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E-bike Classes Are Confusing as Hell—Here’s What They Actually Mean

Wondering just what an E-bike class is? You’ve cycled up to the right place.

By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan

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We’re still in the Wild West days of ebikes, even though the market has begun consolidating and maturing since the explosion of ebike interest sparked by the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Since ebikes are significantly faster than analog (non-electric) bikes, the ebike industry and local city governments alike have settled on a roughly defined, three-tier class system that tell you, in layman’s terms, two things: how fast an ebike can go, and how tired are your legs (and thumb) are going to get.

class 1: Pedal or Perish

Soltera 3 ADV (opens in a new window)

There are two rules for class 1 ebikes. First, their electric motors can’t provide assistance past 20 MPH, and second, they can’t have hand throttles. Hand throttles are thumb-activated devices on the handlebars, usually on the right side, that let the bike accelerate without the rider pedaling, but I’ll get more into that when we start talking about class 2 ebikes below.

Even though class 1 ebikes are the entry-level classification, these aren’t always budget ebikes. Take the Bluejay Premiere Lite beach cruiser as an example of a class 1 ebike that’s meant more for lazy meandering at a relaxed pace than for keeping up with city traffic or the beautifully well made Gazelle Medeo T9 CTY.

You can still pedal the bike faster than its 20 MPH “top speed.” The electrical motor will cut out, though, so you’re purely back to leg muscle power if you have your sights set on 21 MPH or higher. Except for single-speed “fixies,” like the Aventon Soltera 3 ADV shown above (and reviewed here), ebikes tend to have multi-speed gearsets, just like........

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