This article — which focuses on the harm to the teenagers who ride e-bikes — has no comments section and no mention of the danger to pedestrians.
July 29, 2023
"In its marketing materials, Sur-ron describes one model, the Light Bee Electric Bike, as 'easy to maneuver like a bicycle, with the torque and power of an off-road motorcycle.'"
"Its operating manual cautions the owner to 'please follow the traffic rules and with the safe speed (the top speed for this electric vehicle is 20 km/h).' 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. 'There are all kinds of videos on how to jailbreak your Sur-ron,' said Capt. Christopher McDonald of the Sheriff’s Department in Orange County, Calif., where e-bike accidents and injuries are rising. With the speed wire clipped, the vehicle can approach 70 miles per hour, he said."
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71 comments:
Natural selection is in full force here.
They also catch on fire.
The kiddos ride them on the greenbelt multi-use path behind my house, and on the grass that surrounds it. They ride very fast, scare the crap out of pedestrians and dogs and human-powered bikes. They are fast enough that they ought to be restricted to roadways, but that means the riders need to learn how to ride in traffic - just like regular cyclists. We stay the hell off of 50mph roads and stick to bike lanes.
I suspect it will take a nasty bike vs. pedestrian (or bike vs. bike) accident before any steps will be taken. I hope none of the kids end up like the one in the linked story.
Amadeus 48 explicitly state that HE thinks killing pedestrians is "GREAT"
FUCK YOU Amadeus 48.. Fuck YOU and ALL your biker friends
"has no comments section and no mention of the danger to pedestrians."
The pedestrian is not a consumer. The e-bike rider is. Sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars. If we take Keynesian economics to its logical conclusion regarding the value of the rider vs. the pedestrian, the rider and their consumption is more valuable than the pedestrian and the big black hole they leave in the economy by not buying an e-bike.
Subconscious or not, this gets reflected in the omissions mentioned originally. Perhaps the article is a subconscious advertisement for e-bikes, and how pedestrians are really missing out on all the dangerous fun they could be having if they stopped using their stupid feet and went out and bought one. Then, they could upgrade their status and pose the danger instead of being endangered. That's what everyone who reads the NYT wants to do right? Upgrade their status?
Buy an e-bike. Instant status upgrade. Look at all the fun you goofy pedestrians aren't having!
All the e bikes are a dangerous menace in the city. Blue cities with their incomprehensible bike lanes. Cambridge MA is the worst. A male leftie doosh almost took me out ehen he failed to yield to me in the crosswalk.
People suck…
The 8-ball says: Sur-Ron sales are going up!
I chuckle at the bike lanes being put into every city you go to. Somewhere in the city there are streets where the car lanes have been shaved down, and a bike lane added. Is it because of a clamoring of hundreds or thousands of bike riders wanting to ride among the traffic in the cities? No. It's city planners and urban planners insisting that we live in walking cities, or 15 minute cities, or New Urbanist cities, where everyone either rides a bike or takes a bus or walks. It's a pipe dream. We left that village when we hit the 1930s. Sure there are handfuls of bikers who want a safe lane to bike in the city. Fine.
It's nice and quaint. And it gives a town a feeling that, "Look at us! We're accommodating. We're modern. Well...not modern, more of a throwback. We're bringing back the bike and asking you to leave your cars at home. What fun for all!"
Except that if you look at the bike lanes in most cities, they are sparsely trafficked. While the cars are having to squeeze into smaller lanes, or losing lanes entirely. In my small city, they put in a bike lane down one of the main streets that go into the downtown area. Granted it's hot this time of year and not many people are out biking once it gets past 10 am. But they might as well get a crew to dust off that bike lane every week because it sits there looking brand sparkly new.
All that said for this: If you think we're going to have e-bikes traveling 40-70 mph in those bike lanes and there are not going to be great accidents and lawsuits, you're just not thinking clearly. It'll take one e-bike plowing into another biker, throwing that bike into a mom and baby stroller on the sidewalk. Or over into the oncoming car traffic. One massive awful lawsuit and this will be over.
An educated guess on my part, but in the town where I live, at any point in time we have:
Two bike rides per mile of bike lane
Ten bike riders per mile of bike lane riding adjacent to the bike lane and in the roadway.
Twenty cars per mile of bike lane in the roadway adjacent to the bike lane, and:
Two packs of ten kids doing wheelies in the middle of the street.
"It'll take one e-bike plowing into another biker,"
NYC just had a nasty bike vs ebike crash on the Manhattan Bridge...I assume that it prompted this story?
Those ebikes with the small 12 in? 14 in? wheels are all over Missoula's nonmotorized trails now, favored by homeless and drug dealers alike.
What wusses, who are young but can't even pedal themselves around a town this size!
Ever see a teen riding an e-bike? There is no pedaling involved. They are being used as motorbikes/mo-peds.
The problem in this town is we have a lot of bratty teens with e-bikes. They ride around on their e-bikes like they own the place, zooming around street corners, disobeying stop signs/lights etc...
The teens on e-bikes terrorize the elderly and other law abiding safe drivers. See it mentioned all the time on nextdoor.
Surron has just announced the "Golden Bee". It's bigger, faster, and I want one.
Danger to pedestrian and other drivers. E-bikes are mostly BS in my opinion.
If you cannot use your leg muscles to pedal - get yourself a real motorcycle.
A few years ago waiting for my car to be serviced - I noticed a man out front with a really snazzy looking e-bike. I approached him and asked him about it. He was happy to tell me it was a specialty e-bike from California. It was all black and sort of looked like a motor-bike. I asked him if he ever pedaled it . He laughed and said "NO".
Nobody walks in L.A.
Temujin said...
I chuckle at the bike lanes being put into every city you go to. Somewhere in the city there are streets where the car lanes have been shaved down, and a bike lane added.
Except that if you look at the bike lanes in most cities, they are sparsely trafficked. While the cars are having to squeeze into smaller lanes, or losing lanes entirely. In my small city, they put in a bike lane down one of the main streets that go into the downtown area. Granted it's hot this time of year and not many people are out biking once it gets past 10 am. But they might as well get a crew to dust off that bike lane every week because it sits there looking brand sparkly new."
In my area of Milwaukee all the main streets have bike lanes now. I won't say they're never used, but they're never used. They also put in an a$$$phalt path in the high-tension power distribution line easement. And it's never used either.
The Wild Ones
Call them what they are: electric dirt bikes or electric motorcycles.
https://sur-ronusa.com/sur-ron-light-bee/
“A change in language can transform our appreciation of the cosmos.”
— Benjamin Lee Whorf
As someone who worked around the country in urban areas for nearly 50 years, I don't recall encountering any bicyclists that watched out for pedestrians, nor were there more than a few that rode their bikes properly in traffic. They expected auto drivers to watch out for them.
The same remarks also apply to Amish buggy drivers, and are more of a danger because of the horses and the lack of reflexive strips on their buggies for "religious reasons".
One of my clients used to do tests of light military vehicles on country roads day and night, letting the local police know that the tests were being done. Some of the Amish were out at 2 am on back country roads with no markers. There were accidents, people were hurt/killed, and the Amish leaders complained. The cops told the leaders that if they didn't follow the safety rules(the roads used were marked), the client and it's employees would not be cited or charged.
I still have on my car stickers of bicyclists with the red negation symbol overlaying them. It infuriates the riders that I encounter on the rare occasions I venture into downtown Cincinnati. That...pleases me to no end.
Gilbar—actually I was thinking only of the riders of those electric bikes.
It is too early for you to be hitting the sauce that hard.
Amadeus 48 said...
Gilbar—actually I was thinking only of the riders of those electric bikes.
EXACTLY. To Amadeus 48, pedestrians are NOTHING; he ONLY thinks of the riders
Not to mention that the batteries may catch fire.
You can make it go faster? I'm in.
With the speed wire clipped, the vehicle can approach 70 miles per hour, he said.. [My emphasis.]
Is that down a steep hill? Or on flat terrain? Is someone leaving out relevant information in order to hype a story?
Big Mike’s tag: I’m skeptical.
Big Mike.
Let's get one and find out.
Who pissed in your flowerpot this fine morning, gilbar?
Wait! Wait! You're telling me that people on bicycles are behaving obnoxiously and being reckless toward pedestrians? I've never heard of such a thing before!
“Not to mention that the batteries may catch fire.”
Just ride ‘em faster to put out the flames 🔥!
Los Angeles has ideal topography and weather for all manner of bikes and recently developed scooters,e bikes, electric skateboards, etc. The good part is that lower income young people have enjoyable low cost mobility. The bad part is the numbers of novice users without helmets, ignoring traffic rules, and acting as if they're immune to gravity. It will be at least a decade before this improves. Lots of injuries in the meantime.
Again - if you are too much of a pussy to ride a real bicycle - get yourself street legal and buy a motorcycle.
Not hard. E-bikes are for losers. (the only exception I can see is the elderly. Sadly, the elderly could use a nice ride on an e-bike, but the other e-bikers often make it too dangerous - considering all the inconsiderate pussy morons riding e-bikes too fast on the bike path. F*ing morons.) (too fast and dangerous because e-bikes are all the rage with WHITE LEFT CITY COUNCILS)
I don’t mind the bikes exploding as long as they wear a helmet and use proper pronouns.
What a fucked time to be in the insurance industry.
Between the risible street-trolley to nowhere used only by homeless people and perplexed German tourists; the empty bike lanes with more symbols signifying road rules than a post-structuralist textbook, and our enjoyable residents' favorite pastime of burning donuts into crowds of pedestrians sometimes firing guns, I believe downtown Atlanta is well on its way to becoming entirely ironic.
Except that if you look at the bike lanes in most cities, they are sparsely trafficked.
It’s quite the binary phenomenon in California especially cities like Redlands that occasionally host organized bike races. It is exactly as Temujin describes or there’s a huge peloton spilling out of the “lane” taking up the road with people “training” for the next event. Feast or famine baby.
"In its marketing materials, Sur-ron describes one model, the Light Bee Electric Bike, as 'easy to maneuver like a bicycle, with the torque and power of an off-road motorcycle.'"
See, now I want one.
Crap ergonomics of bike (probably way overpowered for any suspension and brakes) +
Crap ergonomics of bike lane planning/execution (probably way underpowered for high-speed inexperienced drivers) +
youth/inexperience +
adrenalin +
arrogance +
poor luck =
Disaster =
Fingrpointing and bitter expensive litigation far too late to help
(BTW, I believe municipalities keep putting in bike lanes because they can get Federal money for the project if they do)
Where US 1 passes through our village, the town fathers and mothers decided to take our nice, six-lane roadway that was expanded that way about two decades earlier, and shave it down to four lanes with bike lanes THAT NOBODY USES*. This eliminated the far RH lanes that were used for turning onto adjacent streets and/or businesses. It now takes at least two light changes to make it through the main intersection. Traffic northbound backs up several miles in the season; the capacity was diminished in the name of "progress and sustainability". Idiot drivers are now using the bike lanes as RH turn lanes, putting those of us who wait for the opportunity to turn right at risk. All because it was paid for in "federal funds and grants". Politicians, even at the local level, seek every way to spend and waste our tax money.
(* - I have only seen bikers on the lanes heading south to the beach roads on Sundays. Literally no one uses them on other days. This is Florida. It's HOT nine months out of the year. Except for the fools who wear spandex outfits and ride with their club mates, the occasional person on a bike is not going to be on the road between 10 AM and twilight.)
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
The electric bikes are no more dangerous than mopeds were, except the latter were _supposed_ to follow traffic laws.
Bicycles are dangerous ...
Nearly 1,000 bicyclists die and over 130,000 are injured in crashes that occur on roads in the United States every year.
...
The costs of bicycle injuries and deaths from crashes typically exceed $23 billion in the United States each year.
Bicycle-Related Injuries
E-bikes are a fresh new thing that I am definitely going to worry about.
I haven't been this upset since pedestrians started walking into the street staring at their phones.
or since day-cares started doing satanic human sacrifice
or since pit bulls suddenly started killing tens of millions of people each year
or since I learned that 25% of college girls are raped each week
or since teenagers started going deaf listening to their ipods
or since teenagers started going deaf listening to there walkmans
or since teenagers were overcome by reefer madness
or since teenagers started turning their records backwards and playoff dungeons and dragons to conjure satan
Or since rock music turned my daughter into a clinically diagnosed nymphomaniac
"Not hard. E-bikes are for losers. "
Not if they can 70mph they aren't. Yer a pussy if don't hit it.
Blogger Anthony said...
"In its marketing materials, Sur-ron describes one model, the Light Bee Electric Bike, as 'easy to maneuver like a bicycle, with the torque and power of an off-road motorcycle.'"
"See, now I want one."
You betcha.
Gilbar on an e-bike. Natural selection in action.
Almost hit 2 Teenage boys on some sort of motorized scooters going 35 MPH on the bike lanes. I know they were going 35 MPH, because after I almost turned into them, I had to go 40 MPH to pass them.
I certainly admired their bravery. If not their wisdom.
Of course they no had helmets. Just t shirts and shorts.
Motorized vehicles should adhere to traffic laws.
There are a lot of teens with electric bikes where I live.
They ride them like bikes - shoot down sidewalks, whip through stop signs, etc.
Some wear helmets, but their 'passengers' - hanging on the back - never do.
Woe is coming.
"Wow. That is some vicious scar all up and down your body. Like you got run through a cheese grater at 50 mph. What happened, dude?"
"Asphalt rash. Came off the e-bike at, yeah, 50-plus mph. Two years' worth of skin grafting. Good thing Medicaid covers it, eh?"
I chuckle at the bike lanes being put into every city you go to.
I don't. They horrify me. They are unsafe, and they give unwitting cyclists a false sense of protection.
Paint on a roadway does not a "bike lane" make.
At 60mph, a pothole that would be annoying on a motorcycle can rip the front wheel off of an e-bike frame. No, thank you.
"Nearly 1,000 bicyclists die and over 130,000 are injured in crashes that occur on roads in the United States every year."
Hospitals kill or maim 870,000 patients a year through mistakes, but they have dancing and singing nurses. Plus, they don't wear nurses uniforms anymore.
New Sur-ron Ultra Bee. Get one:
https://surronme.com/ultra-bee/
Rusty - I'm guessing you do not ride a bike or an e-bike. E-bikes do not achieve 70 MPH.
Every problem in the world is due to a lack of federal regulation.
"gilbar said...
Amadeus 48 explicitly state that HE thinks killing pedestrians is "GREAT"
FUCK YOU Amadeus 48.. Fuck YOU and ALL your biker friends"
No. Amadeus 48 made a simple, declarative, nonjudgmental statement -- "Natural selection is in full force here." -- and nothing more.
If I watch a nature show and the narrator says "Natural selection is in full force here." as a leopard takes down a gazelle, I don't assume the narrator wants to kill all of the gazelles in Africa. Or even that he hates them. He's simply stating a fact.
Your bottom quartile reading comprehension explains a lot, gilbar. Oh, and you need to look up "explicitly" in the dictionary before you try using it again. Hope this helps.
And why do you keep shouting? Really. Why? What's the putative benefit?
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
"Rusty - I'm guessing you do not ride a bike or an e-bike. E-bikes do not achieve 70 MPH."
I used to ride very fast motocycles. They claim this one can. Wouldn't it be fun to find out.
I hit 60 MPH on my non-motorized bicycle. Once. On Guantanamo Naval Base. I was much younger. It was a long downhill no traffic. Hit a bump at the bottom and broke a few spokes. Luckily I didn’t take a tumble. Had to walk the bike back to the ship.
Have a nearby (in Ruralville terms of nearby) bike shop that for electric bikes sells pedal assist bikes only. If you’re not pedaling the motor provides no power. Been looking at getting two for the wife and I. I’m in good shape for 68, but not as spry as I was 40 years ago.
In the downtowns of local villages most of the e-bike riders are adults. And by looking at them it’s easy to suspect they don’t have a driver’s license and are never getting one back. They ride on the sidewalk not the street, which is illegal. When on the street are riding facing traffic. Also illegal. Etc and so on and so forth. I think the law is the same everywhere- if there are no pedals it’s a motorized vehicle that requires licensing and a licensed driver on the street. With pedals laws vary.
One of the two local cities put in dedicated bicycle lanes downtown. Never seen a bike on it. A smaller nearby tourist city cut the main thoroughfare through town from 4 lanes to two and made it bicycle friendly. Never seen a bicycle on them.
I live along a state highway that’s part of the canalway path. Where there isn’t a path along the actual canal. The canalway path, both where it’s actually a path along the canal and the street portions are heavily trafficked by cyclists. I’ve taken to wondering where the major camps they’re tenting in are.
If you're not pedaling, it's really not a "bicycle" anymore. It is the very definition of a motorcycle.
but because selling the latest new shiny thing is the thing - GET an E-Bike!
Who needs leg muscles? Or road rules?
I also recommend the "Fitless Floaty"
The first time I heard of an e-bike was a friend who got one to commute to work. It was a pedal-assist. He needed it to help go up and over the very large hills... Out of B-town to the east.
I thought it was really cool!
After watching the trend turn into no-pedal motorbikes - no pedaling at all... I've grown to despise the things. I certainly do not want one. If I'm too old to pedal, I'm dead.
I think e-bikes are a class I (pedal assist) and class II - full throttle/ no pedal required - weenie version.
Tour De France is athletes pedaling 25 miles per hour. (+/-) just for context.
We have two Rad e-bikes. We mostly use when camping, riding easy trails and back roads, though I will occasionally ride them in my rural, lightly traveled subdivision roads. We don't go on main roads for good a good reason: Some of you fuckers want to run us down and kill us. BTW, we are 64. Is that old enough to not be losers on e-bikes?
There's a mild anonymity when riding a bike vs pedestrians.
Back when I was 30ish I lived across the street (Gillum Blvd & 41st?) from a friend. It was a nice, soft S curve with four street lights. Very well lit. It was also a N->S slope.
Some doofus on a bicycle decided he'd have fun by screaming by crossers, missing them by inches. Fast enough his tires sounded like a heavy sleet. Not a true danger to me as I always look for traffic and was physical enough to get out of the way. What pissed me off most was he'd follow you over trying to keep that "inches" miss.
So one evening as he played darts with pedestrians I took the opportunity to give him a light but snappy palm heel strike to his upper arm. Wobbled him enough he almost went over.
Never had problems thereafter.
Sur-Ron?
Sure it isn't a Mordor plot?
There are dozens of fires in residential buildings every year in NYC from exploding e-bikes, some deadly. Also apparently e-bikes are allowed on the bike paths—though probably not going the wrong way, or through red lights, or going 35 MPH. I don’t think lawsuits are much of an option because accidents with pedestrians are invariably hit and run and the bikers are rarely caught. Though the one who killed actress Lisa Banes last year was later found and convicted. It’s a complete menace, but since the riders are mostly low income delivery people nothing will be done to make or enforce traffic laws in Alvin Bragg’s NYC.
How are these not motor vehicles?
TJohnDo - YOU are doing it right.
An elderly man who live nearby bought an e-bide after he and his wife recovered from covid. The chi-com Fauci virus did a number on him. His doctor wanted him to get out and get some activity and fresh air. He got a pedal-assist and loves it. I'm 100% cool with that. To me - that is the freedom that an e-bike can give.
watching teens wiz around using e-bikes as non-street legal buzz-toys? Bullcrap.
We need more organ donors. But we also need to protect young people from themselves and protect those they will harm. Stupid, stupid.
If I could snip one wire and increase the top speed of my vehicle by several 100 percent I'd have the hood up right now.
Here's Straight Street in Cincinnati: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1298612,-84.5239082,3a,75y,268.44h,87.53t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seqDD6_-82zyH5qCAkUWsYw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
It's steeper than it appears in Google Street View. It's not quite the steepest in the city, but it was still pretty exhilarating to a 9 year old on a brand new 10-speed pumping as hard as I could downhill. Until I realized I had to stop at the stop sign at the bottom. Still have the 10-speed.
Doesn't Ann ride a Trek Ebike? I kinda remember her loving the extended range and the freedom that provided? But I don't trust my covid racked memory anymore. Would be nice to hear from people who've logged a good deal of time on a electric bike.
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