It's a KIND of e-bike, but it's thicker, heavier duty...built more like a motor bike.
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The thing about them is that they are popular amongst a certain kind of personality type, who are generally less mature, less responsible, etc. Fatbikes are easily modified to cancel out the speed limitations, so where they are only supposed to be able to go like 30 miles an hour, people modify them to be able to go more like 60. And the majority of people who are riding them are 10-15 year olds. Who have no drivers license or experience. It's illegal to ramp them up so they go faster, but almost everyone does it anyway. So these 10 year olds are driving 60 miles an hour through town, ignoring traffic rules, not wearing helmets, and they are risking lives. The three teens who almost t-boned me were probably going around 40 miles an hour. You aren't supposed to go over 15 mph on the bike paths, 30 on the main streets in town, and these kids are just blowing past regular traffic, but in the bike lane or on sidewalks. It's really dangerous, and ER doctors are begging for legislation to make an age limit and a helmet mandate on fatbikes, because they have seen the number of accidents involving them increase exponentially, and the accidents tend to be more serious because they are going faster. If they get caught and they have modified it, the fatbike gets confiscated and they get in trouble, but most of the kids riding them just don't have good judgement. They care more about looking cool to their friends than they do about the laws or safety.