Mopeds in NC Now "Registered"

As of July 1, 2015, you must register a moped in North Carolina, and certify it's not a motorcycle. From the document http://www.ncdot.gov/download/dmv/VR_MVR1A.pdf here's the text:

***MOPED CUSTOMERS ONLY***
I attest to the following: (Must Initial)
1. This vehicle has two or three wheels, no external shifting device and a motor that does not exceed 50 cubic
centimeters piston displacement. ____________ (owner’s initial)
2. This vehicle cannot propel at a speed greater than 30 miles per hour on a level surface. ______(owner’s
initials)

I am apprehensive that the NC DMV refers to the public as "customers" now. At first I thought it was an improvement over "damn taxpayers we hate" but now it's just a euphemism for the same sentiment when you have no choice but to become...a..."customer" and you ride a moped.

No sign of ebike registration, but they came perilously close.

you should start to worry when they say "moped consumers".

My ebike has "no external shifting device and a motor that does not exceed 50 cubic centimeters piston displacement". I know that this is targeting small gas motor 49cc cycles that can go faster than 30mph, but it seems like the bikes can fall into that category.

I actually ran into similar language when looking for liability insurance for my bike. The insurance company form had this sort of language, and as far as I can tell my state laws for small displacement motorcycles cover my ebike.

The way I understand it from a bud of mine who lived in Europe for about a decade, is that they register, and insure, their bikes there. (Insurance against both liability and theft/damage/destruction, I think?)

Anyone on the forums in Europe care to comment about this?

I wonder if you can still ride the moped without a license...? NC if i remember correctly didn't require a license OR registration.

jkbrigman said:

The way I understand it from a bud of mine who lived in Europe for about a decade, is that they register, and insure, their bikes there. (Insurance against both liability and theft/damage/destruction, I think?)
Anyone on the forums in Europe care to comment about this?

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Registration and insurance of a moped has always been compulsory here. EU brought the compulsory driver"s licence requirement. Helmet laws came during the sixties if i remember correctly.
Insurance is there to pay your bills if you get hit, or you pay the bills of a person that you possibly run over. According to recent study 88% of our mopeds are illegally tuned. There is no power limit any more, only cylinder capacity and a speed limit. Going over 45 km/h is illegal but only exceeding 65 km/h makes your moped a motorcycle. E-Moped power limit is 4 kilowatts, pedals are not required.

by definition a moped must have pedals ... at least that was true when 'mopeds' were first created and were popular. They also had two and three speed gear boxes. I haven't seen a new one in over 30 years (maybe even 50 years)

Note the pedals

LewTwo said:

by definition a moped must have pedals ... at least that was true when 'mopeds' were first created and were popular. I haven't seen a new one in over 30 years.

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That was true fifty years ago, not anymore. Mopeds do not have to have pedals in Finland at least. Which is kinda funny i agree, because we call moped a MOPO, which means "motored bicycle".

Eskimo said:

That was true fifty years ago, not anymore. Mopeds do not have to have pedals in Finland at least. Which is kinda funny i agree, because we call moped a MOPO, which means "motored bicycle".

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That is because 'lawyers' are allowed to redefine the language to suit their own purposes (much like 'unlimited' data was defined by Sprint to be less than 5 gigabytes).
In English the term came from words "motor" and "pedal" --> moped. In fact you could not get the motor started unless the machine was rolling. That usually meant pedaling or pushing off downhill.