Popular toy hits Homer streets, sidewalks, parks and parking lots — and they’re not street legal.

By Michael Armstrong

Homer Independent Press


They buzz around like sneaky bees, quiet and fast. Kids ride them in parking lots, dodging cars and popping wheelies. They’ve shown up on bike trails, sidewalks, suburban streets and parks. Judging by the whoops coming from the riders, they look like a heck of a lot of fun. Among young motorheads, electric-powered mini-motorcycles are  the hot new summer toy.

And they’re not legal, Homer police say.

They’re not  street-legal motorcycles, and they’re not electric-assist pedal bicycles. These e-minibikes fall into a class of their own. They can’t be pedaled. They look like gas-powered minibikes — some even have fake gas tanks — except they’re powered by electric motors with rechargeable batteries.

They also lack lights, turn signals and other equipment to make them street legal. Alaska law calls them “a motor-driven cycle.” Even if they were street legal, a child would have to be at least 14 and need a driver’s license with a motorcycle endorsement to ride them.

“So then, when we look at the little mini e-bikes, they are just straight up not lawful,”said Homer Police Chief Michael Scanlon. “You can’t have them on the roadway. They’re not supposed to be on the sidewalk. They really shouldn’t even be on any public property at all.”

Since the snow melted, reports of mostly young people riding them around town have been widespread. At the June 22 Homer City Council meeting, council member Caroline Venuti spoke of seeing a half-dozen kids riding the mini e-bikes on the Fairview Avenue trail near her house. She told them that it was a nonmotorized trail.

“In all innocence, they said, ‘Oh, we’re not motorized ‘ and I said, ‘Sure, you are,’ and they said, ‘No, these are electric,’” Venuti said. “… One boy said, ‘No, motorized is gasoline,’ and I said, ‘No, it’s a motor.’”

In another instance, on a sunny day in June, a half-dozen kids on regular bikes, electric-assist bikes and mini e-bikes rode around the south end of the Homer Post Office parking lot. One kid on a mini e-bike popped wheelies as he rode past cars moving through the parking lot, one driver  slowly easing past him. Another driver turned out of a parking space, and the kid had to dodge to get out of the way.

Last Saturday at a protest in WKFL Park, two kids on mini e-bikes coming down Heath Street toward Pioneer Avenue cut  through the park between protesters on the sidewalk and others farther back. The two riders passed in front of two older women and then swerved onto  the sidewalk.

A July 2 Homer police Facebook post about mini e-bikes and bicycle safety garnered more anecdotes: a person riding a horse on West Hill Road who got spooked by mini e-bikes, a woman who saw a mini e-bike rider on the East End Road bike trail almost lose control and a woman who almost got run down in the Safeway parking lot.

Available online or at stores like WalMart, mini e-bikes — also called “pocket bikes” — run from $500 to as much as $2,000. 

“There’s not a problem with having them if you’re endorsed and you meet all the requirements and you have … the lights and blinkers and all that stuff,” Chief Scanlon said. “But none of the things that we’re talking about meet that definition, and they’re all kids, right? They’re all kids that aren’t lawfully allowed to be operating a motor vehicle.”

Because they don’t have pedals, mini e-bikes also aren’t electric-assist bicycles, commonly called e-bikes — bikes where a motor provides extra power as the rider pedals. The City of Homer incorporates Alaska motor vehicle regulations into its code, but Alaska is one of 14 U.S. states that has yet to regulate e-bikes.

In 2023 the Alaska Legislature passed a bipartisan e-bike bill, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it, saying he felt the bill “created an unnecessary bureaucracy by regulating a recreational activity.” The bill would have clarified the definition of an e-bike and exempted them from registration as motorcycles.

Scanlon said he’s currently working with City Manager Melissa Jacobsen and council members Donna Aderhold and Bradley Parsons to write an ordinance that would regulate e-bikes, including mini e-bikes. That ordinance is planned for introduction soon and would be similar to how the Municpality of Anchorage and other states regulate e-bikes, Scanlon said. Key to Anchorage’s law is a classification system for e-bikes.

For example, in Anchorage’s law passed in July 2024, class 1 is for pedal-assist only bikes where the motor kicks in when the bike is pedaled and stops providing assistance at 20 mph; class 2 is for e-bikes with throttles and pedal-assist that stop providing assistance at 20 mph, and class 3 is for pedal-assisted bikes that stop providing assistance at 28 mph. E-bike regulations also limit the power of the motor. Anything more than 750 watts wouldn’t be an e-bike. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are treated as regular bikes.

The Anchorage ordinance also defines mini e-bikes as motor-driven cycles — “any moped, dirt bike, or bicycle equipped with an electric motor that does not meet the definition of an electric-assisted bicycle.”

For now, the Homer Police Department’s focus is on the mini e-bikes and a public education campaign to raise awareness that they can’t be legally operated on streets, sidewalks, parking lots and parks. A former motorcycle cop and an avid rider still, Scanlon is a big advocate for riding safely.

That was the message of the HPD Facebook post: “Please have a discussion with your kids about proper protective gear, biking etiquette and the rules of the road. No parent, first responder or cyclist wants their day ruined by a traffic accident involving a bicyclist, let alone a youth on a bike. … Some things you can’t bounce back from.”

Most of the kids seen riding mini e-bikes had helmets. That’s good, but the kids aren’t always wearing other safety gear, Scanlon said.

“Anything that’s a hard point — your hands, your knees, your elbows, your forearms — all those things …,” he said, “I mean, they’re going to hit the deck, and they’re going to get scraped up, and it’s extremely painful. Trust me, I know.”

Police have issued warnings to mini e-bike riders caught riding on streets or in public spaces. That’s the approach Scanlon prefers.

“Our primary goal here is education. We do not want to cite anybody. We’re not interested in citing anybody unless it’s an absolute necessity,” he said.

In response to calls where police have contacted mini e-bike riders, the kids have been respectful, Scanlon said. They’ve been told to walk the bikes home. If necessary, police will talk to parents, but haven’t yet. They might also confiscate the bike and invite the parents to the station to pick up the bike and have a conversation.

“But we’re not looking to keep anybody’s stuff. We’re not looking to give anybody tickets. We’re just looking for education and compliance,” Scanlon said.