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eBikes are growing in popularity, but so too is confusion about what’s legal and what isn’t. Now, new proposals could bring more scrutiny to eBikes and the higher-powered illegal motorbikes sometimes mistaken for them.
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Published
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On any weekday Perth's shared paths and cycleways are a mix of walkers, joggers and cyclists. Weaving through the throng are a growing number of eBikes.
eBikes offer an efficient and enjoyable way to get from home to the workplace and back without even breaking a sweat or needing a change of clothes. Cargo eBikes make it feasible to transport children, pets and other heavy loads.
They make longer commutes possible, remove the barrier of hills, are cheap to run and easier to park than a car.
eBikes have become even more popular since the fuel crisis and for many families they have come to replace a second car.
But not all eBikes are equal, nor even legal.
As the popularity of eBikes grows, so too does confusion about what road rules apply to them, and whether the law is keeping pace with the technology.
In the past decade heavy framed machines that have more in common with a motorbike than a bicycle have flooded into the Australian market. They have become popular with young people, especially teenagers. These vehicles can be ridden without pedalling and some can reach speeds of 70km/h. With the twist of a wrist, they can surge ahead on full throttle leaving legal eBikes in their wake.
They can look and sound like legal eBikes but being available to buy in shops is not the same thing as being legal to ride. It is illegal to ride these high powered two-wheel machines on public roads or paths as they don’t meet the legal definition of an eBike.
A spokesperson for the Road Safety Commission in WA said only eBikes that fit within the definition of a "power assisted pedal cycle" are allowed to be used on the state's roads and paths.
"These are bikes designed to be moved using human power with some assistance from a motor," the spokesperson said.
Two types of eBike fit this definition. The first are known as Pedalecs and are the most common. These can have an electric motor of up to 250 watts and need to comply with European standard EN 15194. The Australian Government adopted this in December 2025 as the national standard for electric bike imports.
If you have any doubts about whether your eBike is a Pedalec check for a sticker on the frame that mentions the EN Standard.
The second type of legal eBike can have a petrol or electric motor up to 200 watts. These are generally older style eBikes and many are the result of homemade or professional conversions from conventional bicycles.
If an eBike has more than one motor, the limit applies to the total output of all the motors.
The easiest way to see if your eBike is legal is to see whether it requires human pedalling to work and whether the power assist engine cuts out at 25km/h. eBikes can go faster than this, especially downhill, but power assist for both types of legal eBike is limited to speeds up to 25km/h.
eBikes are allowed to go anywhere that a conventional bike can go including roads, bicycle lanes, on shared paths and on footpaths.
The Road Safety Commission says that: Any bike that is primarily designed to be "driven" by the motor instead of using human power; can be ridden using a throttle alone; or has a motor or motors with a power output higher than 250 watts; cannot be driven on WA roads or paths and is not classed as an eBike.
Riding one of these on a public road or path can result in a hefty fine and the seizure of the vehicle.
Things become a little murky when a legal eBike is modified to remove or alter the mechanism that cuts off power assist after 25km/h. Once an eBike is modified like this it can't be used on roads or paths. But this hasn't stopped some modifying previously compliant eBikes allowing them to double or triple their speed. It can be difficult for authorities to determine at first glance whether an eBike has been modified in this way.
The only places that modified power assist eBikes or illegal e-motorbikes can be ridden are on private property. However the availability of these high-powered, heavy-framed vehicles for sale legally adds to the confusion.
In WA, eBikes are classed differently to eRideables, a category that includes eSkateboards, eScooters, eWheels, Hoverboards, eSkates and eUnicycles and as such the rules covering eRideables are different to the rules covering eBikes.
eBikes come under a different section of the Road Traffic Code 2000. They follow similar rules to conventional bicycles.
While eRideables have come under heavy legislative and public scrutiny, eBikes have received less attention here in WA.
But because of their growing popularity and the recent incidents involving high-powered illegal motorbikes, new rules are being considered for eBikes too.
Under existing legislation, no one under the age of 16 is allowed to ride an eBike nor any form of eRideable on roads or paths. But that has not stopped the popularity of eBikes or eRideables among children and adolescents.
There was so much uncompliant use that in February this year the Director General of Education issued a directive banning children under 16 from using or storing eRideables or eBikes on school grounds. The directive was prompted by the growing number of children and young teens who were using the devices to get to school.
Whether children over the age of 16 were allowed to ride eBikes or eRideables to school was then left up to individual principals.
Manager Transport Planning and Policy for RAC, Alix Oakes, said there were quite a lot of existing regulations relating to eRideables and others relating to eBikes, and that these could be confusing for people.
"There is a lack of awareness and understanding, perhaps because of the proliferation of rules around the different modes of transport," Oakes says.
"Lots of parents are perhaps not aware that under 16s are not allowed to use eRideables and eBikes and have bought their children these devices."
A recent State Government Parliamentary Inquiry into eRideables, initiated after a pedestrian was killed by an eScooter, was later broadened to include eBikes and electric dirt bikes after a separate incident involving a fatal collision between a pedestrian and an e-dirt bike.
In December 2025 the inquiry released its Ride Safe report with 33 recommendations.
Many of the recommendations were aimed at eRideables but eBikes were also covered.
The State Government has so far endorsed 32 of the 33 recommendations.
Among the recommendations is that all eBikes be registered at the point of sale and that higher-speed electric bikes would need to be covered by both an annual registration and third-party insurance. Riders of these vehicles would require a licence.
If adopted, these vehicles would then be allowed to ride on roads (but not paths). The changes would bring them into a classification similar to mopeds, but limited to travelling at speeds of up 45km/h instead of 50 km/hr.
In supporting the recommendations and findings of the Parliamentary Inquiry's Ride Safe report, the Cook Government said, in a media release issued in March this year, that it was "committed to nation-leading" safety reforms and to pushing to close regulatory gaps that allowed overpowered, unsafe and modifiable devices into the country.
WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said in the media release that the government was committed to improving the safety and regulation of e-mobility devices for riders, pedestrians and road users in WA.
"We are calling for the Commonwealth's support to address critical issues with the importation, modification and regulation of (eBike and eRideable) devices across the country," Ms Saffioti said.
But RAC’s Alix Oakes warns that new regulations need to be carefully considered so as not to discourage law-abiding people who are keen to give an eBike or an eRideable a try.
"We have to be mindful of not introducing unnecessary barriers to the take up of these travel modes so we can continue to provide options to reduce our reliance on cars."
She said it is a minority of people who do the wrong thing on the roads and paths, and the best advice was always to be considerate of other road and path users.
"People riding bikes, eBikes, or eRideables, people walking, older people, younger people. The message really is that we've got to share the infrastructure. We all want to get to where we're going safely and arrive in one piece.”
