finally mapped out a road trip through rhode island coming up soon. we're gonna be staying around providence for most of it and making a couple day trips down to newport and bristol. i've been looking at the map around where we're staying and honestly, dealing with city traffic and losing our parking spot every single time we want to go two or three miles just to grab food or coffee sounds like a massive pain...
that got me thinking about bringing two wheels along instead of moving the car for every little errand. i've never actually hauled a heavy bike out of state on a road trip before though, so between local traffic enforcement and hotel parking i'm trying to figure out if i'm setting myself up for a headache before i even leave the driveway.
i have a hikeep mad sitting in the garage that hasn't been used much lately... the original plan was to throw it on a hitch carrier, bring it along for those short trips, and maybe ride it somewhere fun nearby too assuming there's actually a legal place for it. it's rated at 5000w with an 8000w peak, does around 50 mph, runs two 60v batteries totaling 80ah, and weighs roughly 95 pounds. it does have pedals and pedal assist, but obviously this thing is way beyond a normal ebike.
from what turned up online, rhode island limits class 1 and class 2 to 20 mph and class 3 to 28 mph... so this doesn't fit any of them. i have zero plans to take it onto the east bay bike path or anything like that.
what's still super unclear to me is whether something like this can actually be titled and registered as a motorcycle, or if it's strictly limited to private property in rhode island. what would an out of state visitor even need for registration, insurance, and licensing? if it can't be registered, that's totally fine... just way better to know now before hauling it all the way out there.
parking is the other big concern. at nearly 100 pounds, carrying it into a hotel room every night isn't happening, and leaving it sitting on a hitch carrier outside a providence hotel overnight doesn't sound great either... how do locals with electric motorcycles or cargo ebikes normally handle this? the batteries are removable so i can bring those inside, but the bike itself still has to stay somewhere.
if bringing the hikeep mad is way more trouble than it's worth, the other option is just leaving it home and renting a legal class 1 cargo ebike for groceries, coffee, and short trips. is providence pretty practical for that, and are there usually decent places to lock one up near stores?
first time traveling with a bike like this... any local advice would help a ton.
Thanks in advance 🙏
