Comment by DonHopkins | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DonHopkins | Hacker News Reader

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Throttled motors on ebikes are terribly unsafe, compared to pedal assist central motors. I just got rear-ended by an illegally hot-rodded fat bike with a throttle, when the asshole lost control of his bike after hitting my rear wheel trying to pass at illegally high speed without bothering to ring his bell, and he flipped over and spilled onto the bike path.

I was fine, but surprised he so carelessly and thoughtlessly sneaked up on me and tried to pass when I was already going fast downhill off of a bridge over a canal, on my legal eBike with 25 kph maximum assist.

Pedaling makes you pay attention and gives you direct control over the speed, and the assist drops out once you're going >25 kph. The asshole who hit me from behind probably didn't have time to find the throttle with his hand, and was never really in control of his bike or paying much attention up to when he freaked out and hit me.

What to do about fatbikes endangering our safety?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/1knza1c/what_t...

Fatbikes in the Netherlands 2026: What You Actually Need to Know

https://bikefair.org/blog/fatbikes-netherlands-guide-2026

This drives me mad as well. Electric bikes should be limited to 25kph and non throttled in Europe, yet half the bikes I see are both, and drive recklessly.

The other day I was passed by one which kept up with the cars on the main road, which has a speed limit of 80km/h. Most cars don't go full speed there, but will reach at least 60km/h . On it were two young boys without helmets. It's insane.

I don't really get that logic. Cars can do way over 100 yet no one calls for limiting all cars all the time, because some drivers drive reckless.

And if we want to limit cars - you know, the number one thing that actually kills a lot of people directly - then I don't think it helps artificially limiting alternatives like E-Bikes.

The only difference is with enforcing the rules, but there are solutions for that. Police on E-Bikes doing patrolling, mandatory number plates, E-Bike driving licence, .. not that I want all those things, but I much rather have that and not crippled bikes so cars stay the norm.

You are being confused, vehicles by themselves are not limited, their category is.

You can have an electric vehicle that runs at 100kph if you want, but that is not a bike, that is a motorcycle.

The problem here is people having vehicles assimilated as ebikes, but with radically different specs.

I have no problem with these guys driving their vehicles on the car lane, like motorbikes do, but that's not what we're talking about here.

These vehicles are running on the bike lane, drivers are without helmets, they cross pavements, and enjoy all the slow vehicles perks, while being far more dangerous for their surroundings.

Ok, but I am talking about being able to drive in city traffic and keep up with cars and not be a blocker - and then go to the forest with my e-bike where I do mind the other people walking around there and drive adequate. Not possible with current legislation.

I can only drive my E-Bike with my car to the forest (like to many people do), or drive slowly there myself.

In Europe a class 1 ebike can't have a throttle and assist must be limited to 25km/h (it's 32km/h in the US). They can be faster and have a throttle, but then they are more like scooters in terms of licensing and insurance. If you go to most bike shops in Western Europe they will only have class 1 e-bikes. A class 1 bike is generally allowed everywhere a bike is.

While there are a lot of people riding more powerful bikes in Europe illegally, at least some countries are trying to crack down on them. In the US, it seems easier to buy class 2 and 3 e-bikes, and there seems to be a higher proportion of illegal bikes. It's an open secret which "class 1" bikes you can buy and then overclock easily.

So in Europe you mostly have class 1 e-bikes and obviously illegal (as in you can tell just by looking at them), but in the US you have these plus a lot of class 2 and 3 e-bikes, and overclocked class 1 e-bikes. The end result is most mountain bike trails in Europe allow class 1 e-bikes only, but in the US it's impossible to enforce class 1 only, so a lot of regions are trending towards banning all e-bikes from all trails. So be careful about wishing for a more powerful e-bike you can drive in traffic and mountain bike trails.

Throttled motors on ebikes are terribly unsafe, compared to pedal assist central motors.

Feels like an overgeneralization. I have a perfectly slow Ride1Up Roadster V3. It's a PA bike with a throttle, but it's not a hot rod. Max speed with my weight is around 20MPH. I use the throttle to just get moving on inclines or at stops when I forgot to downshift.

That said, there are plenty of idiots around on bikes and cars.

https://ride1up.com/product/roadster-v3/

To be clear, when i said we need controls on the handlebars, i was talking about an "assist level setting" like you have on the app, not a throttle. I had this on all my electric bikes: a button and a small LCD to indicate assist level 0-3.

Although in my experience when your bike/cargo is heavily loaded, a throttle is nice to get running, especially when stopped at a red light going uphill. Borrowed one like this and it was really useful. But i agree with your sentiment i see many people with throttled bikes going really fast and careless.

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