DEAR Jasminda,

MY 13-year-old son wants an E-bike for his birthday.

He has offered to pay half.

All his friends have E-bikes and he can’t keep up with them.. Should I relent even though I think he’s better off riding a normal bike for his health.

I’m also worried about the safety aspects.

Lisa C.

Dear Lisa

I can feel that annoying ‘when I was a kid’ sentence coming out of my mouth with a barrage of reasons to avoid buying your son an E-bike at all costs, but I’m going to refrain .. no, no, I’m not.

I can’t help it.

When I was a kid, just one year younger than your son, I was given my first bike.

I can’t begin to tell you the excitement I felt learning to ride with trainer wheels, going ’round and ’round the backyard, pedalling furiously to get over the grass and then enjoying the increasing speed down the steady slope of the driveway.

Later, when I’d mastered the skill, I rode as far away from the family home as I could.

My parents would have been worried sick if they’d known that my friends and I had progressed from training wheels to Cirque du Soleil wannabe performers.

We’d ride down hills with no hands on the handlebars, double each other, and even hold on for grim life while standing on the seat.

This was in the days before bike helmets and it was sheer luck that we weren’t severely injured. It gave me a love of bike riding that I still have, along with some pretty decent calf muscles, but it’s incredible that one of us didn’t end up with life-threatening injuries.

E-bikes, with the speed factor, multiply that risk.

I think there’s a place for them, for commuters, for example, or more mature-aged riders who may not have the same pedal-power they had when they were young, but at 13, I just can’t see that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

The faster your son goes, the harder he’s going to fall if he comes off.

It goes without saying that young people like pushing boundaries and their awareness of potential dangers is still developing, as my childhood riding days demonstrates.

The cost, even if he’s willing to contribute, is thousands of dollars, and with such an expensive item, there is more likelihood of the bike getting stolen.

There are also the ongoing servicing costs, which will be a lot higher and general repairs like changing a tyre can be trickier too.

E-bikes are heavier, as your son will discover the hard way when he has to cart the bike up a flight of stairs or push it home if the battery runs out.

Lisa, I reckon the E-bike could be a good long-term dream for your son to save up for, and he will if he really wants one that desperately, but your misgivings are reasonable given his age.

There has been a concerning increase in young people with injuries relating to E-bikes and E-scooters, and while it’s impossible to prevent young people doing the stupid things we did at the same age, we can try to minimise the harm as much as possible.

Carpe diem,
Jasminda