The difference is in the on-road experience. With this you are classified as a motor vehicle and can expect to keep up with and maneuver through road speed traffic.

That's actually what pedal-assist restrictions are all about, clearly delineating the bicycles from the motorbikes. This also manages expectations for users. You shouldn't expect to play in traffic at 60+kmph as a cyclist, and you shouldn't expect to be riding your much heavier, much faster electric moped on bike paths.

The form factors can make that line blurry, you could totally have a bicycle that can do 60+ and you could easily have a moped that looks small enough to be a bicycle. Hence the regulations to clear up any confusion.

From a personal exprience point of view, I would expect to be able to comfortably wear leathers and a moto helmet and not negatively impact the ride. On a pedal assist bicycle there is no way I am wearing leathers and because of that I don't want to be going 60-80kmph in traffic unprotected, I want to be on seperated bike paths.

In Germany, this is the opposite of what I want.

I'm a long-time motorcyclist, but around the city, I prefer my bicycle. I can go on beautiful bike paths through parks, take breaks along the river, and not worry about a helmet hair. At lower speeds I don't need protective gear. I can carry much more stuff with my saddle bags.

Oh and there are no biannual inspections, no insurance, no petrol. Maintaining a bicycle is a breeze.

In Berlin, bicycle is just better. An electric one would be just as good, even with the EU limitations.

To give people an idea of the subjective difference...

Decades ago, I used to be a bicycle commuter in Somerville, MA (USA). There weren't any usable bike paths, and so cyclists had to use the street and follow traffic rules like any other vehicle—lanes, signaling, etc. Local police enthusiastically enforced the law, and normally expected adult bikes to act as vehicles. Drivers were typical for the Boston area: Aggressive, minimal use of signals, but good awareness.

There was a major 3-lane intersection with roads going (left)/(left+straight)/(straight+right). A safe left turn required moving into and fully occupying the middle lane in traffic, typically sprinting at around 30 km/h. Which is about the top legal speed I've seen for pedal assist. This is not an especially comfortable speed in complex traffic, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't think you'd want lots of unskilled people doing this on ebikes, either. With 30 km/h intersections, you want people to be predictable and to strictly follow all traffic laws. And to be honest, casual cyclists do not reliably follow traffic laws.

On steep, empty roads, I've twice hit about 65 km/h on descents on road bikes. I personally found this unnerving without full motorcycle gear, especially when I encountered poor road conditions on a corner. Never again.

So yeah, an electric moped is a whole different game than a class 1 peddle-assist ebike. 30 km/h accidents can be awful, but 50 km/h accidents can easily turn deadly for the unprotected human body.

>you want people to be predictable and to strictly follow all traffic laws

There's a pretty strong contradiction here. Nowhere on earth, except maybe North Korea does the traffic actually reflect the law.

And IMO predictability > letter of the law every time.

I’ve gone 50-60 kmph with traffic before on a road bike, it’s not too hard because the cars provide a lot of draft, but yeah I wouldn’t want to be mixed with traffic on two wheels, even with leathers you can still get run over by the car right behind you. I’ve seen countless instances of a motorbike hitting a pothole and then getting run over by an SUV or just a bus turning and not noticing a motorbike.

You're also a whole lot less visible as a bicycle, which is an issue even at 20kmph, you'd have people pancaked in no time if you could all-motor around at 60kmph on a vehicle that only has bicycle lighting regulations.

When I bought my scooter the 50cc models I test drove could not reliably keep up with 30-35mph traffic. My 125cc does fine up to 45mph except on a steep incline.

and yet here in NYC, we have people taking electric mopeds down the Hudson greenway and other protected pedestrian+bike paths.

I visited NYC this summer and observed a significant volume of gas mopeds on the protected bike paths. Gross!

Oh I believe that, NYC is chaos. I bet people use those gas powered one-wheels wherever they want too

50cc mopeds don’t generally require a motorcycle endorsement in the US.

an ebike doesn't even require a driver license

Electric Mopeds sit in a middle-ground, with more power, higher top speeds than ebikes but more restrictive licensing rules.

For example, an ebike in Europe is speed limited to 25kph, and just small motors that can only output 250W.

ebikes have power limits or speed limits depending on the country.

So do “50cc” mopeds.

In many countries, (incl. US), you can ride a moped with just a car license. The registration is greatly simplified compared to car and insurance wouldn't be that much.

I'd say in most of the EU you can ride <125ccm motorbike with regular car license, so this changes nothing at least in EU.

Heck, I don't even know what is supposed to be "50ccm" ebike, ebikes are limited by laws in regard to their power wattage (250W) and speed (25kmh), not volume.

Specifically EU directive says for pedal assisted ebike is this: "cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with an auxiliary electric motor having a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kW, of which the output is progressively reduced and finally cut off as the vehicle reaches a speed of 25 km/h [15.5 mph], or sooner, if the cyclist stops pedalling"

Everything else ain't ebike and requires some sort of license. Though of course the reality is police won't be checking every single ebike on road and they have no way to meaure the power.

The 50cc and 125cc motorcycle classes are defined in the EU as both maximum volume and maximum power output in kW. So it's not too unusual to see '50cc-class' and '125cc-class' as descriptors for electric vehicles - a bit like how you could buy compact fluorescent or LED lights as '100W equivalent'.

According to the California DMV, you can't ride a moped without a motorcycle licence:

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/new-regis...

"You must have a motorcycle license (M1 or M2) to drive a moped."

In Oregon if it is less than 50cc and can not go faster than 30mph on a flat level surface than it only requires a normal car driver's license. No motorcycle endorsement is required.

https://www.oregon.gov/odot/forms/dmv/6619.pdf

I looked into it years ago and a moped license was way easier to get than a motorcycle license. Now it appears they both have the same requirements, just the M2 is more restricted in what it can be used for.

California is unusually restrictive compared to the rest of the country.

Ebikes have restrictions on power, or speed in most places. Of course this is largely not enforced when people DIY, but a legit company can't just bring a mass produced 2000w ebike to market.

I don’t have a response to your first question - some modern e-bikes are very capable.

But in many jurisdictions registering a moped is extremely easy - in MA and VT at least, it’s honor system. In MA you have to go into the RMV but don’t have to have anything beyond the bill of sale and a VIN. VT you can even send in the form, you don’t even have to live in VT.

You usually have to have a learners permit at the very least - sometimes a drivers license. I’m sure there are some places where you need a motorcycle endorsement, but I’m not aware of any in the US.

In my state a moped only requires a driver's license. No title, registration, insurance or M class endorsement required.

I guess that's all the same questions for mopeds everywhere?