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A month into enforcement, New Jersey's e-bike law is emptying bike shops — down as much as 90% in some cases — while Illinois and NYC tried structurally different approaches in response to the same problem. With Accell Group's bankruptcy, a wild Colorado fraud story, and new releases from some notable brands, August was brimming with PEV news.

"UL Certified" gets stamped on various e-bike and PEV listings constantly, but it covers wildly different things depending on which standard is behind it. In New York City, actually enforcing a safety standard cut battery-fire deaths by 94% in three years. Now the CPSC has proposed making certification mandatory nationwide for the first time, with public comments open through August 24. We break down what UL 2849, UL 2271, and EN 15194 actually test, why a certification logo isn't always proof of anything (just ask Amazon), and how to protect yourself while the rule works its way through Washington.

Two weeks into owning his Rivian R1T, Jimmy commits to full body XPEL Stealth paint protection film, drawn in by its self healing properties and matte aesthetic. He walks through what the film and an added ceramic coat actually do, the surprisingly fast one day install at Speed EFX, and exactly how the significant price tag is worth it.

Jimmy is joined by family and friends as he takes his Rivian R1T off-roading for the first time, on a trail rated 3 out of 10 that turns out tougher than expected for a beginner. The truck's four independent motors and over 800 horsepower handle the terrain well, even on road tires never meant for the trail, while the paint protection film erases a round of tree branch pinstriping by the end of the day. Jimmy walks away candid about his own rookie mistakes, from skipping prep work to ordering the wrong wheels a year earlier, but is energized for next time.

After several weeks and nearly daily sessions on the water, Jimmy and Andrew deliver their verdict on the Fliteboard: it is the best PEV either of them has ever ridden, but the $13,000 price tag is a very real barrier. Floating two feet above the water in near silence, with a learning curve that clicks faster than expected and a setup that works just as well on a Colorado reservoir as it does on the ocean, the experience sits in a category of its own. If you have the means, it is worth the investment.

Jimmy went from banned commenter to invited guest at Future Motion headquarters, sitting down with founder Kyle Doerksen for a podcast and coming away with ten things he learned about the company. The biggest ones: the GT's ghosting issues have reportedly been fixed with an updated footpad, and after months away from it, Jimmy called the GT the best Onewheel yet. He also finally got the real story behind why he'd been blocked from Onewheel's own YouTube channel years earlier, which turned out to be a mix up rather than a grudge. True to a promise made in an earlier video, he bought a new GT on camera once he was sufficiently convinced the launch issues were resolved.

Jimmy teams up with Scott Lunt, aka Rivian Dad, for a full walkthrough and test drive of the Rivian R1S, the three row SUV sibling to the R1T truck he's been living with for a year. Beyond covering what's changed (ride height, cabin storage, third row seating) and what hasn't (the same wireless charging pad gripe, the same over engineered climate controls), the pair get behind the wheel to see if it lives up to the highest score Doug DeMuro has ever given a car. Both hosts come away convinced it does, calling it an entirely new class of vehicle that drives like a sports car and off roads like a truck.

Andrew visited BayFoils, a certified Fliteschool location on San Francisco Bay, to find out whether a $350 professional eFoil lesson is worth it before committing to a Fliteboard of your own — the short answer is yes. With wetsuits, helmets with two-way radios, and experienced instructors guiding you through every minute on the water, the Fliteschool experience is the fastest and most accessible way to find out if eFoiling is for you.

Our first monthly PEV roundup features the end of New Jersey's e-bike grace period, new federal tariffs on bike-industry supply chains being finalized, and the CPSC proposing what would be the first mandatory federal battery-safety standard. Add a public win against counterfeit safety certifications, Lime's Wall Street debut, a fresh CPSC stop-ride order, and a handful of new e-bike and scooter launches, and July turned out to be a packed month.

The e-bike "class system" most riders assume is settled federal law is actually just an industry model bill created over a decade ago. In 2026, it's fraying under the weight of faster, harder-to-classify devices and a wave of new state legislation. We break down why the framework never had the authority everyone assumed, why states are responding so differently, and what it means for riders of other PEVs who were never covered by it to begin with.

Jimmy has spent eight years watching public opinion shift on electric rideables, and this post zooms out to ask a bigger question: has this happened before? Tracing five decades of moral panic — from 1940s hot rods to skateboarding, BMX, and snowboarding — the argument is that America has a reliable habit of trying to ban the things kids love most, yet each anecdote eventually ends in structured acceptance. The one thing that makes today different is social media, but we can still look back in history to see what we should be asking instead of leaping to bans.

Amidst the rising popularity of electric vehicles, Jimmy explains why he sold his four year old Tesla Model 3 just months after buying a Rivian R1T; pointing to a used EV market where tight new car inventory and still high gas prices had pushed resale values higher than he expected to ever see again. With four vehicles in the driveway and the Rivian better suited to hauling the family's scooters and OneWheels, the Tesla became the easy one to let go.