New California Senate Bill 1167

[RunForTheHills]

The manufacturers and dealers have only themselves to blame for that. They blatantly defied existing laws, sold lots of illegal bikes that should never have been in the hands of 14 year-old males, and now we all have to deal with the backlash.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't see a Juiced ebike with a throttle that works to 28mph as the problem. And their deceptive marketing wasn't enough to keep them in business anyway. A Sur-ron or HappyRun with 6000W and a throttle is what the problem kids (not all kids) are riding. These bikes are ordered online. I believe better enforcement on the local level is what is needed. If they know that their expensive and illegal emotos will get confiscated as soon as they ride them on the streets, perhaps they will find safer places to ride them or find another hobby.

 

[PedalUma]

I can hold seemingly contradictory thoughts at the sametime. One mom argued, 'At least they are not on TicToc or playing video games.' 'My son can take himself to baseball practice and likes to be active outside with friends.' Her son has a MacFox, a cheap 500W throttle moped. I can see her point as valid. He does always have a helmet.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I believe better enforcement on the local level is what is needed.

On that we agree. For the last year or so, Carlsbad police have been activately confiscating Surrons and the like ridden on public infrastructure. And I think it's had a positive effect.

But I still see a lot of teen males on less obviously illegal machines doing wheelies and other stupid stuff on busy streets and bikeways, both alone and in packs. So it's not just a few bad apples on Surrons.

YouTube has a whole subculture around this outlaw ebiker image they have of themselves. Can't imagine where they got the idea that traffic laws and simple courtesy to other users just don't apply to them.

Just wish the crackdown on Surrons had started a lot sooner. By the time our cops got serious about it, the PR damage to legal ebiking had already been done.

 

[RunForTheHills]

On that we agree. For the last year or so, Carlsbad police have been activately confiscating Surrons and the like ridden on public infrastructure. And I think it's had a positive effect.

But I still see a lot of teen males on less obviously illegal machines doing wheelies and other stupid stuff on busy streets and bikeways, both alone and in packs. So it's not just a few bad apples on Surrons.

YouTube has a whole subculture around this outlaw ebiker image they have of themselves. Can't imagine where they got the idea that traffic laws and simple courtesy to other users just don't apply to them.

Just wish the crackdown on Surrons had started a lot sooner. By the time our cops got serious about it, the PR damage to legal ebiking had already been done.

I wasn't referring exclusively to Sur-rons. Most of them have the same general look: Non-adjustable motorcycle style seat, large battery, vestigial pedals with a large Q factor, full suspension, etc. With DIY bikes, it is possible to put the same power into a bicycle frame. But 99% of these bikes are not that and bicycle frames and components are not designed to withstand that kind of power.

 

[stompandgo]

But they are cheap to build and sell out.

This hooligan culture has been around for a while. Before the e-bikes, it was gangs of dirt bikes and 4-wheelers terrorizing city streets, harassing anyone that looked at them. No LEO intervention. It was the Wild Wild West. This crap has made it down to school kids who watch this crap on TikTok.

I know, OK Boomer.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I certainly do not understand the political reality of the Unites States but the federal law defined e-bikes well before the Law of California.

 

[Chargeride]

But they are cheap to build and sell out.

This hooligan culture has been around for a while. Before the e-bikes, it was gangs of dirt bikes and 4-wheelers terrorizing city streets, harassing anyone that looked at them. No LEO intervention. It was the Wild Wild West. This crap has made it down to school kids who watch this crap on TikTok.

I know, OK Boomer.

When I was 15 my friend and I bolted a 90cc Honda engine into a home made trike frame, no exhaust, tied flaming gas soaked rags to the wheels and rode down his parents very posh road.

They must have thought beezelbub himself had descended, in reality we were just young testerone saturated kids giving the finger to the MAN.

There was no malice, I would have pulled over to help a granny across the road , we were well to do kids brought up in middle class areas.

Our type save the evil for corporate power.

 

[stompandgo]

I rode minibikes and dirt bikes on the road as a kid, but it was always to get to an offroad trail. Was it illegal? Yup. Could I have had the bike impounded? Yup. Could I have ended up in juvi? Maybe.

The difference is, I wasn't weaving in and out of traffic at 40mph. I wasn't riding on the sidewalk with little kids on it. I wasn't blowing stop signs in residential neighborhoods. And I certainly wasn't riding around in large gangs, threatening people. These kids that ride their unrestricted e-bikes on the street have no respect for life. They don't give a crap about you. It's all about them.

You can have all the laws you want on the books, but they are useless without enforcement. Politicians here pass all sorts of feel-good laws, and then tell the cops not to enforce them. It's all for show.

 

[Chargeride]

Its the mob mentality, thats why they have laws referring to the amount of people that can gather.

 

[Chargeride]

A bit of comical rage commentary.
But it begins.

 

[Chargeride]

You have to remember this is edited together footage, there could well be a very wide range of behaviour in these clips

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

A bit of comical rage commentary.
But it begins.

Hoping these dangerous young riders face penalties they'll never forget. Also hoping that these police actions get a lot more common — and get widely publicized in a positive way everytime.

Wish this video had made crystal clear that there were few if any ebikes in all this footage — proving that bad rider behavior resides in the rider, not the bike. Sure, ebikes enable these stunts in weaker riders to some extent. But the root causes go way deeper than that.

Something big has changed. This kind of widespread renegade behavior on busy public infrastructure just didn't happen when I was a teen or early 20-something. (Yes, we had bicycles back then. TV, too.) Nor did it happen when my 30-something kids were that age.

Surely there were scattered cases back then. But we're now seeing these group bike take-overs in many US cities, in Australia, and I think elsewhere, too. There's a whole YouTube culture around it. (Look up Sur-ronster.)

Worse yet, a lot of adults now act like rules and respect for others just don't apply to them — including people in high places and their various thugs.

Gotta ask why this breakdown in civilized behavior is happening across the globe now. Who gave these two-wheeled twits the idea that no one else matters — even when the stakes are high for all concerned?

With the machines and weapons we now possess worldwide, this zeitgeist doesn't bode for the next few decades.

 

[PedalUma]

A bit of comical rage commentary.
But it begins.

They were identified and processed and the bikes were impounded. So now they are setup with a record for a second offence.

 

[PedalUma]

They were identified and processed and the bikes were impounded. So now they are setup with a record for a second offence.

Having a prior means it won't go to a jury next time. Guilty.

 

[stompandgo]

Having a prior means it won't go to a jury next time. Guilty.

Gimme a break. They will all walk. Hell, you can shoplift up to $750 and walk. The city will impound the bikes and sell them at auction. That pays for a few police academy graduation parties.

During COVID, we had gangs of ATV's, dirt bikes, and motorcycles rampaging through city streets uncontested. It was the wild wild west. Now that culture has shifted down to kids on Sur-Rons and SE Rippers.

 

[PedalUma]

Gimme a break. They will all walk. Hell, you can shoplift up to $750 and walk. The city will impound the bikes and sell them at auction. That pays for a few police academy graduation parties.

During COVID, we had gangs of ATV's, dirt bikes, and motorcycles rampaging through city streets uncontested. It was the wild wild west. Now that culture has shifted down to kids on Sur-Rons and SE Rippers.

See the new thread on AB 1557!

 

[stompandgo]

We do not need a single new law or regulation to stop this. All they do is give slimy politicians something to crow about and line their pockets. Just enforce existing laws.