Originally Posted by JeanCoutu
An electric bike is really just a bicycle with an electric helper motor tacked on. Some places limit the weight to around 35-40 kgs and power to 250-750w with a 15-20 mph motor cut off speed depending. You can pedal along meaningfully as they're going bicycle speeds, and really should if you want to go somewhere any faster then 20mph, or if you want to go far. Most all of them need some pedalling to go uphill even given full throttle. Also, they end up looking mostly like bicycles. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
Mopeds are built as lightweight motorcycles, they've got motorcycle tires with terrible rolling resistance, heavy weight, a motor that makes it go around 30mph and symbolic pedals tacked on. Symbolic partly because of the weight and rolling resistance, but compounded because they're geared unusably low and you can't really use them due to the position, or if you managed to you'd end up hurting your knees and such. In effect they're really just used to make it legal as a moped, although some need to be started by pedaling from a corner. They tend to look somewhat odd, or I'm not used to them, but they definitely don't look like bicycles.
The next category up is LSM (limited speed motorcycle) something like a scooter falls into this category, limited to around 70km/h. Beyond that you're riding a full blown motorcycle.
BTW, I know a guy who got a criminal citation riding a two wheeler he described as being an "ebike", even though it did not correspond to such... Guess that's something to think of for people who like to call their motorcycles "ebike" despite it going >40mph on it's own power for example... Call it what you will, but that's not an ebike...
People should be careful about what they call these things. It appears that, in Maryland at least, an ebike is a moped:
Originally Posted by Maryland Vehicle Code 11-134.1
"Moped" means a bicycle that:
(1) Is designed to be operated by human power with the assistance of a motor;
(2) Is equipped with pedals that mechanically drive the rear wheel or wheels;
(3) Has two or three wheels, of which one is more than 14 inches in diameter; and
(4) Has a motor with a rating of 1.5 brake horsepower or less and, if the motor is an internal combustion engine, a capacity of 50 cubic centimeters piston displacement or less.
http://www.sha.state.md.us/exploremd...bike_laws4.pdf
...subject to all the same laws as a regular bicycle with two exceptions:
1. You need a license to ride it (driver's license or moped license).
2. You can't ride on the sidewalk.