How exactly have I ranted against electric bicycles? Have had one myself, the next one is in pretty much planned out and slowly coming together... I also sing their praises to whoever wants to listen... It would seem highly unlikely I'd be ranting against them.
But I'll defend them against presenting electric motorcycles as being electric bicycles so as to avoid things like registration and the extensive modifications they would need before being allowed on roads. A half assed motorcycle does not an electric bicycle make... There are different terms used to describe different categories of vehicles, and when one starts calling pretty much anything a bicycle, it goes against the purpose of having different names to describe these realities. It's about as absurd as calling every fruit a banana. Allow me to demonstrate:
The Jackalope is slower then that Perm132 last "electric bicycle" in this thread. It also has no usable pedals, but then we've already established that it's fine if It "assists" the energy input used to turn the throttle! Hey, looks like it's got everything to make it an "electric bicycle"! One that eats up 50cc limited speed motorcycles too! Joy! Motorcyclez suckz0rz!
Or how about this "electric bicycle", home made & all, it's driven by an Etek that's even less powerful then the Perm132 powered "electric bicycle" earlier in this thread, nor does it have vestigial pedals etc... But hey since the last ones were fine as "electric bicycles" and this one's even slower, then surely it's one too! Yeah, take that big oil! "Electric bicycles" FTW!
Electric motorcycles have poor range and are expensive to purchase, they also cost more then a conventional motorcycle to keep running. Yes, you can get a converted electric motorcycle from some shops, EG:
http://www.electricmotorsport.com/ But my guess it big players won't waste their time with that since few people would be interested to buy one... Peugeot tried their hand with the Scoot'elec, and ate dirt...
So here's another home grown "electric bicycle"! Lithium-iron powered, bleeding edge experimental technology as showed off at make faire. Again fits in all requirements to be thought of as an "electric bicycle"! Yay! These guys are really advancing "electric bicycle" technology for sure!
Afteral, only losers get their home built electric motorcycles registered, smart people just ride their vehicle illegally so they don't have to go through that pesky registration, calling it an "electric bicycle" with a wink, until they get ebikes outlawed where they live (re: Randy/Maui) or get a criminal citation for it (Matt in Florida)...
But seriously, none of these are even close to being electric bicycles, there's little chance of registering them as mopeds either, and most blow by limited speed motorcycle territory...