California SB 1167: Over 28 mph Cannot Be Sold as an E-Bike

California will not let a seller call a faster machine an e-bike. Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1167 on Wednesday 30 September 2026. Senator Catherine Blakespear’s office, in a release that day, says the bill takes effect 1 January 2027, that it passed the Legislature without opposition, and that an electric bicycle under California law has no more than 750 watts and goes no faster than 20 mph on a throttle or 28 mph when the rider is pedaling. A device that misses that definition cannot be labeled, advertised, or sold as an e-bike. Every e-bike sold in the state has to carry a label you can see, with the class and the maximum speed. Law enforcement has to put that label information on an incident report. The Sacramento Bee, Madison Smalstig, 1 October 2026, is the story that spells the other names: moped, or motor-driven cycle. This desk did not ride a shop floor to see the stickers.

Three kilowatts is four times 750. Three point seven five is five

Seven hundred fifty watts is the Senate’s ceiling for the thing that may still be called an e-bike. The words are “no more than 750.” That is not Texas. Texas § 664.001 says fewer than 750, so 750 itself fails Texas and meets this California sentence. The Texas page is the other line. Do not average them into “about 750.”

The Bee’s moped motor is less than 3 kilowatts. Three kilowatts is 3,000 watts. Three thousand divided by 750 is 4. A motor at 2,999 watts is still under the Bee’s moped line and it is already four times the e-bike ceiling, so it is not an e-bike under the Senate sentence. The Bee’s motor-driven cycle goes up to 3.75 kilowatts. Three point seven five kilowatts is 3,750 watts. Three thousand seven hundred fifty divided by 750 is 5. The Bee calls that about 5 horsepower. This desk is not converting watts to horsepower on its own. Five times 750 is the arithmetic. A machine at that power is the thing the bill says you call a motor-driven cycle, not an e-bike. The Bee does not print a fine for getting the noun wrong.

Twenty on a throttle, twenty-eight when pedaling

The Senate release puts both speeds in one sentence. No faster than 20 mph on a throttle. No faster than 28 mph when pedal assisted. A thumb lever that keeps pushing past 20 is outside the e-bike they defined, even if the bike still has pedals. A motor that keeps assisting past 28 is outside it too. That is the same split as the class chart, with one difference in the watt words: this release says no more than 750, and the federal line this desk usually prints is fewer than 750. Read the sticker against the sentence that applies in the state where the bike is sold. The label the release requires is the class and the maximum speed. It does not, in that paragraph, require a watt figure. Do not add one.

“You can’t sell something under the term e-bike unless it actually meets those qualifications.” Blakespear, in the Bee, 1 October 2026. The qualifications in her office’s release are the watts and the two speeds.

It is not a trail ban, and it is not in force yet

SB 1167 does not close a path. It tells a seller which noun to use, and it tells an officer to write the label into the report. A bike that already meets Class 1, 2, or 3 is the product the release says the bill protects. A Sur-Ron-class machine that can do 50 is not that product. Fifty is more than 28. It is also more than the Bee’s 30 mph moped line. The laws page is the rest of the map, including California’s Class 3 helmet rule, which this bill’s release does not restate. Nothing in the signature changes a bike that is already in a garage on 5 October. The date that changes the sale is 1 January 2027. No hearing video was the bill. The documents are the 30 September release and the Bee.