Got my 15yo son the Wired predator. Did i make a mistake?

[Xphobe]

A new user with a post like this?
He tries to market Wired motorbikes but obviously came to

You came here as a new member, looking for advice. Everyone has commented that they don’t think it’s a good idea for a 15 year old and that he might get hurt on it.

From your responses, it doesn’t seem like you ever wanted advice.

Im out.

So are you saying he would be better off with a 150-250cc dirt bike? Perhaps off-road trails are safer than concrete?

 

[Xphobe]

Thank you for all the responses. The majority of the feedback I have gotten is that not only is this bike going to be too much for him, but it should not even have been made.
As such, there were no arguments made that a 150-250cc dirt bike would be any safer.

I have decided he will only be able to ride it under my complete supervision only until he can prove he is responsible enough and can handle the bike. We will be using it as a class 2 until we have the opportunity to hit the off-road trails and then start opening it up together.

 

[PedalUma]

It is not a bicycle.
The guy is doing 101 Kph without pedaling. That is half of terminal velocity in a free fall. It is like jumping off a nine story building and hitting the deck. 750W is the max for a legal assist bike in the US. This one is 9,000. The kid will die and so may others and not just the other kid on the back without a helmet. Hopefully it will be impounded and put in the crusher while the marketers drop their soap in jail. It is better to have hope in the soul than soap in the.. I will let the AG's office know about this. You know those forks will fall apart and the brakes will last nine days. The high mount rear rack pack battery will make it flip in deceleration on a corner.

 

[stompandgo]

Tell it!

 

[PedalUma]

It is note worthy that the day before the purchase he took out a ten-million-dollar double indemnitee death with dismemberment insurance policy on the kid, and purchased a grave plot.

 

[DaveMatthews]

So are you saying he would be better off with a 150-250cc dirt bike? Perhaps off-road trails are safer than concrete?

This is ridiculous mate. NOBODY here is even remotely suggesting a motorbike would be a better choice. That's YOU.
We are suggesting that a bike of this type is overkill (emphasis on kill).
Personally I'd never let my 15 year old get one.

 

[Gionnirocket]

This is ridiculous mate. NOBODY here is even remotely suggesting a motorbike would be a better choice. That's YOU.
We are suggesting that a bike of this type is overkill (emphasis on kill).
Personally I'd never let my 15 year old get one.

Bikes equal to this and above have been sold forever. This is just electric. The website clearly states for off road / consult local laws.
At 15 and younger I rode a Kawasaki 175 often... Off road...but admittedly sometimes on. Don't remember if it did 60mph but it was definitely more than enough bike to end things. At 15 there's organized competition @250cc
Oversight is the parents responsibility.
It's not necessarily a bad idea but education, supervision and the riders own sense of responsibility is key.
I think we can park some of the the high horses.
Now for those beers and that dime bag

 

[PedalUma]

I have seen it many times. It is not dads. Fathers do not do this to their sons. They know what it is like to have pimple hormones raging without a gelled frontal brain. It is single moms who get talked into it. Who is going to assemble it? A motorcycle shop will not service it, and it will need constant and expensive service. No bike shop will touch it. There is no dealer network. No support. The brakes suck, that is why it is 'unstoppable'. It is for the Apex Predator of winning the Darwin Awards.

It's not just powerful—it's unstoppable. Reaching speeds of 55+MPH, the Predator is designed specifically for thrill-seekers who accept nothing less than absolute supremacy. It's truly the Apex Predator to kill your son.​

 

[Xphobe]

Bikes equal to this and above have been sold forever. This is just electric. The website clearly states for off road / consult local laws.
At 15 and younger I rode a Kawasaki 175 often... Off road...but admittedly sometimes on. Don't remember if it did 60mph but it was definitely more than enough bike to end things. At 15 there's organized competition @250cc
Oversight is the parents responsibility.
It's not necessarily a bad idea but education, supervision and the riders own sense of responsibility is key.
I think we can park some of the the high horses.
Now for those beers and that dime bag

Thanks for the feedback. I will plan on strict supervision. It also give me more time to spend with my son.

 

[DaveMatthews]

Bikes equal to this and above have been sold forever. This is just electric. The website clearly states for off road / consult local laws.
At 15 and younger I rode a Kawasaki 175 often... Off road...but admittedly sometimes on. Don't remember if it did 60mph but it was definitely more than enough bike to end things. At 15 there's organized competition @250cc
Oversight is the parents responsibility.
It's not necessarily a bad idea but education, supervision and the riders own sense of responsibility is key.
I think we can park some of the the high horses.
Now for those beers and that dime bag

Nah, not "high horses".
The OP specifically solicited feedback/opinions on whether the bike was a mistake or not.
My opinion/feedback is that yes... it's a mistake.
Not gonna apologize for answering the question honestly.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Nah, not "high horses".
The OP specifically solicited feedback/opinions on whether the bike was a mistake or not.
My opinion/feedback is that yes... it's a mistake.
Not gonna apologize for answering the question honestly.

Fair...
I should have replied to Pedalina with remarks like I gonna tell the AG... but I was too lazy to scroll back up and you were last

 

[stompandgo]

We had a kid about 12 and his Dad come into the shop yesterday. He wanted to borrow a hex key set to adjust the new electric dirt bike that he bought for him. This was not a Sur-Ron or Super73, this was a full blown, full sized (125cc MX sized) dirt bike, except it was electric. Moms may be the ones being convinced, but if Dad is the driving force in the family, there's no stopping someone trying to relive their childhood through their kid.

 

[PedalUma]

I reported it to Assembly Member Connolly. It will go up the food chain to the Apex Predator from there so these marketers land in jail. He wrote the California eBike legislation. Good point, there are some dads living vicariously instead of responsibly. Some do not know how to set the angle of a saddle, like at the press conference.

 

[DaveMatthews]

We had a kid about 12 and his Dad come into the shop yesterday. He wanted to borrow a hex key set to adjust the new electric dirt bike that he bought for him. This was not a Sur-Ron or Super73, this was a full blown, full sized (125cc MX sized) dirt bike, except it was electric. Moms may be the ones being convinced, but if Dad is the driving force in the family, there's no stopping someone trying to relive their childhood through their kid.

I was massively into dirt bikes in my younger days. Full face helmet, pads, boots, proper gloves etc.
All off road though. Always completely understood that your life was in your own hands. Always with friends with the same safety gear.
No cars
No traffic
No pedestrians
Not on MUPs
No other users on these mountains other than dirt bikes and the occasional off road vehicle (rare).

Definitely not the same as these guys on their Sur Rons et al on streets/MUPs speeding, doing wheelies etc.
If OP is doing the stuff I used to do, I'm all for it. Anything else is a disaster waiting to happen IMHO.

 

[stompandgo]

There was a kid doing a wheelie on the MUP with his parents(!) riding right behind him. He was heading right for me, so I screamed at him to "PUT IT DOWN" and Dad screamed obscenities back at me. You can't teach stupid.

Which reminds me, I gotta fix the horn on the Tesoro.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

There was a kid doing a wheelie on the MUP with his parents(!) riding right behind him. He was heading right for me, so I screamed at him to "PUT IT DOWN" and Dad screamed obscenities back at me. You can't teach stupid.

Which reminds me, I gotta fix the horn on the Tesoro.

We live in a time when more people than ever in my 76 years think that rules don't apply to them, and that courtesy and respect for others are for chumps.

On sharing this observation with a county sheriff recently, he just rolled his eyes and said, "You have nooooooo idea. I stop someone for 20 mph over in a clearly marked school zone, and they're screaming, 'You have no authority over me!' before I've even said a word."

You see it everywhere now— even from the very folks who should be modeling respect for the rule of law and took oaths to uphold it. Nothing good can come of this trend.

 

[PedalUma]

The ones with mechanical brakes are total garbage. The ones with hydro can be worse. What kids do is flip the left and right brakes so they can modulate wheelies with throttle on one hand and rear brake on the other. But that puts the reservoirs upside down making an air pocket so the brakes do not work. Insidiously the brakes will work at first then suddenly nothing once confidence is established.

 

[PedalUma]

Forgot to mention. Wheelies require a simultaneous tension balance between power and rear brake. So the kids remove the brake cutouts. It is a safety feature on hub-drive bikes that shuts power when the brake is applied.

 

[rayray]

Bikes equal to this and above have been sold forever. This is just electric. The website clearly states for off road / consult local laws.
At 15 and younger I rode a Kawasaki 175 often... Off road...but admittedly sometimes on. Don't remember if it did 60mph but it was definitely more than enough bike to end things. At 15 there's organized competition @250cc
Oversight is the parents responsibility.
It's not necessarily a bad idea but education, supervision and the riders own sense of responsibility is key.
I think we can park some of the the high horses.
Now for those beers and that dime bag

Sure, lots of kids ride motorcycles. As you said, that’s the parents responsibility.

My concern would be with regard to this bike’s ability to stay together at high speeds. I’m picturing it flying apart at 60 mph, as it’s just another cheaply-made Chinese product.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Well after reading all the comments and giving this a lot of thought as well as taking a deep look inward I've decided to change my position on the question at hand as well as all the possible tangents arising and find myself firmly in the WGaF camp.