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Dan Shuman sells electric bicycles at Marblehead Cycle and his mechanics repair many more that customers bought online. On Monday, he asked parents to stop buying them for their children.
Shuman, who has owned the Bessom Street shop since 2020, said in a public statement that the store will not sell an e-bike to a minor and will not knowingly sell one to an adult who is buying it for a minor. His advice applies to riders 17 and younger.
The shop will keep servicing e-bikes, including machines it knows are ridden by minors. Refusing that work, Shuman wrote, "would only ensure that they continue to be ridden with major safety issues unaddressed."
"We sell e-bikes in the bike shop and service many more bought online and there are simply no e-bikes available that are safe for kids," he wrote.
Hardy Street at 28 mph
His argument rests mostly on speed. Most e-bikes and e-scooters can quickly reach 28 mph, Shuman wrote, and almost all of those bought online are Class 2 or Class 3 machines that can be operated on a throttle alone, with no pedaling. In the shop's experience, he said, online e-bikes tend to be lower-end products with inferior stopping ability.
"As an automobile driver 28 mph may seem pretty slow," he wrote, "but if you're considering buying your kid a machine that will move them through our streets at 28 mph first sit on the hood of your car and let someone drive you down Hardy Street at 28 mph."
Shuman also argued that helmets are not built for those speeds. Typical bicycle helmets are designed for the 10 to 12 mph a rider can comfortably pedal, he wrote, and the human skull developed to protect people moving at the speed their own legs can carry them. He said he was prompted in part by an NBC Nightly News feature on deaths and serious injuries among young riders of e-bikes and electric scooters.
Committee chair applauds the decision
Rick Smyers, chair of the Marblehead Traffic Safety Advisory Committee, said he agreed with Shuman's analysis.
"I applaud Dan Shuman and Marblehead Cycles for this decision, which puts the safety of our kids above the profitability of his own small business," Smyers said. Most e-bikes, he added, are not safe for the vast majority of riders under 17.
Smyers said parents should know that knowingly permitting their children to ride overpowered e-bikes exposes them to liability, comparing it with permitting a child to drive the family car. He also said Massachusetts legislation pending on Beacon Hill would require a driver's license for many of these machines.
He drew a different line than Shuman on adults and older teenagers.
"E-bikes are a great option for responsible adults and older teens," Smyers said. "I'd encourage people to think about them as an alternative to cars, not an alternative to regular bikes."
Marblehead's own record
Marblehead police data presented to the committee at its Sept. 15 meeting last year counted seven crashes involving e-bikes from 2020 through 2024, with varied circumstances and no single pattern of fault. They included a 2020 collision involving a 9-year-old e-bike operator on Londonderry Road and a 2023 crash in which a rider dressed in black, without lights or reflectors, was struck in the middle of Pleasant Street. Others occurred at Shorewood Road, West Shore Drive, Bubier Road and the intersection of Tedesco Street and Leggs Hill Road. Because the number of local e-bike riders is not known, the count does not establish a crash rate.
The committee agreed at that meeting to emphasize education over enforcement. Police Chief Dennis King said policing alone would not fix the problem.
"It's parents buying their kids $1,500, $2,000 e-bikes," King said. "If you do, have conversations around them about using them safely." He said many young Marblehead riders do wear helmets, but speed remained his central concern, and he noted that about 20 e-bikes are regularly parked at the middle school entrance.
Resident Dan Tucker, who rides a Class 1 e-bike he called "transformative," told the same committee not to blame the machines alone, pointing to what he described as an absence of cycling infrastructure in town.
Speed tiers pending in the House
The Massachusetts Senate approved a speed-based framework for powered devices July 23, folding it into a broader economic-development package after two days of debate. It is not law. The Senate returned the bill to the House of Representatives, which must accept the Senate language or negotiate a compromise before anything reaches the governor.
The proposal would sort devices by the top speed they were designed to reach rather than by class labels. Children younger than 14 could not operate a powered device, and riders younger than 16 could not use one capable of more than 20 mph. Devices built to exceed 30 mph would be barred from sidewalks, bike lanes, bike paths and shared-use trails. The bill would also set battery standards and prohibit modifications meant to increase speed, range or power.
Present state law is looser. It recognizes Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes with motors up to 750 watts assisting to 20 mph, requires helmets for riders under 17, bars e-bikes from sidewalks and leaves Class 3 machines undefined.
None of that changes what happens at 25 Bessom St. Shuman will keep selling e-bikes to adults and keep fixing the ones already in town, including those ridden by teenagers.
"Again, please don't buy e-bikes for kids (17 and under)," he wrote. "If you choose to ignore this advice at least insure that they know the rules of the road and wear an appropriate helmet at all times."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the name of Dan Shuman's shop. It is Marblehead Cycle, not Marblehead Cycles.
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