I am a former racer, commuter, and professional Buyer for a chain of bike shops. I’m also disabled from the crash involving the 6th and 7th cars that have hit me in the last 170k+ miles of riding. I only barely survived what I simplify as a “broken neck and back.” Cars making U-turns are what will get you if you ride long enough, especially commuting. It will look like just another person turning in front of you, you’ll compensate like usual, and before your brain can even register what is really happening, what was your normal escape route will close and you’re going to crash really hard. It is the only kind of crash that your intuition is useless against.

I digress, because I care too much. My point is that I still ride on a dedicated road bike trail. I encounter children on their Power Wheels™ /s doing wheelies all the time. I even have many playing chicken. Any small head injury is likely to kill me. I’m actually not all that concerned about dying. I’ve been present for two crashes where someone died. These things haunt you for life. I’d rather not die while stressed over the impact my struggle has on you for that 30-45 minutes if I am conscious. It will change your life nearly as much as mine.

Never do anything on a bike that requires anyone else to “trust you.” Every time you have a close call in a car or on a bike due to another person’s error, and you’re mumbling to yourself “fucking idiot,” that other person is saying to themselves or others “trust me, you’re fine.” Every time you tell yourself “trust me” you’re everyone else’s “fucking idiot.”

No one is aware of all the things that can go wrong. However, I’ve been riding for a lot of miles. I know more than most what can go wrong. The most likely cause of my death on a bike right now is a naive child doing a wheelie. All it takes is a snapped chain, a fractured freehub pawl or outer bearing race, a tire blowout, a snapped spoke that causes a cascade of 3 or more spokes to break, or simple over confidence and a lack of balance. I have seen all of these things happen at least once.

The only time I appear completely fine to the casual observer is when I’m on a bike. I’m fast; likely faster than you typically ride at with lithium legs, and have a top speed in the mid thirties on flat ground without a tailwind, - if I care to try. What you can’t see is the 10 years of spending most days laying down from not being able to hold posture, my constant back pain on par with a bad bee sting that never goes away or fades to background, or how I can’t turn my head left anywhere near far enough to see over my shoulder.

The only way to help the issue of youthful irresponsibility on e-bikes is to develop a culture of shaming and shunning any fellow riders that endanger others on bike trails. That is a tough ask from youths that are notorious for a lack of well established and outspoken character capable of aligning positive traits through peer pressure. I type all this in the hopes that you are the exception to this stereotype.