constantly changing. What do you make of all this new lingo you have to learn?
class 1
The electric motor provides power only when you’re pedaling. There’s no hand throttle on a class one e-bike to make it scoot along without pedaling, and the electrical assistance is limited to 20 miles per hour.
The bike won’t stop you from accelerating once you hit 20 MPH. You can go faster—many e-bikes come with mechanical gears, too, like a regular bike—but it’ll be all muscle power past 20 MPH.
class 2
The only real difference between a class 1 e-bike and a class 2 -bike is that the latter has a hand throttle mounted on the handlebars. While the main method to get around remains electrical assistance that comes while you pedal the bike, the hand throttle can be used for limited bursts of power without the need to pedal.
If you only rely on the hand throttle, thinking you’ll cheat your way to having what’s basically an electric motorcycle with vestigial pedals, you’ll be disappointed. It’ll burn through your battery so quickly that you’ll never be able to get far from home.
Hand throttles work best when used sparingly. When I’m riding an e-bike with a hand throttle, I like to use it to accelerate away from stoplights, saving my sore legs the extra strain that comes with starting from a standstill.
Like with a class 1 bike, once you reach 20 MPH, that’s it. The motor won’t propel you to 21 MPH or beyond, whether you pedal or use the hand throttle.
class 3
Now we’re talkin’. Here’s where you get a bump in speed up to 28 MPH. As long as you’re pedaling, the electric motor will give you a power boost all the way up to 28 MPH. Like with any e-bike, you can pedal faster than the speed cutoff, but you’ll have to do it without the motor giving you a hand.
Class 3 e-bikes may have a hand throttle. It depends on whether the manufacturer offers one. Certain states don’t let class 3 e-bikes have hand throttles at all. If your class 3 bike does have one, then the throttle only provides power up to 20 MPH.
beyond?
Is there a class 4? Well, no. But there are some (very few) e-bikes that are unclassified because they don’t put the necessary restrictions in place to qualify them as class 3.
Many e-bike manufacturers sell bikes that are electronically limited to 28 miles per hour, although with a wink and a nod, there’s sometimes an option within the smartphone to disable the speed limiter and eke out a few extra miles per hour.
The caveat is that you’re only supposed to do it off public roads, and you have to click through an agreement saying that you don’t plan to enable the feature unless you comply.
E-bikes are cool machines, and in class 3 guise, they’re even able to keep up with city traffic here in New York City. But even the lowliest class 1 e-bike is able to keep pace at speeds beyond most of the analog commuter bikes you’ll pass. Buy the class that feels most appropriate to your budget.
Even with all the e-bikes I’ve tested over the years, my personal mount is a class 1 Propella, and I’m happy as hell with it.
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