Too bad someone doesn't have the time to make up printable documents the has each state's official law on motorized bicycles for users here to print and carry with them.
By
someone you mean someone other than you to keep track of the laws in all the other 49 states he doesn't live in and keep them updated so you don't have to look for yourself for your state?
I'll leave that at that.
Personally I know my my AZ state law by heart and it's here.
http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/ars/28/02516.htm&Title=28&DocType=ARS
The difference between you and I is not only did I find that with great ease I have been **** bent on changing Arizona's for 2 years with actual legal drafts of my proposals and facts to back up why and there is an actual bill in the AZ House after my persistence HR 2177,
http://www.azleg.gov//FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/hb2177o.asp&Session_ID=110 and I am not the least bit happy with the proposal as in short in outlaws every gas powered motorized bicycle in the state as drafted with 1.3HP gas motor limit.
You can be a pussy or you can keep pushing for change YOURSELF if you want it like I am doing now that at least something made it in this year to address motorized bicycle laws and just sent this off to the chairwoman and the other 5 members of the AZ House Transportation committee that will make the legal change and a bunch more people in blind carbon copies.
Here is E-mail in it's entirety:
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Dear distinguished AZ House District 1 Representative and Chairman of the House Transportation Committee Karen Fann and the other members of the AZ House Committee carbon copied with this e-mail,
Regarding the HR 2177 proposal to add electric power limits and changing the gas power output on motor assisted bicycles to the existing ARS 28-2516 statute let us please be pragmatic about it…
First off the motor assist laws do not supersede regular bicycle laws which require among other things reflectors, a front light at night, only riding on roadways and not the sidewalks, keeping to bike lanes or the right side of the road, etc.
Simply picking arbitrary limits and measurement numbers with no understanding of the mechanics, feasibility of practical use of what is being regulated tends to make for poor law with unforeseen negative consequences so please allow me to help educate all of you on what motor assisted bicycles are in real life application.
I am considered the best builder in Arizona, one of top 5 builders in the US and one of top 10 in the world and an authority with vast experience on every type there is so please listen.
Safe Operational Speed is the ultimate goal of regulating anything operated on the roadways correct?
Speed is certainly the easiest way for law enforcement to judge if someone is operating safely and in compliance with the law.
For anything operated on the roadways a maximum safe speed is determined by the stretch of roadway as is a minimum speed in some cases, but for automobiles and motorcycles this is not regulated by motor size, power or maximum obtainable speed for a reason, available power and how fast it will go safely are two completely different things.
I simply can not emphasize this point enough and just attempting to help you understand the difference between safe roadway operation and the power source to actually make it safer. Over regulating power source to limit top speed is the absolute worst way to make something safer, in fact the opposed is true in real life.
For an example of this fact perhaps you can relate to, have you ever driven a gutless 4-cylindar car?
Because of a lack power you become a road hazard because you can’t enter a roadway and accelerate quick enough to merge with roadway traffic fast enough.
Sure that gutless car can eventually get to roadway speed and even exceed the roadway speed but far worse where it matters most, from a dead stop.
The simple laws of physics state that you need more power for quicker acceleration from a dead stop.
That said I hope you can see that regulating safety by limiting power is counterproductive to the goal.
From a practical applied standpoint there are 3 power source options for motor assisted bicycles, 2-stroke gas power of 1.95HP 48cc and 2.75HP 66cc, there is also a 4-stroke 49cc 2HP, and of course electric battery sizes of 24V, 36V, and 48V with Wattage ranges from 200 to 1200 respectively.
I have personally built and rode every type and I can tell you first hand that the more power you have off the line the safer it is to operate, a lot safer in city stop and go riding.
I agree that besides a special speed limit and some motor power restrictions are needed to keep the idiots that what to throw some gigantic un-safe power source on a bicycle from killing themselves, please don’t loose site of the ultimate goal of providing a way for people to commute on a bicycle with a little motor help safely with traffic and be the greenest thing on the roadway or better yet, all the bicycle lanes this state is trying promote because bicycles motorized or not are just flat better than a car.
My amendment to ARS 28-2516 to bump a gas motor size to 66cc is easily enforceable and the most common and least expensive 2-stroke 2011 EPA compliant motorized bicycle motor in the world is 66cc and that limit covers the smaller 2-stroke and 4-stroke gas motors.
I am also all about safety and being forced to ride at 19MPH or less on the roadway is again less safe than getting up to speed quickly, especially when traffic is moving at 30+ MPH.
My proposal for speed regulation is the lesser of 30MPH or posted speed limit.
Again another analogy, ever been behind that that guy driving 19MPH on a 35MPH road? Traffic has to get around him to keep the flow and not safe.
I have always been all about safety, for example I won’t let any motorized bike out of my shop without front and rear brakes so my changes as a Part D adds a safety measure to require not just front and rear brakes but a flashing front light for daytime operation for any motorized bicycle operated over 20MPH.
I won’t ride without one ever because I know first hand many times that a blinking front light has prevented a motorist from crashing me.
HR 2177 as is states 1000W total battery power, since power is extremely difficult to measure for I cop I suggest just stating a 48V battery. It is easy to measure with a simple volt meter and adequate for bicycle motor assist.
As for the revision to gas motor size changing from 48cc to 1.3HP again you are you changing the measurement to something nearly impossible for law enforcement to determine and nothing but a mathematical conversion of 1000W to gas motor cc’s which equates back to about a 32cc gas motor, well the only 32cc 2-stroke motor is only used on leaf blowers, unavailable and never used for motor assisting a bicycle as it would be useless anyway.
Worse still is that obscure conversions from the arbitrary 1000W electric to 1.3HP for gas will render all of the thousands of currently legal 1.95HP 48cc motorized bicycles illegal.
Beside the mechanical facts of the huge difference between how electric motors and gas engines operate do you really want to outlaw all gas powered motor assisted 100-150MPG bicycles in this state and cut off the thousands of green minded working peoples crucial means of transportation?
Please consider my expert informed opinion on this matter and I am open for more real facts on any questions and willing to make a presentation in person in a committee public hearing.
Thank you,
KC Vale
Phoenix, AZ
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In short if you want something in state government changed get off your lazy cry baby butt and start something yourself or just shut the heck up because if YOU won't make an effort yourself you have no right to just complain about how things are expecting others to do it for you.
My efforts may may doom all gas bikes in this state, but then again it may make Arizona the most gas powered bike rules friendly in the country the same way AZ regulates Guns, I can walk around with a concealed gun and even a full assault automatic machine gun without a permit or background check on the streets.
Assault weapons are meant to kill people in mass, the worst that can happen on an motorized bicycle is you kill yourself so when it comes to public hearings if need be you bet your butt I'll be there to point that out in force.
Do you see what I mean?
