Electric bike kits vs. bicycle engine kits
Ah, semantics! Isn’t it always fun when someone tries to argue semantics with you? It always makes for great conversation on a first date and it ensures that the other person will like you when you show them your superior grasp of meaning in casual dialogue.
Sometimes, however, semantics can be important. Like when you’re researching electric bike kits. When looking for information online, people use all sorts of phrases in search of what they’re looking for: ‘electric bike kit,’ ‘electric bicycle kits,’ ‘bicycle engine kits,’ ‘electric bicycle engines,’ ‘electric bicycle conversion kit,’ ‘electric bicycle motors kits’ … the list goes on. Often, you find what you’re looking for with the right combination of words. Other times,like a gas-powered bike kit or an eBay listing for a non-descript ‘bicycle engine’ that does not include all of the other necessary parts to convert your bicycle, you’re pointed to something that you did not intend.
Technically speaking, the phrases ‘electric bicycle engine’ and ‘electric bike motor’ are the same thing. These days, when one says ‘engine’ or ‘bicycle engine kits’ it normally connotes a non-electric engine, and in the context of electric bicycle motor kits, (the qualifying term ‘electric’ aside) a motor refers to an electric motor.
According to the Dictionary of ever-useful.com to produce force and motion” and a motor is “a comparatively small and powerful engine, esp,an engine is “a machine for converting thermal energy into mechanical energy or power. an internal-combustion engine in an automobile, motorboat, or the like” and is “also called an electric motor. Electricity. A machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy, as an induction motor.”
That said, referring to electric bike kits as ‘bicycle engine kits,’ or their motors as ‘electric bicycle engines’ is not a misnomer, it’s just not the typically understood language. While an ‘electric bike kit’ specifies the type of power source, ‘bicycle engine kits’ could include both electric bicycle or folding electric bike engines and gas-powered bicycle engines.