Originally Posted by
Allen
Level ground. A 2 watt motor can propel a bike faster than 20mph if you are rolling down Brasstown Bald. A thousand watt motor is going to have difficulty pushing you faster than 20 mph up Brasstown Bald.
The reason the law says level ground is because that is a non ambiguous standard.
There is a misunderstanding here. I'm not asking what the law says, or why, nor how e-bikes are designed in order to comply. I think I'm pretty clear on those questions.
I'm asking a more legal question. The law evidently doesn't prohibit a bike that could go 25 mph uphill, even it intended to.
A 50 pound bike could easily go 28-30 up a 4% grade with 1000 watts. It has a cutoff on level ground +/- .5 degrees, and disengages a pedal clutch at 19. Now regarding the statute:
It's not more than 1000 watts so it complies with A.
There is a cutoff acting on level ground that turns the motor off at 20 (since I installed one), so it complies with B
Human power alone was not used to reach 20 mph (since I engage pedal clutch somewhere below 20) so it complies with C.
So, in a literal legal sense, how does my 30 mph bike not comply with the code?