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How big of a motor is legal on an electric bike? Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. And today we're gonna answer the question, how big of a motor is legal on an e-bike? All right, I'm in our corporate office today. You can see I'm surrounded by electric bikes here. Now, let's say you are shopping for an electric bike and you're considering all the different motor sizes, but you're concerned about legalities. Now, I know a lot of people say, don't worry about it. The cops will never pull you over. But, I will say in California, I'm seeing it happen more and more because a lot of people are pushing the limits on how large of an e-bike motor they can use. Now, I've taken some notes because I want to get this right. There are a few things to know about e-bikes. So, there are six states specifically that allow e-bikes to have a max power of 1,000 watts. Those states are Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Virginia. There are two states that don't have any maximum power limit, which are Florida and Mississippi. So actually, as long as it's a bicycle and it can be pedaled and has a motor in Florida and Mississippi, currently no max power at all in those states. And in the other six states, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Virginia. California, we have a max power of 750 watts. I'm assuming most of the other states that I haven't mentioned are gonna be about the same, but I would check out your state specifically, and if you just wanna be safe, I would say keep it under 750 watts.
Now, with that said, specific cities, neighborhoods, HOAs, and counties, have now implemented their e-bike restrictions in certain zones or areas, specifically on paths or trails. And a lot of them now are starting to limit them to certain miles per hour. So the wattage may matter more on the state or federal level, but for a certain jurisdiction, they're gonna have actual speed limit signs up. I know in some of the beach cities here in California, eight miles an hour is the speed limit. And they don't want you to use electricity in a lot of these eight-mile-an-hour zones as well. The other thing is on trails, national parks, mountain biking, a lot of them, single-track riding is gonna limit or restrict you from even having an electric bike, period. So it's not going to matter how many watts it is at all. Could be 250 watts if it says no e-bikes, it's no e-bikes at all. Now, with that said, I think you're gonna start to push the limits of being noticed if you start to go above 20 miles an hour on any given road. So even the e-bikes in California, 750 watts, actually can be capable of taking riders above 20 miles an hour. But another law in California is it's limited by speed. So for those other six states, I mentioned and the two, Florida and Mississippi, you also wanna check to see if they have speed limitations as well. Just because you have a thousand-watt motor doesn't mean they're going to let you go 40 miles an hour on an e-bike. In California, a 750-watt motor has, a max speed of 20 miles an hour, which is why most e-bikes set a limit in the computers to cap the speed at 20 miles an hour.
So it keeps riders safe, keeps everyone on the road safe. So it's important to be aware of the laws in your local jurisdiction. And if they're not published anywhere, check with your city hall. Or if you just want to be safe, keep it under 20 miles an hour, no matter how many watts you have. And that's a safe way to ride. And on e-trikes, 16 miles an hour is usually about the top that we like to see for most riders in order to stay safe on a three-wheel e-bike. So I hope that helps with the motor sizes. If you're shopping around, if you have any other questions at all, please reach out to us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us, at 310-982-2877. And don't forget, we have a 30-day test ride your e-trike policy. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we're gonna warranty everything for one year. If anything goes wrong in the first year, we take care of it, parts and labor. And lastly, be a part of our community. We have a Facebook group called sixthreezero Pedalers that has thousands of members. Join the group, and talk to existing riders before you purchase. Then when you have your e-bike, post in the group and make friends. It's a lot of fun. And then you can also download our app, track your rides, and compete on the leaderboard. So thanks for sticking around, and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.