I was riding on a bike path and switched bikes with my companion because his was an e-bike and I wanted to try it out. I didn't realize it would accelerate after I stopped pedaling and crashed into him mildly. He didn't even fall off his bike but I overcorrected trying to avoid him and bombed down the hill. I'm covered in scrapes and I have a couple bruised ribs, bad enough that it hurts to laugh or move in certain ways. A couple people stopped and checked that I was okay after my mishap, so it was bad enough that others were concerned.
My ribs are killing me and I was just getting on my weight loss journey so this is gonna be annoying for a couple weeks and I just have to live with that.
Btw for those who don't know, usually for this sort of thing they don't x-ray your chest because it doesn't matter if they're bruised or fractured, the management is the same. (This is different in cases of flail chest or massive trauma.) So I don't know if they're broken or not I just know that if I sneeze it will feel like getting stabbed and I had a telehealth appt tomorrow where she may tell me to stick to NSAIDs and acetominophen because of my history of addiction.
I love ebikes, but they really necessitate motorcycle safety gear. Now I wear a full face helmet, a crash jacket with level 2 pads in the shoulders/elbows/chest/back, crash pants with level 2 pads in the hips/knees, a smartwatch with crash detection/auto-911 dialing, and armoured gloves with knuckle/wrist pads and webbed fingers. I'll never exceed 32kmh and try to avoid roads.
Hopefully it doesn't deter you from trying them again! A cargo ebike was the best purchase I ever made for an active lifestyle. Once you know how to safely use them, exercise becomes a constant that's entirely within your control. You'll find yourself biking 50km on a whim and staying at your target heartrate the entire time.
Can't you just limit the speed? I wouldn't want to go above roughly 30 kph on a bike anyway.
They're limited by class. Class 1/2 maxes out at 32kmh. Class 3 maxes out at 45kmh. Then there are emotos/hyperbikes which use illegal >750w motors to go above 45kmh. Like you I don't trust bicycle components above bicycle speeds with the added weight of an ebike. Anything above that and motorcycles are much heavier for a reason. 32kmh is the perfect urban max speed, getting me anywhere in the city as fast as I could drive.
They are awesome especially in an area like I am in Washington where there are a lot of elevation changes, but they are getting so powerful! They need to be taken seriously as it's not like riding a bike when you're a kid. I appreciate the gear recommendations. I think I'll stick to the normal bike for most of the time and then use ebikes for special occasions. There are some cool roads out in the middle of nowhere in Washington and Oregon. I will try again when it doesn't hurt to breathe.