I once lived in Wilmington for a few years great place.
Yeah the problem with running illegally is that when you screw up, they tend to load you down with violations. Not to mention the lawsuits for damages. If you get convicted in traffic court for a violation, it automatically makes you lose the civil suit as well. Unlicensed and uninsured makes you liable even if HE runs the stop sign.
I run a 600 watt electric scooter motor at 24v at 36v. The motor is labeled 600watts so if the policeman doesn't count the batteries I'm bullet proof. If he does. I might have a bit of a problem. I have toyed with the idea of moving back to a gasoline friction drive motor, but it's the helmet law that stops me. Well not really...
I only use mine to ride a couple of miles, so I have plenty of juice for it. When next the legislature takes up license and registration requirements for the mopeds, whose numbers are climbing daily, I don't have to write angry letters to the editor. The maintenance is negligible, except I keep making improvements that turn out to be useless. Once the bike is setup right, it requires almost no maintenance. I have two bikes each with it's own battery pack.
If I did have to go two places, one right after the other, I could just switch out bikes ride one while the other recharges. If I need to go a greater distance than say seven miles, I can combine the battery packs and ride the bike about fifteen to twenty miles.
One of the bikes pulls a small trailer just for one battery pack, the other pulls a trailer with a big basket that will hold a second pack or groceries should I need to pick up something at the store. More likely something from the hardware store.
All in all the ebikes I have now are pretty much what I need. Yes I would like to have one that would take me on a road trip but alas ebikes have not come that far yet.