Electric Bike

A couple weeks ago I decided that I was going to do my part to cut back on Gasoline and oil dependence. I ordered an electric bike. It came and I put it together. Top speed is about 24 MPH. I knew that I needed to get a $6.00 license plate to drive it on the street. This is the so called Blue bile I bought (more like sky blue or aqua blue, not a real American blue).

If you live in Minnesota and are thinking of saving money by going electric, forget about it. Any good thoughts I had of getting an e-bike and spending 5 cents per day to charge it vanished as I tried to get it registered and licensed. It took a week and a half because nobody at the Brookdale Center ever did one of these. It is a sub category of a moped. They kept asking me how many cc's the engine was. I kept telling them there was no engine. It had an electric motor. Then they asked me for the title. I kept telling them I didn't get a title because it was a bicycle. They threw up their hands and said that then needed a Title or a Certificate of Origin or else I would need to supply for photos on photo paper and an affidavit proving I owned it. I called for the Certificate. When I arrived I went to get the license plate and pay them the $6. I still had to wait at the counter for about 40 minutes while they tried to figure out what to do. Since they did not know what they were doing, I think they were just making it up as they went. Since I was getting a plate I needed to pay sales tax, a plate fee, and the registration fee. Then they insisted that I needed to buy a title which also required a Public Safety Vehicle fee. I argued with them the entire time. Regular bicycles aren't licensed any longer in Minnesota, so I could buy a $3500.00 recumbent bike that goes just as fast and not pay a penny and I still have to ride in the rode. Well, when it was all done, that stupid @%$&**# MN plate cost more that the plate on our Honda Accord EX V6 that will go 150MPH. I ended up paying $112 for a $6 plate. I will be calling the State offices on Monday to get some money back because I think I was ripped off royally. So don't even think of going GREEN in Minnesota, because the state will suck every penny out of you so you won't even enjoy the first ride. And then to top it off, the plate expired in February and they said that if I waited a week and got the plate in Sept, I could have gotten it for half price.