The E-Bike Invasion: Silent Speed Demons Terrorizing The Paseos
As collisions rise and kids speed unchecked, Santa Clarita and the Sheriff must act—or brace for things to get much worse.
In all the years I’ve lived in Santa Clarita, I could never really fathom the “good old days” my friends reminisce about—those ‘90s tales of riding dirt bikes or ATVs across empty fields to a buddy’s house for PlayStation—It’s clear why those days should stay in the past: today, you can’t walk the paseos without it feeling like the Cobra Kai dirt bike scene from The Karate Kid—groups of four or five kids on electric motorcycles tearing through parks or ripping down narrow paths, zipping past mothers with strollers, seniors out for a walk, or someone jogging, and now bold enough to ride through Valencia Town Center’s food court, signaling a broader disregard for public safety and common courtesy. It’s an understatement to say this is getting out of hand. Santa Clarita faces a mounting crisis with e-bikes, and the evidence is piling up. This month, an e-bike rider was hospitalized after a collision, another in a string of accidents leaving residents on edge. In February, a similar crash sent someone else to medical care. These aren’t one-offs—Collin Park warned in a letter to editors last December that e-bikes’ speed and accessibility pose a big problem for everyone.
Residents across Santa Clarita are sounding the alarm. At a city council meeting this month, a speaker with Parkinson’s disease said they feel “barraged daily” by e-bikes ridden by kids as young as 10 or 12 on the paseos. “I’ve jumped out of the way a few times,” they noted, underscoring the silent danger to pedestrians. Another resident demanded clear signage banning motorized vehicles from paseos, saying many avoid them now because “it’s just not safe”. Then there’s Tim Whyte’s column, “Mom, Dad, Is This Your E-Bike Kid?” tackling the parenting failures at the core of this mess. He describes his wife walking their dog when a 13- or 14-year-old on an e-bike stared her down and said, “What the F— did you say to me?” misreading her silence as a challenge. No sugarcoating it: that kid was a “dick.” Worse, Whyte depicts a “mob” of 50-100 kids riding through streets and sidewalks, popping wheelies in traffic, blocking intersections, and nearly causing crashes. Tragically, a 14-year-old lost their life that night after being struck by two vehicles on Railroad Avenue. Now, a 15-year-old minor on an e-bike has been transported to a hospital following a traffic collision in Newhall and was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. I think at this point we can all agree with Whyte: parents must step up because the body count will only rise if something isn’t done quickly.
Last Friday, I witnessed it myself leaving the mall: an e-bike rider cut across both lanes of traffic at the entrance near Wokcano, turned right splitting the lanes against traffic, and then veered left across the final lane onto the sidewalk as cars came barreling in. Every driver had to react, essentially making it their job to avoid running him over. It happened so quickly that it was over before I could get my camera out. It mirrored another incident across town: two minors on e-bikes approached an intersection; one switched from the road to the crosswalk and rode across, proclaiming to his friend, “They have to stop for us!” He nearly got flattened by a truck, then turned and screamed at it—completely wrong, yet ignorant and defiant. I thought I might witness a death that day. These moments highlight a bigger issue: parents give kids vehicles without those kids knowing road laws, letting them believe they’re pedestrians because they view these electric motorcycles as toys instead of what they are—dangerous motorized vehicles regulated by the DMV.
Let’s be crystal clear: if a parent buys their kid a bike without pedals, it’s not an e-bike—not a Class 1, 2, or 3, which all have pedals and legal speed limits. It’s an electric dirt bike—think Surron or Talaria, with jump suspension, built for stunts, not paseos. I’ve seen these riders pulling wheelies for 30-40 yards past me and other pedestrians, silent as ghosts. Unlike gas bikes that growl a warning, these electric beasts offer no heads-up, leaving moms, seniors, and everyone else at the mercy of whoever’s on the throttle. That’s not a small lapse; it’s a massive safety fail, and it’s on parents handing these to minors without oversight.
The city isn’t blind to the issue but must do more to tackle this growing mess. City Manager Ken Striplling admitted the problem had worsened over the past few years, with the Sheriff’s Department boosting enforcement and a social media campaign clarifying e-bike rules. Deputy Jigello from the Sheriff Station’s motorcycle team stressed in an Instagram Reel that e-bikes follow bicycle rules—helmets for all, supervision for kids, 16 minimum for Class 3. “Be courteous,” he said, urging riders to signal and keep speeds safe. Striplin conceded that resources are thin and that unsupervised kids riding “with impunity” remains challenging. The City Manager added, “I want to make more efforts to educate the public—not just on e-bike classes, but to hammer home that electric dirt bikes are illegal in the city.”
The state’s response? A new law bans speed-capacity devices on e-bikes. The California Highway Patrol flagged updated 2025 regulations to curb misuse. But here’s the catch: these rules will not solve the problem. Battery tech is advancing fast, slashing costs, and hiking power. A YouTube search for “speed up e-bike” pulls up tutorials like unlocking/jailbreaking an e-bike’s “real top speed”, making regulation essentially a joke. Laws alone won’t fix this; the genie is out of the bottle, and as e-bikes get faster and cheaper, the problem will grow.
Santa Clarita must act decisively before the situation escalates further. The city should start by addressing the issue of electric motorcycles without pedal assist, which blurs the line between bicycles and dirt bikes. These vehicles are not the “class one, two, and three” e-bikes permitted on paseos; they are a different category altogether, often too fast and frequently violating regulations.
To tackle this issue, the city could launch a comprehensive education campaign featuring bus stop banners and signage along the paseos. Additionally, implementing a local ordinance that includes fines or penalties for riders—and their parents—would help enforce rules banning these vehicles from bike paths and paseos. Residents have made it clear that they want stricter enforcement and better signage. While education efforts are valuable, they are insufficient, as young people ride recklessly and unsupervised through town. I have heard rumors that the Sheriff’s station conducted a sting operation and impounded illegal e-bikes, and this sounds like a great start. City & Sheriff might also work with local bike vendors that sell or allow people to order these bikes. We need much more of this to put some teeth behind our laws.
The William S. Hart District should also offer educational programs for students and parents. Some parents may not realize that the e-bike they purchased for their minors is illegal. I have heard a few examples of parents learning they bought an illegal bike and returned it to the manufacturer. Hart should also enforce regulations regarding whether students can bring illegal e-bikes onto campus.
Last summer, the city’s “Back to School Safety” blog urged caution around e-bikes as schools reopened. That warning should’ve stuck, but how many read city blogs—especially the “cool parent” buying their kid a silent murder machine? If we don’t hit this head-on with real consequences, not just polite nudges, we’re begging for more crashes, injuries, and frustration. The question isn’t if it’ll worsen; it’s how bad we’ll let it get before acting.
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