New Regulations in New Jersey, USA

NJ municipalities codify electric bicycle and scooter regulations ; https://hudsonreporter.com/2021/10/13/north-hudson-municipalities-codify-electric-bicycle-and-scooter-regulations/

Is it time, in NJ to go stealth, ultra stealth or does it matter?

20mph and 750W aint to bad, just engrave 750W onto the motor and slap a 750W sticker on the controller. Then, hide a 2kw rear hub motor behind some rear rack pannier bags, and setup pedal assist to force pedaling and it'll all be fine. I would actually have pedal assist and throttle, use throttle for the hills if you dont want to break any kind of sweat and ghost/fake pedal.

All depends on how anal the Fuzz are.

aroundqube said:

NJ municipalities codify electric bicycle and scooter regulations ; https://hudsonreporter.com/2021/10/13/north-hudson-municipalities-codify-electric-bicycle-and-scooter-regulations/

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The real question is, do the NJ cops give a shit? Clown pedal like hell when you see one.

Obviously though, this won't work if you get seen taking off like a motorcycle at the stop light. 40 mph does look a bit suspicious.

Build for 30 mph, and you should be fine. That's only 1000w, and enough for a bicycle. I still stand by my advice to buy a motorcycle if a motorcycle is what you really want, and cops give a shit where you are.

Yep. It is not the rules that politicians vote that matters, it is the rules that are applied by the police on the streets. Generally, they apply traffic laws and care little about the specific regulations of vehicles.

This is the thing that bugs me the most about the whole "Class" law thing being lobbied by the industry through People for Bikes:

"There are two classifications: “class 1 low-speed electric bicycle” which is equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and ceases at a speed of 20 miles per hour; or “class 2 low-speed electric bicycle” which is equipped with a motor that may be used exclusively to propel the bicycle and is not capable of providing assistance when reaching 20 miles per hour."

Which basically boils down to if your bike has a throttle that you will only use that throttle and never pedal. While that could be the case most bikes these days that have a throttle also have some method of PAS and as long as you are following the watt limit guidlines and the speed limit who freaking cares? Someone on a PAS only bike could easily put it into "turbo" and ghost pedal just as fast. Yet there seems to be a big deal, especially in regards to trail access that focuses on Class 1 use only.

Signed,

Proud to be a 2nd Class cyclist
(and live 3thousand miles from NJ to begin with)

As you say, the language doesn't mention pedal input force, and it doesn't technically require any kind of PAS, it just needs some kind of motor disconnect if you stop pedaling. Might be an interesting option for the fancier controllers that have variable regen - instead of some wacky setup with a throttle control, that could be controlled by back-pedaling, like the coaster brake of old. Start by shutting off the motor at 0 speed, as any bike motor should shut off when applying the brake.

In reality, no one's going to know if you really have an "only when the rider is pedaling" motor, as long as they don't see you riding around without pedaling. So when in NJ, don't do that.

But yeah, the classes are BS. We have the industry to thank for this, I think. They don't really care a lot about the principles of what would logically make sense, they want to sell bicycles with the gimmicks they can order from the catalogue. "People for Bikes", ha.

MadRhino said:

Yep. It is not the rules that politicians vote that matters, it is the rules that are applied by the police on the streets. Generally, they apply traffic laws and care little about the specific regulations of vehicles.

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Yeah true it’s more about what’s enforced. Especially in a city where there’s actual crime. The cops are worried about murderers and rapists not people on their darn E bikes :lol:
But as you pointed you don’t want to be seen going 40 mph :lol:

Well, depends on where you are. In my town in New Mexico, nobody gave much a shit if I rode 40 mph on a 45 mph street. Not even cops.

Got some smiles and thumbs up from some cops though. This has to do with the long white ponytail I'm sure. I'm riding with the old fart exemption now. Plus, riding at the speed limit on the correct side of the street and stopping at stop signs does help how law enforcement sees you. When a car smashes you like a bug, they will scrape you up seems to be the attitude, if you stay on the street.

When I was a punk, cops needed only to see my face to pull me over, and check my turn signals, tread depth, whatever they could think of to give me a ticket. Yeah, I earned that status as a Juvenile and had to cool it once I was 18.

dogman dan said:

Well, depends on where you are. In my town in New Mexico, nobody gave much a shit if I rode 40 mph on a 45 mph street. Not even cops.

Got some smiles and thumbs up from some cops though. This has to do with the long white ponytail I'm sure. I'm riding with the old fart exemption now. Plus, riding at the speed limit on the correct side of the street and stopping at stop signs does help how law enforcement sees you. When a car smashes you like a bug, they will scrape you up seems to be the attitude, if you stay on the street.

When I was a punk, cops needed only to see my face to pull me over, and check my turn signals, tread depth, whatever they could think of to give me a ticket. Yeah, I earned that status as a Juvenile and had to cool it once I was 18.

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Yeah same here I’ve had many cops smile and give me a nod. I passed a cop the other day going in the other direction around 45 mph but I don’t even think he noticed, he probably assumed I was a motorcycle lol it was starting to get dark.

As far as being smashed like a bug, I rarely ride on the street with traffic. When there’s no cars I’ll hop on the street. When I see cars coming from behind if there’s more than one I just get back on the sidewalk. Traffic in my city is crazy every single day in the city limits someone is shot and killed in traffic over road rage. Not to mention you can’t go anywhere without seeing a wreck. I blame this on Covid stress it was never like this before

When I ride the streets I ride in between so going 40 miles an hour is great because I go in between the pockets of traffic and I really don't have to deal with traffic. One time I was flying down a hill in my air pocket and I look up on the other side of the hill on the golf course and there is a motorcycle cop with a radar gun pointed right at me I see him pick it up look at the speed and pointed to get at me and take a second reading oh yeah I was peddeling like a windmill. I don't think he cared. Another little cop 5'2ft to pull me over maybe stare into the sun while he was on the other side of me and drilling me down and I told him I was just going about four miles up the road and I can ask him should I take the bike back down or strike continue up the road eagles I'll go right ahead he was mad at me.

Long as you weren't going over the speed limit the radar cop may not care. Just avoid 40 mph through that 15 mph school zone.

As for smashed like a bug on a car, I only meant then they will notice you. Avoid that, and its all good.

Mostly ride in the city. You get the one in a hand full of people that just don't like bikes on their roads. The rest are not to bad. Had to learn which roads to get around in the city. Few more have bike lanes (not that cars care) try to use them. Pass Cops often they just look at me. Obey the traffic laws, don't ride on sidewalks and they don't bother. Riding a trike gets looks here most have no idea what it is and the last thing they think about if it has power. Some think it's a handicap thing (trike) so it supposed to have power. Guess I need to get a handicap sticker.