Accidents happen with passive bikes, and will happen with electric bikes. Most any accident can be avoided if all of the contributing factors could be mitigated. But that taint the real world!
My wife crashed during our first e bike test drive, just a few weeks ago.
At the bike stores urging, we took the bikes on a short ride over a nearby hill and across some RR tracks, to a large turn around lot. "There's never a train on those tracks". Well, there was a train on those tracks, albeit, a very slow moving freight train. Hence, we had to make a tight turn around before the tracks. My wife still had moderate assist level dialed in, and when she rotated the pedals half way through the tight turn, the assist kicked in and propelled her out of the turn and off the road into some rip-rap. She ended up with the bike on top of her. Thank goodness had she opted to wear a helmet for the test ride, and her only injury was a huge bruise on a thigh. To her credit, she was able to get back up after a few minutes, and jumped right back into the saddle (after I straightened out the seat, handle bars, etc.etc.). We talked about what happened, and she learned a valuable lesson about introducing power during a tight turn.
A little aside...The train engineer actually stopped the train and came over, offered to call an ambulance, and made sure she was OK. It was a very nice gesture, which I have recounted to many friends, while adding that "My wife has a face that can stop a train!" I think she has come to appreciate the humor?
My wife crashed during our first e bike test drive, just a few weeks ago.
At the bike stores urging, we took the bikes on a short ride over a nearby hill and across some RR tracks, to a large turn around lot. "There's never a train on those tracks". Well, there was a train on those tracks, albeit, a very slow moving freight train. Hence, we had to make a tight turn around before the tracks. My wife still had moderate assist level dialed in, and when she rotated the pedals half way through the tight turn, the assist kicked in and propelled her out of the turn and off the road into some rip-rap. She ended up with the bike on top of her. Thank goodness had she opted to wear a helmet for the test ride, and her only injury was a huge bruise on a thigh. To her credit, she was able to get back up after a few minutes, and jumped right back into the saddle (after I straightened out the seat, handle bars, etc.etc.). We talked about what happened, and she learned a valuable lesson about introducing power during a tight turn.
A little aside...The train engineer actually stopped the train and came over, offered to call an ambulance, and made sure she was OK. It was a very nice gesture, which I have recounted to many friends, while adding that "My wife has a face that can stop a train!" I think she has come to appreciate the humor?
