If you happen to see a couple of e-bike riders pedaling through Key Biscayne on Crandon Boulevard, in the bike lane, pedaling a Class 1 device (20 mph maximum), don’t get upset.
They are not breaking the nearly two-year ban on motorized micro-mobility devices, which applies only on Village-regulated streets, sidewalks and parks, for example. Crandon is a County-regulated corridor.
“It’s not a loophole, it’s the law,” said Michel Leroux, whose Coral Gables area business, Lovelo Tour, has begun sending casual e-bikers along Crandon through the Village to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park as part of a 23-stop educational and sightseeing self-tour from south Brickell across the Rickenbacker Causeway and back.
“They’re not in violation of anything,” said Key Biscayne Police Chief Frank Sousa. “They’re allowed to do it, in the bike lane only, with Class 1 bikes, the kind you have to pedal. They go through an entire safety education course (with their customers) and they’re well aware of the Village ordinance.”
Two Lovelo tour bikers high-fiving in front of the Cape Florida Light.
Instagram / lovelotour
That ordinance was assumed by many to be a blanket ban within all of the Village and some residents have even stopped some of the e-bikers in December asking them if they knew about the ban.
Village Attorney Chad Friedman last week supplied Islander News with the substitute Memorandum from Miami-Dade County officials (prepared by Commissioner Raquel Regalado), which does indeed allow e-bikes and electric scooters, not to exceed 20 mph on level ground, in bike lanes on County-regulated roads.
In this case, it allows “County residents and visitors to (ride) that portion of Crandon Boulevard between the northern limits of the Village of Key Biscayne to the northern entrance of the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park” to provide a “social benefit” with no environmental impacts from the battery-operated devices, which must have a motor of less than 750 watts.
“They are very familiar with the rules,” Sousa said of Leroux’s customers.
In October, Key Biscayne Village Council members voted to continue the blanket e-bike ban on local streets, which began immediately after the Feb. 14, 2024 tragedy involving Megan Andrews, a longtime learning disabilities specialist and tutor.
Friedman said, according to the local laws, “The Village does not permit any e-bikes on Village-maintained streets,” but the legislation “does not apply to a person with a disability who uses a motorized wheelchair or similar mobility device for mobility purposes, or government personnel.”
What is the Lovelo Tour business?
Leroux hails from Montreal and, as he turns 65 this week, he’s figured to have pedaled some 150,000 kilometers (more than 93,000 miles) in various countries on his regular bike, including a three-year trek from Canada to Panama from 2015-2018.
A Lovelo biker taking in the scenery while on a tour.
Instagram / lovelotour
“To me, this is the best way to travel, to smell the fresh air, feel connected to nature and see all the sights,” he said.
In November 2022, he incorporated his self-tour e-bike business into Florida, called Lovelo, a morphing of love and bike (“velo” is the word for bike in French). Late last year he started his first tours from Alice Wainwright Park in south Brickell through Key Biscayne and into the Cape Florida State Park.
“It took that long to create,” he said. “Now, we’re getting some traction. It’s such an amazing place.”
The self-guided tours are fairly high-tech, too. Each bike is equipped with a phone mount that allows the rider to listen to the nuances of a particular historic site, whether it’s Miami Marine Stadium, the entry to Key Biscayne or the famed lighthouse at the state park, educating both residents and tourists from afar.
The app was developed by two programmers in Ireland. For added safety, the Shokz “earbuds” are actually connected to the rider’s cheeks, where reverberations of sound can be distinctly heard, as well as nearby traffic.
Two Lovelo tourists on the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park trail.
Instagram / lovelotour
“When I was there riding, I must have biked that trail 300 times,” Leroux said. “There’s so much natural beauty, so many things to talk about.”
There even are deeper educational components than just the historic sites, one offering talks about the nature ecosystem surrounding Biscayne Bay.
“I think that goes back to me as a 4-year-old getting lost in the marsh in Nova Scotia,” he said. “The power of understanding nature.”
Leroux has a residence between Key Biscayne and Coral Gables. Soon, Lovelo will open a tour of the Coral Gables area and another on the Venetian Causeway into Miami Beach. In addition, two tours will open this summer in Charleston. S.C., and others in Germany, Brussels and France.
“The idea is going well,” he said.
‘We’re doing it the right way’
Leroux uses Class 1 pedal-assisted e-bikes from Netherlands-based Gazelle, the oldest e-bike company in the world, starting with designs in 1892, believe it or not.
“These are the Mercedes-Benz of bicycles,” he said, noting some costing $5,000 for their quality of components and their focus on safety.
The educational chat is developed by a “PhD professor” along with GPS technology alerts when the destination is reached.
A tourist setting her GPS on her phone, attached to the Lovelo e-bike.
Instagram / lovelotour
“We’re ahead of the curve,” said Leroux, when asked about competing self tours.
Tour of up to four riders leave every 15 minutes, between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., to allow a full day of riding and sightseeing before the 4 p.m. return time.
Cost is $115 per rider Monday-Thursday and $129 Friday through Sunday.
According to one of Lovelo’s employees, Mark Berry, typical tours take between four and five hours, including an allowance for a snack or extra-long look at the beach.
Leroux said some businesses on Key Biscayne are even seeing the plus side, with riders often stopping in at, say, Flour & Weirdoughs, a short push of the bike from Crandon to Harbor Drive.
There is no age limit (other than broad State rules) to take a Lovelo Tour ride. Leroux said one must be “at least 4-foot-10, and you need to know how to ride a bike. We’re not just going to take your money.”
Leroux said he was actually living on Key Biscayne “when everybody was riding the scooter bikes, at 9 at night, you’d see three kids zooming across Village Green with no helmets.”
He’s also sad when the tragic incident happened in 2024, but he’s glad the ban rule went into effect.
“This business is not about money; this is about a swan song for me, to get people to reconnect with nature,” Leroux said. “We’re doing it the right way, and we respect all the rules around us.”
For more information, visit lovelotour.com