California lawmakers are once again taking aim at the gray areas of electric bike regulation, this time by targeting what has quietly become one of the biggest loopholes in the state’s e-bike laws.
On Friday, Diane Papan (D–San Mateo) introduced Assembly Bill 1557, a measure designed to clarify that electric bicycles sold and operated in California must be limited to a maximum of 750 watts of peak motor power. If passed, the bill would end the long-running practice of marketing increasingly powerful e-bikes as “750-watt” and therefore street-legal, even when they can briefly deliver far more power than that.
Under current California law, e-bikes are limited to 750W, but the statute does not explicitly define whether that cap applies to continuous power or peak output. Many manufacturers have leaned hard into that ambiguity, advertising bikes as compliant while allowing short bursts of power that translate into rapid acceleration and higher real-world speeds…