E-bikes and a 12-year-old's death

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by verticaldoug

It seems to me that if the bike is designed to carry more than one rider, and the weight of the bike + riders can cause the brakes to fail, then there should be a specific warning in the manual. The biggest issue I have with e-Bikes is they allow novice riders to get into situations they normally couldn't.

If the brakes chosen had a manufacturer warning about the weight of bicycle or rider and this was ignore by Rad, game over.

The RadPower RadRunner bicycle met the CPSC requirements for maximum weight limits and brakes (including having a seat for a passenger). As they were riding down a "steep" hill (the hill was described as being so steep that they couldn't have ridden up it without motor assistance), the fact that it was an e-bike may not have mattered in this case, as they might have reached speeds beyond the motor assist limit (as mentioned before, the RadRunner met the same CPSD standards and safety requirements as non-motorized bicycles).