A:Answer M1/M2 license is needed in California. It also is not legal for most bike trails unfortunately. In Orange County, only electric bicycles with pedals are allowed. Source: the ticket I got from the OC sheriff who was patrolling the Santa Ana River Trail and the local DMV office. They can be ridden on streets in gutter or bike lanes, but not trails for dedicated bikes in OC (at least the county ones anyway, any cities which have their own bike trails may differ such as Irvine or Tustin, or any South County cities).