Kids With E-Bikes Are Getting Tickets in this NoCo Town

Listen, first and foremost I am not what I would describe as a “fun hater” when it comes to things kids do or don’t do out and about around Northern Colorado. I have two kids, and more than anything I want them to be safe, but I also want them to have fun being kids.

When we were kids, that fun included riding our bikes everywhere we went – back home by the time the street lights came on. For the more adventurous, we’d tape a baseball card in our spokes, or run over an empty juice box to nestle it in the hub of our back wheel to give us that crisp, motorcycle sound as we rode around town.

Read More: The Demise of Lyft Bikes and Scooters in Colorado

Fast forward to 2025 and kids are basically riding actual motorcycles everywhere, at least electric motorized bicycles. I don’t blame them… it’s just that maybe us grownups are jealous?

And so comes the enforcement. The Berthoud Surveyor reports that several families around town have appeared in court due to citations for kids’ electric bikes. In some cases, the kids have returned to their “bikes” in the rack at school and discovered tickets left behind by officers.

The Surveyor went to work on behalf of the family of a Berthoud child who received one of these citations and sought some clarification from the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.

Related: How Many E-Bike and Scooter Wrecks Happen Around Fort Collins?

They were quickly reminded that Governor Jared Polis signed HB 21-1138 which states in part, “It is unlawful to operate an off-highway vehicle on the public streets, roads, or highways of this state.”

Then pointed to a specific Town of Berthoud ordinance (17.19) which reads:

The operation anywhere within the Town on any sidewalk or parking lot open to the public of any off-highway vehicle, motorbike, scooter, minibike or other such motorized vehicles not designed and equipped for operation on a public street or highway, is hereby declared and deemed a public nuisance, and it shall be unlawful for a person to cause or maintain such public nuisance.

I’m not going to say I haven’t complained a time or two about e-bikes on trails or sidewalks where people are walking with their kids or their dogs. I have. But those complaints have mostly centered around inconsiderate adults. Now we’re ticketing children. I’m not sure about that.

For what it’s worth, the Town of Berthoud has a nice bike park that also doesn’t allow these bikes. But I wouldn’t expect it to, because the rules state you also cannot drive RC cars there.

Will other towns and cities in Northern Colorado follow suit? Time will tell!