Louisiana Bicycle Law Reality...
I live near Downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I have a 50cc motor on my Service Bicycle that I have been operating in town for over a month now. I was "pulled over" downtown like the second day I was running by two State Troopers, who started barking at me that "You can't have that on the road" and "that's a motorcycle". I argued with them and they were going to write me tickets for no insurance, no registration, no title, etc. Finally a Lieutenant arrived and I told him what I knew about the bicycle laws in Louisiana and he agreed that I could operate my bicycle with a 50cc motor on the streets.
So I guess the point of this post is that I believe that police, whether City, State or Sheriff, just don't know the law well enough to properly enforce it one way or the other. I stood my ground and quoted the law pretty much verbatim. A couple days after, a Baton Rouge Constable pulled up next to me at a red light and after talking, he said he wanted to have a motorized bicycle for himself!
I don't think the police, at least here in Baton Rouge, just don't have motorized bicycles on their radar yet. I agree with an earlier post that a motorized bicycle with a direct drive/dry clutch with no transmission doesn't have to be titled, registered, insured or licensed to operate on the streets, but as such, can not be operated on highways with speed limits over 50 mph.
With my 50cc Flying Horse Motor, I have been getting well over 120 mpg and have estimated my Motorized Service Bicycle costs about 3.2 cents per mile to run...