PeopleForBikes<\/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to making spaces the best place to ride bikes, e-bikes are often treated like regular bicycles in California. But the class still matters for safety, and where riders can use them.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fd09d0ff-1053-432b-9be9-a0bc31f6d15a-082514_EBikes.jpg\"\/)
An electric bicycle, or e-bike, on display Monday. Riders said they could tell an electric motor would help out on hills.<\/p>\n
FILE<\/p>\n
Class 1 e-bikes provide motor assistance only when a rider is pedaling and stop assisting at 20 mph. Class 2 e-bikes can also reach 20 mph, but include a throttle that allows riding without pedaling. Class 3 e-bikes are pedal-assist only and can go up to 28 mph.<\/p>\n
Snider said e-bikes can cross into a different legal category if they exceed certain speed thresholds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes an e-bike illegal is if it goes over a certain speed, without pedaling. So, if you can go over 28 miles per hour, I believe that it’s considered a moped or e-bike, and you do have to have a license for that,\u201d Snider said.<\/p>\n
![\"E-bike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0a2e0589-b519-454d-bee5-b293309e3617-large16x9_ebike.PNG\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Snider said most of her customers buy Class 1 or Class 2 e-bikes, and she emphasized that knowing the difference can help prevent serious crashes \u2014 especially on bike paths.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking sure that you are buying a class one or class two, and if you have a class one or class two, you can ride on bike paths. If you have anything modified over that, it’s really not recommended to write on bypaths because if you crash, there’s a much bigger impact,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rules can also vary by city. <\/p>\n
PeopleForBikes said local governments can decide where e-bikes are allowed, including whether they can be used on bike paths or trails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 E-bikes are becoming more common on local roads and bike paths, and so are questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-287263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Clovis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b94fd115-46fd-4360-a63d-547a617971af-vlcsnap2025062505h13m37s374.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n