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A Challenge to Our Riding Community: The E‑Bike Kids Are Coming Up — What Are We Going To Do About It?

greenmonster said:
Without getting political you'd think by now Newsom's cadre would have identified the licensing of E bikes to grab more cash. The folks buying these things are higher income types so there wouldn't be any social backlash.
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Wut? Is that like only higher income folks buy $1500 i-phones? Vehicles incur reg fees because they cause road wear and tear. Bikes really don't do that. A good reason to register e-motos for public road would be licensing and liability. Use existing MSF architecture (see earlier posts about programs) and help offset those programs with collected fees. It's not "grabbing cash" to cycle fees back into the sport, just like hunting license fees support conservation of waterfowl. "No offense but" yes you are getting political.
 
Schools around here are cracking down on them, banning Class 2 bikes (like the Super 73) from being parked on campus. If found on school property they will be confiscated. So that’s a good start. And they’re talking about holding the parents liable for injuries caused by their kid. Plus the police are now educated and on the lookout for kids riding these things illegally - no helmet, two-up, on sidewalks, violating basic traffic laws. So progress is being made.
 
PaulR said:
If one rider, one parent, one neighbor, one forum member says something that keeps one kid out of a trauma bay?
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Have you ever spoke to a hooligan teenager? :laughing
The kids that would listen, already know better.
 
nakedape said:
Wut? Is that like only higher income folks buy $1500 i-phones? Vehicles incur reg fees because they cause road wear and tear. Bikes really don't do that. A good reason to register e-motos for public road would be licensing and liability. Use existing MSF architecture (see earlier posts about programs) and help offset those programs with collected fees. It's not "grabbing cash" to cycle fees back into the sport, just like hunting license fees support conservation of waterfowl. "No offense but" yes you are getting political.
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This Is reasonable. I agree
 
Rtmac said:
Have you ever spoke to a hooligan teenager? :laughing
The kids that would listen, already know better.
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You’re right on this one…..
I must be kidding myself.

I am giving up on this thread the solution is not going to happen.

If I recommend an E bike kid to join our forum, I hope that’s acceptable. Maybe they can learn on their own……

PaulR
 
I spoke to a small group of these hooligans and they were trying to teach me how to wheelie. :facepalm

It appears to me these damn kids are coming from out of the city too! :afm199

 
PaulR said:
You’re right on this one…..
I must be kidding myself.
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It's an admirable idea, but probably only feasible with kids you come in contact with anyway.
I see a groups of kids going crazy in the safeway parking lot often. I've seen walnut creek PD just roll by as they're all doing wheelies across the lot. It doesn't bother me, but it seems like it should at least get blip of the siren or a warning over the loud speaker. That might at least get their attention.
 
Why the fear of anything remotely political? It’s part of life. And in this thread, I don’t see anything that is political.
 
That was a fun watch! Light traffic, seeming concern for the battery levels (I'm at 70), no mobbing cars, people stood back. Aside from the 1000+ moving violations, they weren't terrible. "We're gonna park down" instead of up on the literal seating area lol. Looked like a herd of beasts gathered around a watering hole at the park.
 
nakedape said:
That was a fun watch! Light traffic, seeming concern for the battery levels (I'm at 70), no mobbing cars, people stood back. Aside from the 1000+ moving violations, they weren't terrible. "We're gonna park down" instead of up on the literal seating area lol. Looked like a herd of beasts gathered around a watering hole at the park.
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lol I haven't watched it the whole video but I noticed they passed by where I walk or exercise. well, they did go everywhere.

but damn it, putting a motorbike on bart?!? :twofinger

Legal? I dunno, but they sure drove through a pedestrian walkway of a burger place

1785817534249.png

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as for the opposite side, here is a video where CHP or local (Socal?) Police is chasing a "kid" on a Sur-ron bike : (They caught him)

https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/1vdwdyw/teenager_on_ebike_getting_chased_down_by_cops
 
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The Real Advantages of E‑Bikes

Cheap speed

You get motorcycle‑adjacent acceleration without motorcycle‑adjacent bills. Twist the throttle, feel the torque.

Super73 mod potential

A Super73 can be modded until it’s basically a small motorcycle with a USB port.
Bigger controller, bigger motor, bigger grin.
You can keep up with most small bikes and still say, “It’s just a bicycle, officer.”

No registration

California wants $160+ a year to put a sticker on your motorcycle.
Your E‑bike?
Zero.
DMV can’t charge you for something they don’t understand.

No gas

Ride past gas stations like you’re above society.
Plug in at home like a smug wizard.

No insurance

No premiums.
No agents.
No explaining why your “bicycle” has a 3,000‑watt motor.

Pedal camouflage

Pedals = plausible deniability.
You can do the fake pedaling dance whenever cops, Karens, or serious cyclists appear.

If you can’t beat ’em, join em’

PaulR
 
PaulR said:
Cheap speed
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PaulR said:
No registration
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PaulR said:
No insurance
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Apparently New Jersey literally just changed that. “Class 3” (aka literally everything faster than spandex ) has to have reg and insurance

Also all of them (or only class 3) are banned for persons under 15. *

Just saw this in a GCN video of all things . Note, they call them “illegal emotorbikes” . On top of all, Sy , one of the presenters literally has his own, legal, family style ebike.

Some amazing facts in the video, e.g. Brussels considering banning even legal rental Lime bikes because they create many accidents. I.e. in short: ebiking = squid .

(* and you know what? I’m okay if a person under 15 does NOT ride an emotorbike… kids these days, if it keeps them safer :dunno didn’t kids use to ride manual bicycles to school ?! :banana )
 
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I am absolutely against banning emoto bikes, or whatever people want to call them.

I believe now more than ever we need to support avenues that get kids outside, instead of sitting inside staring at a screen.

Giving kids and people the ability to be autonomous and mobile, outside, going places, doing things, without being in a car adding traffic to the road, or sitting at home, is a good thing.

We just have to learn to manage it better, through education, legislation and enforcement.

I don't see what putting a state tax of licensing will do except create a dividing line between the haves and the have nots, the legal and the illegal, it really won't make anyone safer unless you consider licensing of the rider like a motorcycle. Which defeats the purpose of getting youth out.

Outright banning is a knee-jerk reaction to new technology.
 
augustiron said:
I believe now more than ever we need to support avenues that get kids outside, instead of sitting inside staring at a screen.
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The funny thing is that the ebikes are much better citizens than dirt bikes before.

They're silent and emission free.

There could be a pack of them running around the baseball field next door, and I'd probably not even know they were doing it.

In stark contrast to back when Riverside county effectively banned folks building tracks and running areas on their land mostly because of neighbor concerns of noise and such.

Mind, nobody would build a small, urban, even INDOOR, track for Utes to run around on in practice, or amateur competition. No one wants the liability.

Imagine something like a skate park for kW ebikes.

But it could be done, and the ebikes are well suited to it.
 
augustiron said:
I am absolutely against banning emoto bikes, or whatever people want to call them.

I believe now more than ever we need to support avenues that get kids outside, instead of sitting inside staring at a screen.

Giving kids and people the ability to be autonomous and mobile, outside, going places, doing things, without being in a car adding traffic to the road, or sitting at home, is a good thing.

We just have to learn to manage it better, through education, legislation and enforcement.

I don't see what putting a state tax of licensing will do except create a dividing line between the haves and the have nots, the legal and the illegal, it really won't make anyone safer unless you consider licensing of the rider like a motorcycle. Which defeats the purpose of getting youth out.

Outright banning is a knee-jerk reaction to new technology.
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DMV fees for e-bikes is robbery…..
The proposal to start charging DMV fees for e‑bikes is where I tap out. This is a joke, and it ain’t funny. We’re already getting hammered with $160 to register a 25‑year‑old 50cc scooter, and now they want to drag e‑bikes into the same mess?
Enough my stupid 50cc Scooter cost $160.00 each year…..
🤪
PaulR
 
Yeah, BS money grab.

I can't possibly wrap my head around how charging money to have one makes anything related to them safer.
 
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