r/Issaquah • u/Lucifer_Jones_ • 8d ago

E Bikes

Just venting but I am sick and tired of these dumbass kids and these e bikes. I just almost got smashed by one and saw another one riding his down Highlands Drive in the wrong direction.

120 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

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-35

u/NickelSmartPoundFool 7d ago

I’m sick and tired of car drivers complaining about kids on bikes that weigh 1/50 as much 

21

u/phinbob 7d ago

I'm a huge cycling advocate, and I've commuted in lots of cities and countries by bike.

These e motorbikes are too fast and too heavy for kids who's risk assessment hasn't developed yet. We all did dumb things as teenagers, which is why you can't get a license for a motorcycle until you are 16 and get some training.

A Surron Light Bee (for example) weighs 123lbs, goes 46mph and 0-30 in about 3 seconds. Other bikes are similar.

I'm all for kids on bikes, even if they are going to act like kids, and I'm not an eBike hater (there are two in my garage), but there has to be some kind of sanity here. If you wouldn't support kids roaring around on unlicensed 50cc dirt bikes, then you can't really be for these e-motos (on the roads and footpaths anyway, I bet they are a lot of fun in the right place).

-11

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

13

u/phinbob 7d ago

You're equating young teens with rich parents buying them expensive ($2-7k) toys with some kind of class struggle. That's not what this is. It's the fucking Highlands. It's not about class, at least not in the way I think you're implying.

We should absolutely have inexpensive electric mopeds, and ebikes for transport. More busses, good facilities. Public luxury and private sufficiently, sign me up.

But that's not what the OP is talking about. Those kids aren't using their e-motos to get to an evening job at Safeway.

I'm sure they are are absolute hoot to ride, and if someone had given 14 year old me one, I probably would have been a menace too. But my parents couldn't have afforded one, and were probably too wise to have bought me one.

I had a bicycle, and I've been riding one for fun and transport ever since. Including in a couple of European cities.

0

u/NickelSmartPoundFool 7d ago

I haven’t owned a car anywhere I live as a matter of principle. Cyclists and surron riders are on the same team. I’m sure a lot of kids are just joyriding much like the spandex cyclists, but I also know multiple Costco/grocery store workers ride surrons to work. Flagellating yourself for upvotes in a boomer suburb Reddit is shameful