Attention Parents: E-Bikes are NOT Your Father's Bike

This is serious stuff.

If you have been tempted to buy one of these e-bikes for your teen, please read these articles first. Both come from the New York Times. 

 I'm pretty sure that most of you would see the folly of this kind of bike for a child/teen in Seattle that - to me - has some pretty challenging traffic patterns. I could see maybe a parent saying, "Well, it's just for around the neighborhood" but their kid then goes further afoot.

The first story is about a 15-year-old boy in California who died in traffic on an e-bike. 

He had been riding from home to shot-putting practice. The e-bike, a model made by Rad Power, had a top speed of 20 miles per hour, but his route took him on a busy road with a 55-mile-per-hour limit. While turning left, he was clipped by a Nissan van and thrown violently.

As a transportation solution, e-bikes seem promising. “I’m really bullish about middle and high schoolers being able to use e-bikes,” said Ms. Hultin of Bicycle Colorado. She noted that e-bikes offered children and busy families more transportation options at lower cost. 

The e-bike industry is booming, but the summer of 2023 has brought sharp questions about how safe e-bikes are, especially for teenagers. Many e-bikes can exceed the 20-mile-per-hour speed limit that is legal for teenagers in most states; some can exceed 55 miles per hour. But even when ridden at legal speeds, there are risks, especially for young, inexperienced riders merging into complex traffic with fast-moving cars and sometimes distracted drivers.

The minimal regulation around e-bikes is a selling point for the industry. Super73, a company in Irvine, Calif., that makes popular models, advertises on its website: “RIDE WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS. No license, registration, or insurance required.”

“The speed they are going is too fast for sidewalks, 

but it’s too slow to be in traffic,” 

Two federal agencies, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said they were evaluating “how best to oversee the safety of e-bikes,” according to a statement provided by the highway safety agency.

Sheila Miller, who is the spokeswoman for the Bend police and helped develop the public service campaign, emphasized that not everything that calls itself an e-bike qualifies as one, or is safe or legal for minors. Under Oregon law, which is more restrictive than those in most states, a person must be at least 16 to ride an e-bike of any kind.

I'll add that states also have differing helmet laws. 

Facts:

• The number of e-bikes being sold is unclear because, like regular bikes, they do not need to be registered with the government. 
• Cars, motorcycles and mopeds must be registered through a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
•  Many are sold directly to consumers over the internet, rather than through physical retailers that often track sales
• One make - Sur-Ron - tells consumers about one model, "as “easy to maneuver like a bicycle, with the torque and power of an off-road motorcycle" and urges them to follow speed laws. However, "But the speed restraint — equivalent to about 12 m.p.h. — can be removed by simply clipping a wire, a procedure that is widely shared in online videos, and which law enforcement officials said appeared to be there by design." "With the speed wire clipped, the vehicle can approach 70 miles per hour, he said. "

The second NYTimes story is about a specific maker, Super73. Check out the photo of the teens riding their e-bikes in the middle of the story - two of them don't even have shoes on! Ouch!

LeGrand Crewse, co-founder and chief executive of Super73, recently showed off the company’s latest product, a diminutive motorized bike called the K1D. Aimed at riders 4 years old and up, the vehicle lacks pedals, in the spirit of a training bicycle, and has a throttle. The company calls the K1D an “electric balance bike.”

“Ride without restrictions,” the Super73 website declares, in bold letters. “No license, registration, or insurance required.”

Mr. Crewse added: “Actually no helmet requirement even, except for one class of bikes — and even then, specifically around younger age riders.”

Most of Super73’s models offer a re-programmable option, including the Z-Miami, which is small, comes in pink and, Mr. Crewse said, is “popular with younger riders.” Parental controls were not possible on existing models, he said, because of “a limitation of the current software.” He added, “That will absolutely happen in future software releases.”

You have been warned. Think long and hard about buying one of these child-directed e-bikes and about both the bike AND your child.