For the last few years, it has felt like the electric bike industry has been engaged in a constant arms race.

Every new launch seems to promise more speed, more power, bigger batteries, and increasingly motorcycle-like styling. And every time a new model pushes the envelope, the comments inevitably fill with some people asking the same question: “Why not just make it faster?”

It’s also one side of a very controversial issue: e-bike speed. While some are trying to rein in speeds, others push for faster and faster bikes. But I’d say that instead of trying to stretch the definition of an e-bike until it snaps, maybe it’s time to admit that there is another category of vehicle waiting to emerge.

It’s not that we should be against speed; it’s that we need the right vehicles for higher speeds.

The current Class 3 e-bike framework in the US tops out at 28 mph with pedal assist. It’s actually quite a thoughtful and well-designed system that has done an immense amount of good, helping to accelerate e-bike adoption across the US. Those speeds are a reasonable limit for something that still behaves like a bicycle and often shares bike infrastructure. It’s not as draconian as Europe’s e-bike limits, but we’re also not talking about mini-motorcycles here, either.

But if we’re taking an honest look at the e-bike market in the US, it will quickly become apparent that there are plenty of riders who don’t actually want a bicycle. And yet, they also don’t want a 400-pound (180-kilogram) motorcycle capable of highway speeds.

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