Q: Can e-bike riders use city and county trails?
A: Sometimes when I get a question I like to imagine the sentence before the question. For example, the lead-in to this one could be, “I have a new e-bike, and now I’m trying to figure out where I can ride it.” Or, it could be, “My neighbor got a new e-bike and is constantly riding it on the trails in our neighborhood.”
Either way, the answer is the same. What changes is how you’ll feel about the answer. Before we can answer the question though, we need to understand how Washington categorizes electric bikes. There are three classes of e-bikes. Class one and class two both have a top assisted speed of 20 mph. Any speed above 20 mph is entirely on human power. What separates class one and class two bikes is that on a class one bike you have to pedal to get any assistance from the motor, while on a class two bike the motor can provide power even if you’re not pedaling. A class three bike has a top assisted speed of 28 mph.
Continue reading “The Limits of Riding E-Bikes on Trails”