As e-bikes gain popularity across Oklahoma, complaints about them are growing on social media.
If you can’t spot the irony, this is one of those social cycles. Casual conversations over the last decade have been rich in one topic. How do we get iPad kids back outside? And as soon as something sparks that inspiration for them, we’re complaining about how many kids are back outside?
Everyone really does eventually turn into their parents.
We Spent Years Trying To Get Kids Outside Again
I will never forgive myself for saying this, but it sets up the whole story… Back in my day, especially over summer break, nobody spent the day inside unless it was raining. And the #1 activity to do was mobbing around town like a roving band of outlaws on our BMX bikes.
While it was fun to ride uptown in our own little Mayberry to Hastings and K-Mart, it felt super grown-up to swing through the Wendy’s drive-thru – on bicycles – to get a bag full of those 99¢ Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and four water cups.
We were 14-year-old rebels without a cause, jobs, or cares… and given that it was a small town, our parents would often hear about us and our antics. Mainly, angry neighbors who we may have accidentally ridden out in front of, sparking many beginnings of what they described as probable mini-cardiac infarctions.
Eh, we lived. It’s even weirder too because even though Millennials were the last generation of near-total wandering freedom, parents born between 1981-1996 are some of the most overbearing hover-parents now. They know where their kids are at all times, and that’s probably a vibe killer for the kiddos.
I realize I may be wandering a bit myself, but it’s swinging back.
E-Bikes Are This Generation’s BMX Bikes
The timeless beauty and ultimate freedom of what were our BMX bikes are now being represented in a different form. There was that scooter craze among Gen Z, but Generation Alpha is back on two big wheels in the form of – and this depends entirely on how big your town is – either cheap pit bike motorcycles or battery-powered e-bikes… either of which makes Gen Alpha infinitely cooler than Gen Z ever was.
I don’t make the rules, I just talk about ’em.
As a result, and this will tell you if you’re old or not… the olds across Oklahoma are constantly complaining about kids roaming around on e-bikes.
What’s more surprising than the irony of wanting kids to be outside, then complaining there are too many kids outside, is the ages of the new olds doing all the complaining.
Granted, the traditional Boomer olds are usually the most vocal about hearing a motorcycle engine in any given neighborhood in the middle of any average day… It interrupts Judge Judy, and they just can’t have that kind of contempt… But it’s the young olds who complain the most about kids on their e-bikes.
The younger Millennials, yeah, but also the elder Zoomers who are hitting their late-20s.
I can only assume this is what it was like when talkies hit theaters for the Silent Generation.
What Oklahoma Says About E-Bikes
This is where I know I have to mention the rules and regulations of e-bikes, otherwise my digital editor will send me an email about a “missed opportunity” to pretend I’m some sort of journalist… I’ll give it my best shot.
From a technical aspect, there are three types of e-bike classifications in Oklahoma. It’s sort of interesting too, I didn’t know any of this either… That being said, it’s about as clear as mud because there’s no law of the land, but rather a bunch of municipal statutes across Sooner State towns and cities.
You can look it all up here, but it just seems to be a definition of pedal-vs-throttle e-bikes, regulated at different levels based on speed.
Since your digital devices spy on you a little bit, you’ll probably start seeing e-bike content in your newsfeeds soon enough. The argument of license plates, licensing, insurance, etc. takes place in the argument between pedal e-bikes and throttle e-bikes.
It’s all still being argued in some sense between our state legislatures, and if it moves at the pace most things do, your grandkids will have clear definitions of it all one day.
Maybe Kids Being Outside Isn’t The Problem
In the meantime, maybe we can all find an appreciation that Gen Alpha is getting back outside.
Will they irresponsibly be in the way, forcing us all to become more alert drivers? Yes. Will they occasionally give us the scare of a lifetime by riding out in front of us? Absolutely. Is that a legitimate excuse to put these babies back in the corner? Nope.
We’re the adults now. We can be grown-ups, right? Let kids be kids? It will not only help them gain the independence and early maturity that we had at that age, but also roving around like a modern electronic bicycle gang is awesome.
It took a whole generation to get kids away from their small, vitamin-D-deficient lives of online personas and screens. Maybe we shouldn’t repeat the sins of Gen-X by pushing them back inside.
Oklahoma E-Bike Use Is Up: Safety Tips Riders Should Follow
All across the Sooner State, it’s getting more common to see e-bikers zipping around pretty much everywhere. Trail systems, parks, the neighborhood, downtown and urban areas. The surge in popularity is impossible to ignore. While we’ll all do our best to remain attentive to this new generation of bikers, here are some safety tips you should pass along to your little hellraiser.
Gallery Credit: Kelso
Oklahoma’s Best Motorcycle Road Trips
Since motorcycling is practically a year-round thing in Oklahoma, anytime is a good time to start planning your next road trip. Whether you’re getting the moto-bros together for the ride, or packing up your significant other for a little two-wheel therapy, here are the best motorcycle road trips inside the Sooner State.
Gallery Credit: Kelso