December 6, 2025 • 35 mins
A massive traffic jam on the 5 that’s been going on since the middle of the day has finally been cleared after hours of traffic crawling at a snail’s pace. The E-bike is the Cabbage Patch doll of the festive season in 2025 — everyone wants one under the Christmas tree. However, city councils and many parents hate them! Lou talks about souping up his son’s second-hand E-bike. It was a bonding experience in the garage. Moving on to the impending wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, they’ve chosen the date — it’s 6/13/2026.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Friday night. Good to have you along with us.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I am so pleased to hear that the jam on
the five Freeway northbound and southbound leaving San Diego into
Orange County has finally been I mean, the sigal art
has been called off. We're trying to learn and Mark
Ronner will update us coming up in just a few minutes.
(00:29):
But if you learned before the newscast, Mark, let us
know how it was resolved. We know there was a
jumper on the overpass since twelve thirty this morning, and
people were sitting in traffic four hours from if you know,
the area from the eight oh five split up to
del Mar, which is a goodly amount of length of
(00:51):
space and really very little in between. So it's not
like there's a lot of you know, exits, Not much
can do and a lot of people very very frustrated.
And the way this was handled by CHP is causing
a lot of questions and it's troublesome because obviously somebody
(01:14):
threatening to drump. It's that time of year, this happens
every Christmas. People get holiday blues. Depression is a real
thing and We don't want people to take their lives
because they're depressed about the holidays.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's terrible. Don't want that to happen. But you will
lose compassion exponentially as.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You sit there, hour after hour after hour watching the
CHP essentially do nothing. Now, we've talked to CHP officers
about this, and I understand what their job is in
these situations. Their priority is life. Their priority is protecting
the life of that individual, and that's what their orders are.
(01:58):
And track and delay and you being late to go
home to dinner is not It can't be their priority.
And I respect that I do right, But everything has
a point. And I mean I watched this. I watched
it since twelve thirty, so it went from the middle
of the day to sunset to pitch black. It is
(02:23):
certainly easier to get somebody off the overpass during the
daylight hours than it is at night. And here it
is nine o'clock in southern California and it just finally
got resolved. Again. I don't know how it resolved. We
all hope that it was resolved in a nice way,
but none. Nevertheless, it's over and now traffic is moving,
(02:45):
but a lot of people's Friday nights were really upended.
I know people that had children coming back from camp
on a school bus that were stuck on the school
bus for hours, and of course cars out of gas
and cars ran out of power, and so now they're
disabled on the side of the road. So people got
(03:06):
to go get those cars and tow trucks, and everybody
is scratching their head wondering, isn't there any way to
drag some kind of large trampoline and put it under
the overpass, like this's gotta be away. In all the
movies that we see Lethal Weapon, the exact same thing
(03:28):
happened to mel Gibson, exactly the same thing. It was
Christmas time and Leth the Weapon as well. That's right,
Leth The Weapon is a Christmas movie. And uh, you know,
Websen went up there and said, come on, now, it's
a crazy time of the year, get off the ledge.
And the guy said, now I'm gonna jump, and you know,
he tried to talk him off, and then finally mel
(03:50):
Gibson said, you know what, do you really want to jump?
That's fine, let's jump. And they jumped, and Danny Glover
watched and he said, oh, I'll believe this. And what happened.
The fire department inflated this giant air mattress and they
fell into the air mattress and everything was fine.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Now Gibson wasn't hurt, the jumper wasn't hurt.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And all I could think of all day watching this,
why don't they inflate the same air mattress they used
in lethal weapon In all the movies that we saw
of the you know, whenever there was a house fire
and there is this you know, mother and the baby
in the second story, you know, window of the house fire,
and the fire trucks come in the fire brigade and
(04:35):
they have like this huge circle, like a trampoline without feet,
without legs, and all the firefighters are holding the huge
circle and they're saying, jump, we'll catch you, don't worry. Jump,
And eventually the lady jumps with the baby and the
firefighters catcher and horay, everybody's safe. And where's that? Why
don't they have that?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
As all of the do none of these things exist with.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
All the technology that's out there, there isn't some way
to shoot a net around the guy so that he
gets stuck to the side of the overpass. Somebody called
in and said, why don't they just I mean, the
freeway has stopped, so there are no cars moving, and
(05:22):
the only way you really die when you jump off
the overpass is then get hit by a car that's
going sixty five miles per hour. But since no cars
are moving, he's probably not gonna die. He probably will
just break his leg. So they said, why don't you
just pull two like like trucks, like eighteen wheeler trucks,
(05:44):
and just park them under the overpass real close together,
like inches apart. So now when he falls, he'll fall
on the top of a truck. He'll fall like eight
feet and then hit him with a stun gun or something.
So he gets off and falls down, and you could
even put it in like an air mattress on top
of the truck.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, get a little creative about this.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So this idea that well, the order order of the
day for HP is to make sure that he stays alive.
That's fine, that's noble, but we got to get a
little creative because there's too much going on, too many
people that were Really it's more than an inconvenience when
you're talking twelve thirty to nine o'clock in southern colg
(06:30):
I mean that's a shift. Twelve to eight is an
eight hour shift. So we had to pay the CHP
officers over time. Nobody thought of coming coming up with
a trampoline or a balloon or something. And Friday night
is over now for everybody except for the people that
lived in the ocean side. They had it. They had
(06:50):
it made the people. While all this was going on,
the people that lived in the ocean side, they were
literally drag racing on the northbound five because you could
you could literally open up the engine. That would tonight
would have been the night if you lived in the
oceanside hot on the Fire Freeway, it's it's a smooth
sailing up to San Clementy.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That was a lot of fun, all right, So we'll
get the.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Latest and find out what happened. But I do hope
it was resolved in a nice way. But going forward,
we got to use technology. I don't know, I see,
you know, Batman had all kinds of things in his
bat utility belt that you know. I understand that that's
(07:33):
a fictional character, but we could glean a couple of
good ideas from Batman.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
That's for sure, so we'll do that coming up next.
Also the e bike. We got to get to the
e bike story.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
All these e bikes are going to be on the
road after Christmas break because everybody's getting one for Christmas,
and we'll tell you all about it and how everybody's
going crazy about it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
We'll do that next Blue Penrose on k I Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty demand.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Blue Penrose on a Friday night. Good to have you
along with us. The e bike will be the big
gift this year.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
E bikes are a top holiday pick this season and
it might even end up.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Under your tree.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Everybody's buying them now. I have expertise in this.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I have a sixteen year old son, a fifteen year
old son and.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
A twelve year old son, and we've.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Gone through the whole e bike experience from I hate
these bikes. You're never getting one to all right, if
you want to buy a used one, I'll work with
you and we'll fix it up together and get father
son time in the garage and I can finally teach
you how to properly use a wrench to you know.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Now they're buying.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Faster ones and so I know the whole e bike situation,
and it is a challenge. There's no question about it.
They're dangerous as hell, and really nobody should be on them.
I mean you should have you should need a motorcycle
license to ride a n EE bike. They're just basically
a slower motorcycle. And certainly twelve year old should not
be on ey bikes. There's no question about it. But
(09:13):
it happened too fast. Sometimes technology happens so fast that
we don't get to stop it for a second and say,
wait a minute. I get their bicycles, but they're they're
assisted bicycles, so they go faster, and they're technically a bicycle,
so they can be in the bike laying on the road.
(09:36):
But like, it just happened too fast. We and now
we're behind it, and now they're out there and we
can't do anything about it. So we got to deal
with it because it went right by, it passed us
on the left.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The e bikes passes on the left, and the kids.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Were smarter than we were. And the people that sell
these bikes marketed them as bicycles, and the bicycle community
in southern California was so happy that there were more
bicycles out there, and they're constantly putting bike lanes out
there and putting restrictions on motorists, and everybody's got to
(10:13):
be a bicycle person because we want people on bicycles,
and the e bike is a bicycle legally, so now
it's allowed to be in a bike lane, just like
a bicycle is allowed in a bike lane. You would
never tell a twelve year old they can't ride a bike.
We're trying to get the kids out of the house
and off of their devices. That was the argument that
(10:33):
I made to my wife. You're the one that wants
them off these damn devices, So now they're on a bicycle.
Yet I can't stand these damn e bikes. Well, like
in the.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
World, they're kind of the same thing, and now they're
out there.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So the way this works is there are e bikes,
then there are faster e bikes, and then there are
effectively dirt bikes that look like e bikes but don't
have any pedals, and those are the ones you're not
allowed to have anywhere on the road. But this is
too much. I mean, law enforcement is slowly catching up
(11:09):
to it, but really, law enforcement doesn't want to deal
with this, but they also don't want to deal with
the injury. So we are just chasing our tail on
this one.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
And if you're shopping for one this season, first test
drug before you buy. Second, and make sure it's a
legal e bike and ann e motorcycle or a legal bike.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, this is great, This is great advice. This would
be CBS's This is alex Lie on CBS. You go
to the CHP website and you try and figure out,
because I did, you try and figure out if what
you're buying is actually legal. It is impossible to figure
this out. Impossible, and it doesn't seem to matter for
(11:51):
any other parent as far as I can see, or
maybe all the other parents don't know either, like the
only kids. The only ones that know are the kids,
and they're not going to tell you, and the guy
selling you the e bike is not going to tell you.
And that's if you go buy it in a store,
which many of you aren't because they're too expensive. But
as soon as a kid gets an e bike, they
want a faster e bike, so they sell on you know,
(12:13):
offer up or on Marketplace or whatever the new platform is,
and your kid takes his birthday money and his Christmas
money and goes goes and buy a used one, but
it's been modified, and it goes fast.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It's really challenging, very very challenging.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Does it have pedals? Does it fit within the three
classifications of e bikes? If it goes faster than twenty
miles per hour, it's not a class wandered?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Class two?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
If it goes faster than twenty eight, it's not a
class three.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Okay, I can confirm that it does or does not
have pedals? That I can do the rest I think
you'll lost.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Does it have pedals? Does it fit within the three
classifications of e bikes? If it goes faster than twenty
miles per hour, it's not a class wandered? Class two?
If it goes faster than twenty eight, it's not a
class three.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Mario, did you catch all that? Can you hand me
my radar gun so I can see if it's going
twenty eight miles per hour or twenty nine miles per hour? Well, like,
this is the ridiculus. How am I supposed to know that?
As a parent? You're supposed to How fast does this go?
Goes up to twenty five miles?
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Now?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
All right? Because if it goes over twenty nine, then
I've broken the law. Like that's impossible to figure out
three classes. Twenty miles per hour, twenty eight miles per hour.
That's before the kids modify it, and it all just
becomes a real challenge. Do you have any bike? I
do not? Yeah, I mean that you see them around.
(13:39):
Have you anybody you know riding one around? No? Not
at all.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Actually it's not popular around my my group of friends.
Actually no, because you're a grown up.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
But let me tell you. When I dropped the kids
off in school, they're all zipping around. And I understand
why people that drive are going crazy, because kids eat well,
even bicycles. Kids don't really like yield to you know, driveways,
people backing out of driveways or cars, you know, going
back out of a strip mall like into traffic. It's
(14:12):
just it's very dangerous and it's a nerve wracking watching,
especially around a school, a middle school or an elementary school,
watching all these kids zipping around on these bikes. But
they can go up to twenty five miles per hour
or twenty miles an hour. I guess you said, he
said there, that's fast, especially when you got like a
twelve year old or a thirteen year old on it
who's light and you know, doesn't weigh a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
So these these are effectively mopeds.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And I had a moped as a kid, and let
me tell you, I had to have it had to
be registered, and I think I had to have some
form of lights, and maybe I had to have a
learner's permit or something. But I'll tell you what I
had to I had to carry insurance because I remember
my mother said, look, if you're gonna I'll get this
rider for this, I'll add the moped on to my insurance,
(14:58):
but you have to pay it. And I was working
at Burger King and I had to pay my mom
the insurance for my moped. But it was like an
organized thing. These e bikes don't are not in those
categories because they're not mopeds or motorcycles. They are sold
as bicycles with a battery. Here's what happened.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Batteries got really good while we weren't looking.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
For the most part, what's your experience with batteries, Like
batteries go in remote controls. That's pretty much it. I
don't what else do I use a battery for? Like
if the remote control doesn't work and I can't go
up and down with my channels, then I go get
two batteries and that's it. Powering a remote control is
not a lot of power. When a battery powers a motor,
(15:46):
it requires a lot of power.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
We just put in a touch.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Dead bolt in my house at home, and because my
wife is done with keys and she wants to be
able to let other people get in and put out
a coat. So you just you know you've seen these things, right,
you just you hit four numbers and the dead bolt turns. Okay,
that the bat it's battery operated, but it's four double
A batteries. That's a lot, and those batteries will drain
(16:14):
I'm sure in like less than six months, depending on
how much we open and close the lock. And that's
because those batteries are turning a motor. Battery technology has
gotten so good that you can have a battery that
is light enough to place on a bicycle and then
add one hundred and twenty pound child on it and
(16:34):
it can still power that back wheel to zip a
kid twenty miles per hour for many hours. So the
battery technology has gotten so good that they have figured
out a way to attach it to a bike and
now effectively you got little mini motorcycles.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Also check up on your local loss. Some cities including
Chula Vista, San Marcos, and Coronado don't allow anyone under
twelve to ride an e bike. So if you're wrapping
an e bike this Christmas, consider doing your research and
adding a safety course to the gifts.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I don't know where the safety course is going to
be located.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I love these cities that are now making it
illegal to ride an ee bike under twelve, So how
is that going to work?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I don't know that these cities have thought that through.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I don't disagree. If you want the cutoff to be twelve,
I think it should be way higher. The idea that
a twelve and thirteen year old are going to be
able to ride at twenty miles per hour on an
ee bike more responsibly than an eleven year old and
eleven months is I think fantasy. But how exactly is
(17:42):
the twelve year old going to prove that he's twelve
to the cop Since my twelve year old doesn't have
a license or what I mean, what would a twelve
year old have in his pocket to show the cop
that Yeah, no, no, you're an officer. I'm twelve. I'm
(18:02):
legally allowed to ride this bike, so that's not gonna work.
All right, we'll take a break. We got more on
the e bike story and what cities are doing about it,
and we'll take your telephone calls as well on the
iHeart relap Blue Penrose on KFI AM six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Blue Penrose on a Friday night. Good to have you
along with us talking about the e bikes. They're gonna
be the big hit under the Christmas tree.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
The bikes are a top holiday pick this season and
might even end up under your truth.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
A lot of people are not happy about having more
e bikes on the road.
Speaker 7 (18:40):
Guys, if your son has an e bike, it's illegal.
Illegal means basically, if it gets over twenty miles an
hour and has a motor, it is illegal over twenty miles,
and they all are over twenty miles an hour.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, I appreciate the call. I think what you meant
to say was it's not street legal, like you can't
have it on the road where other bicycles are and
I understand that.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
Putting your twelve year old kid on an ebunk, or
a thirteen year old or a fourteen year old, fifteen,
sixteen year old, the riders of these things are an
absolute nuisance. They should be in no way anywhere in
the hands of anyone under sixteen years old. Get a license,
outlaw them and let they have a license.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I appreciate the call. I'm with you three years ago.
I'm with you five years ago. When this first hit
the scene, somebody should have said these are not bicycles
just because they have pedals. No one's pedaling an e
bike and they're really dangerous, so nobody got their hands
(19:49):
around it. Now they're everywhere and you can't just ban
them now, so we got to work around it.
Speaker 7 (19:56):
Heyel I had one of these e bikes going by
me the other day day at thirty five miles an
hour and I could not keep up with the kid.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
How fast are these bikes actually able to go? Well,
thirty five is pretty fast. I don't think you were
with any first off, you couldn't keep up with thirty
five miles per hour? What are you driving? I mean,
that's a pretty bad car. But there, yeah, there are
effect like the third class of e bikes are not
e bikes. These are the ones that don't have pedals
(20:29):
and go really fast. They're effectively dirt bikes. Like there
are areas in southern California where you can ride dirt bikes,
and they're areas where you can but anywhere that you
can trail ride. Remember like mountain biking. That was a
thing for a hot minute. Right, what is a mountain bike.
(20:51):
It's a bicycle and you got pedals, and the pedals,
you know, you really dig dig dig dig dig and
really a well, any bike go there because it's a
bike trail, right, Well, an e bike can go on
a bike trail because it's a bicycle. But you don't
have to dig dig dig dig dig with the pedals
because you just you just turn the throttle and you
(21:12):
can have a whole lot of fun. Well, you can't
take dirt bikes up there because the motor is loud
and the cops will come. Guess what they now have bike?
I don't know if they're e bikes that are emotos.
Maybe you want to call the Surons. The Surons are amazing.
I mean they are thirty five hundred dollars. But they're
(21:32):
absolutely amazing, and they are as fast as a dirt
bike and as powerful as a dirt bike. And guess what,
they're silent, so the cops will never get you. And
that's what's happening now. You can also they sell, believe
it or not, dummy pedals where you can put pedals
on that don't do anything except any authority that is
(21:56):
looking to see if you're riding an e bike with
pedals or not, because the ones without pedals would certainly
not be street legal.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
They might pass you over. So it's kind of like
you know, an ey bike, great architector going on there.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
So we're up here in Newport Beach and inside of
our condo complex, there were some fourteen and fifteen year
old kids that were always running through the complex on
very fast e bikes and one day one of these
kids out on the street lost control, hit his head.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That's right, that's what happens. So I have this argument
of my house. My wife and I probably have thought about.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
This more than any one single thing.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Because of the bikes and the danger and the helmets
and the speed. Right, I get it, they're gonna fall,
They're gonna hit their head and be hurt and then
everyone's gonna cry. Kids also fall, like they you could
go twenty miles per hour on a bicycle on a
(22:59):
hill because I did it as a kid and not
have helmets and fall. So this is really I mean,
I've had these, had these arguments. I mean, originally you
were only allowed to ride the e bike like in it.
There were parameters that my wife said, you can only
ride it in the community and stay for the most
(23:21):
part in the cul de Sac. And when you tell kids,
especially boys, I have three, and I don't know if
I have good father skills. I'll let you know if
when they're alive at eighteen, I will then say that
I was a good father. But there are those of
(23:41):
you that have younger boys you don't know as much
as I do. And those of you that have raised
boys and they lived, then you know more than me.
But I'm doing my best. I know this. If you
agree with mom and say yeah, you got to stay
right here in the cul de Sac, boys will build
ramps in front of your house and that's what they'll
do with the e bike.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
They'll pretend they're evil and evil.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And then you got to go out there and break
that up and say all right, all right, but no, no,
don't be doing jumps. Just bike around. Go bike around
if you want to bike around, but don't be doing
these jumps. So it's either jumps, you know, in front
of the house, or distance e biking far away where
you can't see them. You can never have it both ways.
Let the kids have their bikes. We were all a
(24:28):
little reckless when we were kids, but we all survived. Anyways,
your show, I appreciate the call. But the e bike
thing here is Julian. Julian is fifteen and he's getting
an e bike for Christmas. As I grew up, all
my friends are getting one, you know, trying to be
a part of that community of e bikes.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, the community of e bikes is a thing.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I usually don't like that phrase community because it doesn't exist.
But there is a community of e bike owners and
they all connect on social media. And and there I
mean children, young adults, mostly boys, watch other people ride
e bikes and do ride ups all over southern California
(25:11):
and right here in Los Angeles here is Bob Harrow.
He owns one on one.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Bikes and he says, you got to teach the kids
how to ride him.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
As many of us see, there's lots of kids in
our neighborhoods in city streets riding e bikes. Most probably
are not.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Obeying all of the rules of the road because they
don't know the rules of the road.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
No, because they're twelve. But here we are and like
it or lump it, regardless of what they do at
city Hall, and regardless of the cops and the threats
of impounding the e bikes and the screams of nervous
drivers out there watching these kids take all kinds of
wild chances there will be more e bikes after Christmas
(25:52):
break and everybody goes back to school in January because
the sales are through the roof. They are the cabbage
Patch Doll of twenty twenty five Lou Penrose on KFI
AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Lou Penrose with you on a Friday night talking about
the e bikes and everybody's getting their kids e bikes
for Christmas and it's driving everybody nuts.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Guice, I know you got three sons. You're trying to
be as smart as possible. But you know they're illegal.
I guarantee your kids not driving around in a Class
one Class two E bike. He would get so much
craft from his buddies. So all the bikes a illegal.
And if you want to know, just get on the
bike yourself. If it goes over twenty miles an hour
with the hand throttle, it's illegal.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I appreciate the call. It's it's yeah, it's not street legal,
is what you're saying. And I hear you. I don't
know if it goes twenty miles an hour or not. Look,
I think I think they look unsafe. I don't think
it's a good idea. But they're everywhere. It's called ubiquitous.
(27:08):
They're just there.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Like we missed it. We didn't gate keep well enough.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
They got them out onto the marketplace and pretended they
were bicycles and the kids got on them. And you're right.
If they're riding around in a rad or a rad plus,
they're gonna get crap from their friends, or they're going
to figure out a way to modify it. I can't
keep up with the modifications. And that's how I got
into it. My oldest wanted one. All his friends had one,
(27:35):
and they wanted to go to the beach, and he
felt like he was missing out, and he said, Dan,
let me buy a used one and then help me
fix it. And I thought, all right. I used to
build engines when I was half his age. Me and
my grandfather would turn lawnmower engines into go karts and
(27:55):
dirt bikes. And I did all that.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And that's where I learned tools and.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
My love of tinkering. So this will be my opportunity
to do it with my son, because he'll have the passion.
He'll want a bike that runs. There's not a whole
lot to any bike, like the electronics of it, the
controller and the brain and the battery all comes separate,
and then the rest of it is just basically a bike.
(28:22):
And so as long you're buying it on the used market,
as long as the battery works, you're pretty much good
to go. And we bought one and it was pretty
banged up. We bought it because the kid had gotten
a faster one, which is how this all works. And
you know, my son was that. We got to spend
some father son time in the garage and got some
(28:43):
grease on our hands, and there he goes, and I
caught hell for my wife, but he liked it, and
then you're right. That lasted until he realized that you
could modify it to make it go faster, or he
could just buy himself a faster bike. And then so
that became my middle son's bike, and you know the
rest is history. Now they're all zipping around and I
(29:04):
think they all go too fast, but there's nothing you
can do about it. Definitely not buying my kid an
e bike. But what I will do is wait until
the county or city auctions them off after they impounded
all the kids Christmas presents.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I appreciate the call.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Is that how you think this works? I have news
for you. When the Christmas presents get impounded, the good
stuff doesn't go to auction.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
The good stuff goes to the kids of the cops.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
You don't know this. The cops kids have the best stuff.
The cops kids always have the best fireworks. The cops
kids always have the best bikes. Yeah. I grew up
across the street. My best friend his dad was a cop,
and boy did they have He had the best fireworks
every Fourth of July. You know why his father was
(29:57):
a cop. He had great bikes and skateboards. You know
why his father was a cop. So when they impound stuff,
they don't send it up. The stuff that goes out
to the auction that's the sucker stuff. I can't believe. I'm
the first to tell you that, plain and simple. Guys.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
I've been working with e bikes for five years. If
the kids are fifteen and under, they should not be
riding around. They're dangerous as heck. And you can say
all you want about the parents. The parents are being
very irresponsible. The e bikes are babily basically babysitters. They
don't have to drop them off the school, they don't
have to drop them off to camp, to the mall
(30:35):
and what's other stuff, and they end up doing the
same thing.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
All the kids do wheelies.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, I know about the wheelies. I do know. I've
bought new brakes a number of times because of the wheelies.
But we did wheelies on bikes. So this is and
you can say it's irresponsible parenting. You might be right.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
As I said, I won't know how I did.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
As a father of three sons until they're eighteen and alive.
I'm doing my best. But here's how I explain it
to my wife, and she'll never understand because she's a girl.
You can't. You can't outflank knucklehead when you're dealing with
(31:16):
young boys. You just can't.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Like I told you, you were strict where.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
They can e bike and they will build ramps and
do jumps and they're gonna jump way higher because it's
an e bike. You can't outflank knucklehead. You just have
to stay on top of it. But you're never gonna
catch it. Young boys will do knucklehead things and think
about it. We did that too. We had what we
(31:44):
were building and modifying our bicycles that were not e bikes,
but they were bicycles. There was always leftover parts, and
sometimes there would be enough parts left over to build
part of a bike. And we had one of those,
me and my friends in the neighborhood. You know what
it was called. It was called the ghost bike. This
(32:05):
bike had two wheels and a frame and I think
a seat, no handlebars, just like just where the handlebar goes,
just like that pole in the middle, and we we
rigged up something so you could turn the steering wheel
a little bit, but it didn't have you know, handlebars.
It just had something to turn the wheel that was
(32:28):
inside the front fork of the frame. And oh, no chain,
so there's nothing. You're not peddling forward and you certainly
you can't reverse and go and break the back wheel.
So no chain, two wheels, frame and then something cute
to turn the front wheel as you lean forward. And
(32:51):
that was called the ghost bike. You know what you
did on the ghost bike, you went on ghost rides.
Ghost rides are where you dare your friend to go
further and further and further up the hill only to
ride down the hill, and you know, see if you survive.
And that's what ghost riding was. So that was dangerous
and we didn't have helmets, so that was dangerous to do,
(33:13):
but we did it. Some people fell, sometimes you'd leave
them there. That was always funny, like if somebody fell,
But at the same time another group of friends called
and said, hey, we're playing street hockey. We need four
more guys. We'd be like, oh, well, we should probably
should go down the hill and help our friend, but
he'll be fine. That's the way way. Hey. We never
(33:37):
got to the Tailor Swift. The Travis Kelcey engagement. What
day do you think they chose? I got sixty seconds? Mario?
What day? I have no idea of the month, but
I have to say thirteen. Good for you. Nikki. What
day she's got?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I mean, come on, you cannot not say thirteen. I'm
not a fan of hers at all.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Well, so I don't know you.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Is it the thirteenth.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Of That's right? Thirteen. Call it numerology, call it a
lucky number. But this number works for this girl.
Speaker 9 (34:12):
I was born on the thirteenth. I turned thirteen on
Friday the thirteenth. My first album went gold in thirteen weeks.
Also thanks my first song that ever went number one.
It had a thirteen second intro.
Speaker 8 (34:28):
And every time I've.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
Ever won an award in an award show, I've either
been seated in the thirteenth the thirteenth row or row M,
which is the thirteenth letter. And when I won the
Horizon Award at the CMA Awards, the producer.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Came up to me when I was sound checking.
Speaker 9 (34:41):
And said, all right, we're gonna go in thirteen seconds.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
I would say thirteen is working for Taylor Swift. I mean,
she nailed it. That is one lucky number.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Is she going to create a thirteenth month for that wedding?
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I don't know. She's going to get married on June thirteenth,
twenty twenty six, and I say good for her. So
we'll see where this goes. And maybe they'll have thirteen kids.
I don't know, but I would stick with that number.
It is working. Lou Penrose on kf I AM six
forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (35:11):
App KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Friday night. Good to have you along with us.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I am so pleased to hear that the jam on
the five Freeway northbound and southbound leaving San Diego into
Orange County has finally been I mean, the sigal art
has been called off. We're trying to learn and Mark
Ronner will update us coming up in just a few minutes.
(00:29):
But if you learned before the newscast, Mark, let us
know how it was resolved. We know there was a
jumper on the overpass since twelve thirty this morning, and
people were sitting in traffic four hours from if you know,
the area from the eight oh five split up to
del Mar, which is a goodly amount of length of
(00:51):
space and really very little in between. So it's not
like there's a lot of you know, exits, Not much
can do and a lot of people very very frustrated.
And the way this was handled by CHP is causing
a lot of questions and it's troublesome because obviously somebody
(01:14):
threatening to drump. It's that time of year, this happens
every Christmas. People get holiday blues. Depression is a real
thing and We don't want people to take their lives
because they're depressed about the holidays.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's terrible. Don't want that to happen. But you will
lose compassion exponentially as.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You sit there, hour after hour after hour watching the
CHP essentially do nothing. Now, we've talked to CHP officers
about this, and I understand what their job is in
these situations. Their priority is life. Their priority is protecting
the life of that individual, and that's what their orders are.
(01:58):
And track and delay and you being late to go
home to dinner is not It can't be their priority.
And I respect that I do right, But everything has
a point. And I mean I watched this. I watched
it since twelve thirty, so it went from the middle
of the day to sunset to pitch black. It is
(02:23):
certainly easier to get somebody off the overpass during the
daylight hours than it is at night. And here it
is nine o'clock in southern California and it just finally
got resolved. Again. I don't know how it resolved. We
all hope that it was resolved in a nice way,
but none. Nevertheless, it's over and now traffic is moving,
(02:45):
but a lot of people's Friday nights were really upended.
I know people that had children coming back from camp
on a school bus that were stuck on the school
bus for hours, and of course cars out of gas
and cars ran out of power, and so now they're
disabled on the side of the road. So people got
(03:06):
to go get those cars and tow trucks, and everybody
is scratching their head wondering, isn't there any way to
drag some kind of large trampoline and put it under
the overpass, like this's gotta be away. In all the
movies that we see Lethal Weapon, the exact same thing
(03:28):
happened to mel Gibson, exactly the same thing. It was
Christmas time and Leth the Weapon as well. That's right,
Leth The Weapon is a Christmas movie. And uh, you know,
Websen went up there and said, come on, now, it's
a crazy time of the year, get off the ledge.
And the guy said, now I'm gonna jump, and you know,
he tried to talk him off, and then finally mel
(03:50):
Gibson said, you know what, do you really want to jump?
That's fine, let's jump. And they jumped, and Danny Glover
watched and he said, oh, I'll believe this. And what happened.
The fire department inflated this giant air mattress and they
fell into the air mattress and everything was fine.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Now Gibson wasn't hurt, the jumper wasn't hurt.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And all I could think of all day watching this,
why don't they inflate the same air mattress they used
in lethal weapon In all the movies that we saw
of the you know, whenever there was a house fire
and there is this you know, mother and the baby
in the second story, you know, window of the house fire,
and the fire trucks come in the fire brigade and
(04:35):
they have like this huge circle, like a trampoline without feet,
without legs, and all the firefighters are holding the huge
circle and they're saying, jump, we'll catch you, don't worry. Jump,
And eventually the lady jumps with the baby and the
firefighters catcher and horay, everybody's safe. And where's that? Why
don't they have that?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
As all of the do none of these things exist with.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
All the technology that's out there, there isn't some way
to shoot a net around the guy so that he
gets stuck to the side of the overpass. Somebody called
in and said, why don't they just I mean, the
freeway has stopped, so there are no cars moving, and
(05:22):
the only way you really die when you jump off
the overpass is then get hit by a car that's
going sixty five miles per hour. But since no cars
are moving, he's probably not gonna die. He probably will
just break his leg. So they said, why don't you
just pull two like like trucks, like eighteen wheeler trucks,
(05:44):
and just park them under the overpass real close together,
like inches apart. So now when he falls, he'll fall
on the top of a truck. He'll fall like eight
feet and then hit him with a stun gun or something.
So he gets off and falls down, and you could
even put it in like an air mattress on top
of the truck.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean, get a little creative about this.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So this idea that well, the order order of the
day for HP is to make sure that he stays alive.
That's fine, that's noble, but we got to get a
little creative because there's too much going on, too many
people that were Really it's more than an inconvenience when
you're talking twelve thirty to nine o'clock in southern colg
(06:30):
I mean that's a shift. Twelve to eight is an
eight hour shift. So we had to pay the CHP
officers over time. Nobody thought of coming coming up with
a trampoline or a balloon or something. And Friday night
is over now for everybody except for the people that
lived in the ocean side. They had it. They had
(06:50):
it made the people. While all this was going on,
the people that lived in the ocean side, they were
literally drag racing on the northbound five because you could
you could literally open up the engine. That would tonight
would have been the night if you lived in the
oceanside hot on the Fire Freeway, it's it's a smooth
sailing up to San Clementy.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That was a lot of fun, all right, So we'll
get the.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Latest and find out what happened. But I do hope
it was resolved in a nice way. But going forward,
we got to use technology. I don't know, I see,
you know, Batman had all kinds of things in his
bat utility belt that you know. I understand that that's
(07:33):
a fictional character, but we could glean a couple of
good ideas from Batman.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
That's for sure, so we'll do that coming up next.
Also the e bike. We got to get to the
e bike story.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
All these e bikes are going to be on the
road after Christmas break because everybody's getting one for Christmas,
and we'll tell you all about it and how everybody's
going crazy about it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
We'll do that next Blue Penrose on k I Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty demand.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Blue Penrose on a Friday night. Good to have you
along with us. The e bike will be the big
gift this year.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
E bikes are a top holiday pick this season and
it might even end up.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Under your tree.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Everybody's buying them now. I have expertise in this.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I have a sixteen year old son, a fifteen year
old son and.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
A twelve year old son, and we've.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Gone through the whole e bike experience from I hate
these bikes. You're never getting one to all right, if
you want to buy a used one, I'll work with
you and we'll fix it up together and get father
son time in the garage and I can finally teach
you how to properly use a wrench to you know.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Now they're buying.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Faster ones and so I know the whole e bike situation,
and it is a challenge. There's no question about it.
They're dangerous as hell, and really nobody should be on them.
I mean you should have you should need a motorcycle
license to ride a n EE bike. They're just basically
a slower motorcycle. And certainly twelve year old should not
be on ey bikes. There's no question about it. But
(09:13):
it happened too fast. Sometimes technology happens so fast that
we don't get to stop it for a second and say,
wait a minute. I get their bicycles, but they're they're
assisted bicycles, so they go faster, and they're technically a bicycle,
so they can be in the bike laying on the road.
(09:36):
But like, it just happened too fast. We and now
we're behind it, and now they're out there and we
can't do anything about it. So we got to deal
with it because it went right by, it passed us
on the left.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The e bikes passes on the left, and the kids.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Were smarter than we were. And the people that sell
these bikes marketed them as bicycles, and the bicycle community
in southern California was so happy that there were more
bicycles out there, and they're constantly putting bike lanes out
there and putting restrictions on motorists, and everybody's got to
(10:13):
be a bicycle person because we want people on bicycles,
and the e bike is a bicycle legally, so now
it's allowed to be in a bike lane, just like
a bicycle is allowed in a bike lane. You would
never tell a twelve year old they can't ride a bike.
We're trying to get the kids out of the house
and off of their devices. That was the argument that
(10:33):
I made to my wife. You're the one that wants
them off these damn devices, So now they're on a bicycle.
Yet I can't stand these damn e bikes. Well, like
in the.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
World, they're kind of the same thing, and now they're
out there.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So the way this works is there are e bikes,
then there are faster e bikes, and then there are
effectively dirt bikes that look like e bikes but don't
have any pedals, and those are the ones you're not
allowed to have anywhere on the road. But this is
too much. I mean, law enforcement is slowly catching up
(11:09):
to it, but really, law enforcement doesn't want to deal
with this, but they also don't want to deal with
the injury. So we are just chasing our tail on
this one.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
And if you're shopping for one this season, first test
drug before you buy. Second, and make sure it's a
legal e bike and ann e motorcycle or a legal bike.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, this is great, This is great advice. This would
be CBS's This is alex Lie on CBS. You go
to the CHP website and you try and figure out,
because I did, you try and figure out if what
you're buying is actually legal. It is impossible to figure
this out. Impossible, and it doesn't seem to matter for
(11:51):
any other parent as far as I can see, or
maybe all the other parents don't know either, like the
only kids. The only ones that know are the kids,
and they're not going to tell you, and the guy
selling you the e bike is not going to tell you.
And that's if you go buy it in a store,
which many of you aren't because they're too expensive. But
as soon as a kid gets an e bike, they
want a faster e bike, so they sell on you know,
(12:13):
offer up or on Marketplace or whatever the new platform is,
and your kid takes his birthday money and his Christmas
money and goes goes and buy a used one, but
it's been modified, and it goes fast.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It's really challenging, very very challenging.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Does it have pedals? Does it fit within the three
classifications of e bikes? If it goes faster than twenty
miles per hour, it's not a class wandered?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Class two?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
If it goes faster than twenty eight, it's not a
class three.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Okay, I can confirm that it does or does not
have pedals? That I can do the rest I think
you'll lost.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Does it have pedals? Does it fit within the three
classifications of e bikes? If it goes faster than twenty
miles per hour, it's not a class wandered? Class two?
If it goes faster than twenty eight, it's not a
class three.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Mario, did you catch all that? Can you hand me
my radar gun so I can see if it's going
twenty eight miles per hour or twenty nine miles per hour? Well, like,
this is the ridiculus. How am I supposed to know that?
As a parent? You're supposed to How fast does this go?
Goes up to twenty five miles?
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Now?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
All right? Because if it goes over twenty nine, then
I've broken the law. Like that's impossible to figure out
three classes. Twenty miles per hour, twenty eight miles per hour.
That's before the kids modify it, and it all just
becomes a real challenge. Do you have any bike? I
do not? Yeah, I mean that you see them around.
(13:39):
Have you anybody you know riding one around? No? Not
at all.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Actually it's not popular around my my group of friends.
Actually no, because you're a grown up.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
But let me tell you. When I dropped the kids
off in school, they're all zipping around. And I understand
why people that drive are going crazy, because kids eat well,
even bicycles. Kids don't really like yield to you know, driveways,
people backing out of driveways or cars, you know, going
back out of a strip mall like into traffic. It's
(14:12):
just it's very dangerous and it's a nerve wracking watching,
especially around a school, a middle school or an elementary school,
watching all these kids zipping around on these bikes. But
they can go up to twenty five miles per hour
or twenty miles an hour. I guess you said, he
said there, that's fast, especially when you got like a
twelve year old or a thirteen year old on it
who's light and you know, doesn't weigh a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
So these these are effectively mopeds.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And I had a moped as a kid, and let
me tell you, I had to have it had to
be registered, and I think I had to have some
form of lights, and maybe I had to have a
learner's permit or something. But I'll tell you what I
had to I had to carry insurance because I remember
my mother said, look, if you're gonna I'll get this
rider for this, I'll add the moped on to my insurance,
(14:58):
but you have to pay it. And I was working
at Burger King and I had to pay my mom
the insurance for my moped. But it was like an
organized thing. These e bikes don't are not in those
categories because they're not mopeds or motorcycles. They are sold
as bicycles with a battery. Here's what happened.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Batteries got really good while we weren't looking.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
For the most part, what's your experience with batteries, Like
batteries go in remote controls. That's pretty much it. I
don't what else do I use a battery for? Like
if the remote control doesn't work and I can't go
up and down with my channels, then I go get
two batteries and that's it. Powering a remote control is
not a lot of power. When a battery powers a motor,
(15:46):
it requires a lot of power.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
We just put in a touch.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Dead bolt in my house at home, and because my
wife is done with keys and she wants to be
able to let other people get in and put out
a coat. So you just you know you've seen these things, right,
you just you hit four numbers and the dead bolt turns. Okay,
that the bat it's battery operated, but it's four double
A batteries. That's a lot, and those batteries will drain
(16:14):
I'm sure in like less than six months, depending on
how much we open and close the lock. And that's
because those batteries are turning a motor. Battery technology has
gotten so good that you can have a battery that
is light enough to place on a bicycle and then
add one hundred and twenty pound child on it and
(16:34):
it can still power that back wheel to zip a
kid twenty miles per hour for many hours. So the
battery technology has gotten so good that they have figured
out a way to attach it to a bike and
now effectively you got little mini motorcycles.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Also check up on your local loss. Some cities including
Chula Vista, San Marcos, and Coronado don't allow anyone under
twelve to ride an e bike. So if you're wrapping
an e bike this Christmas, consider doing your research and
adding a safety course to the gifts.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I don't know where the safety course is going to
be located.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I love these cities that are now making it
illegal to ride an ee bike under twelve, So how
is that going to work?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I don't know that these cities have thought that through.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I don't disagree. If you want the cutoff to be twelve,
I think it should be way higher. The idea that
a twelve and thirteen year old are going to be
able to ride at twenty miles per hour on an
ee bike more responsibly than an eleven year old and
eleven months is I think fantasy. But how exactly is
(17:42):
the twelve year old going to prove that he's twelve
to the cop Since my twelve year old doesn't have
a license or what I mean, what would a twelve
year old have in his pocket to show the cop
that Yeah, no, no, you're an officer. I'm twelve. I'm
(18:02):
legally allowed to ride this bike, so that's not gonna work.
All right, we'll take a break. We got more on
the e bike story and what cities are doing about it,
and we'll take your telephone calls as well on the
iHeart relap Blue Penrose on KFI AM six forty Live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Blue Penrose on a Friday night. Good to have you
along with us talking about the e bikes. They're gonna
be the big hit under the Christmas tree.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
The bikes are a top holiday pick this season and
might even end up under your truth.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
A lot of people are not happy about having more
e bikes on the road.
Speaker 7 (18:40):
Guys, if your son has an e bike, it's illegal.
Illegal means basically, if it gets over twenty miles an
hour and has a motor, it is illegal over twenty miles,
and they all are over twenty miles an hour.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, I appreciate the call. I think what you meant
to say was it's not street legal, like you can't
have it on the road where other bicycles are and
I understand that.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
Putting your twelve year old kid on an ebunk, or
a thirteen year old or a fourteen year old, fifteen,
sixteen year old, the riders of these things are an
absolute nuisance. They should be in no way anywhere in
the hands of anyone under sixteen years old. Get a license,
outlaw them and let they have a license.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I appreciate the call. I'm with you three years ago.
I'm with you five years ago. When this first hit
the scene, somebody should have said these are not bicycles
just because they have pedals. No one's pedaling an e
bike and they're really dangerous, so nobody got their hands
(19:49):
around it. Now they're everywhere and you can't just ban
them now, so we got to work around it.
Speaker 7 (19:56):
Heyel I had one of these e bikes going by
me the other day day at thirty five miles an
hour and I could not keep up with the kid.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
How fast are these bikes actually able to go? Well,
thirty five is pretty fast. I don't think you were
with any first off, you couldn't keep up with thirty
five miles per hour? What are you driving? I mean,
that's a pretty bad car. But there, yeah, there are
effect like the third class of e bikes are not
e bikes. These are the ones that don't have pedals
(20:29):
and go really fast. They're effectively dirt bikes. Like there
are areas in southern California where you can ride dirt bikes,
and they're areas where you can but anywhere that you
can trail ride. Remember like mountain biking. That was a
thing for a hot minute. Right, what is a mountain bike.
(20:51):
It's a bicycle and you got pedals, and the pedals,
you know, you really dig dig dig dig dig and
really a well, any bike go there because it's a
bike trail, right, Well, an e bike can go on
a bike trail because it's a bicycle. But you don't
have to dig dig dig dig dig with the pedals
because you just you just turn the throttle and you
(21:12):
can have a whole lot of fun. Well, you can't
take dirt bikes up there because the motor is loud
and the cops will come. Guess what they now have bike?
I don't know if they're e bikes that are emotos.
Maybe you want to call the Surons. The Surons are amazing.
I mean they are thirty five hundred dollars. But they're
(21:32):
absolutely amazing, and they are as fast as a dirt
bike and as powerful as a dirt bike. And guess what,
they're silent, so the cops will never get you. And
that's what's happening now. You can also they sell, believe
it or not, dummy pedals where you can put pedals
on that don't do anything except any authority that is
(21:56):
looking to see if you're riding an e bike with
pedals or not, because the ones without pedals would certainly
not be street legal.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
They might pass you over. So it's kind of like
you know, an ey bike, great architector going on there.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
So we're up here in Newport Beach and inside of
our condo complex, there were some fourteen and fifteen year
old kids that were always running through the complex on
very fast e bikes and one day one of these
kids out on the street lost control, hit his head.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That's right, that's what happens. So I have this argument
of my house. My wife and I probably have thought about.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
This more than any one single thing.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Because of the bikes and the danger and the helmets
and the speed. Right, I get it, they're gonna fall,
They're gonna hit their head and be hurt and then
everyone's gonna cry. Kids also fall, like they you could
go twenty miles per hour on a bicycle on a
(22:59):
hill because I did it as a kid and not
have helmets and fall. So this is really I mean,
I've had these, had these arguments. I mean, originally you
were only allowed to ride the e bike like in it.
There were parameters that my wife said, you can only
ride it in the community and stay for the most
(23:21):
part in the cul de Sac. And when you tell kids,
especially boys, I have three, and I don't know if
I have good father skills. I'll let you know if
when they're alive at eighteen, I will then say that
I was a good father. But there are those of
(23:41):
you that have younger boys you don't know as much
as I do. And those of you that have raised
boys and they lived, then you know more than me.
But I'm doing my best. I know this. If you
agree with mom and say yeah, you got to stay
right here in the cul de Sac, boys will build
ramps in front of your house and that's what they'll
do with the e bike.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
They'll pretend they're evil and evil.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
And then you got to go out there and break
that up and say all right, all right, but no, no,
don't be doing jumps. Just bike around. Go bike around
if you want to bike around, but don't be doing
these jumps. So it's either jumps, you know, in front
of the house, or distance e biking far away where
you can't see them. You can never have it both ways.
Let the kids have their bikes. We were all a
(24:28):
little reckless when we were kids, but we all survived. Anyways,
your show, I appreciate the call. But the e bike
thing here is Julian. Julian is fifteen and he's getting
an e bike for Christmas. As I grew up, all
my friends are getting one, you know, trying to be
a part of that community of e bikes.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, the community of e bikes is a thing.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I usually don't like that phrase community because it doesn't exist.
But there is a community of e bike owners and
they all connect on social media. And and there I
mean children, young adults, mostly boys, watch other people ride
e bikes and do ride ups all over southern California
(25:11):
and right here in Los Angeles here is Bob Harrow.
He owns one on one.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Bikes and he says, you got to teach the kids
how to ride him.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
As many of us see, there's lots of kids in
our neighborhoods in city streets riding e bikes. Most probably
are not.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Obeying all of the rules of the road because they
don't know the rules of the road.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
No, because they're twelve. But here we are and like
it or lump it, regardless of what they do at
city Hall, and regardless of the cops and the threats
of impounding the e bikes and the screams of nervous
drivers out there watching these kids take all kinds of
wild chances there will be more e bikes after Christmas
(25:52):
break and everybody goes back to school in January because
the sales are through the roof. They are the cabbage
Patch Doll of twenty twenty five Lou Penrose on KFI
AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Lou Penrose with you on a Friday night talking about
the e bikes and everybody's getting their kids e bikes
for Christmas and it's driving everybody nuts.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Guice, I know you got three sons. You're trying to
be as smart as possible. But you know they're illegal.
I guarantee your kids not driving around in a Class
one Class two E bike. He would get so much
craft from his buddies. So all the bikes a illegal.
And if you want to know, just get on the
bike yourself. If it goes over twenty miles an hour
with the hand throttle, it's illegal.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I appreciate the call. It's it's yeah, it's not street legal,
is what you're saying. And I hear you. I don't
know if it goes twenty miles an hour or not. Look,
I think I think they look unsafe. I don't think
it's a good idea. But they're everywhere. It's called ubiquitous.
(27:08):
They're just there.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Like we missed it. We didn't gate keep well enough.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
They got them out onto the marketplace and pretended they
were bicycles and the kids got on them. And you're right.
If they're riding around in a rad or a rad plus,
they're gonna get crap from their friends, or they're going
to figure out a way to modify it. I can't
keep up with the modifications. And that's how I got
into it. My oldest wanted one. All his friends had one,
(27:35):
and they wanted to go to the beach, and he
felt like he was missing out, and he said, Dan,
let me buy a used one and then help me
fix it. And I thought, all right. I used to
build engines when I was half his age. Me and
my grandfather would turn lawnmower engines into go karts and
(27:55):
dirt bikes. And I did all that.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And that's where I learned tools and.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
My love of tinkering. So this will be my opportunity
to do it with my son, because he'll have the passion.
He'll want a bike that runs. There's not a whole
lot to any bike, like the electronics of it, the
controller and the brain and the battery all comes separate,
and then the rest of it is just basically a bike.
(28:22):
And so as long you're buying it on the used market,
as long as the battery works, you're pretty much good
to go. And we bought one and it was pretty
banged up. We bought it because the kid had gotten
a faster one, which is how this all works. And
you know, my son was that. We got to spend
some father son time in the garage and got some
(28:43):
grease on our hands, and there he goes, and I
caught hell for my wife, but he liked it, and
then you're right. That lasted until he realized that you
could modify it to make it go faster, or he
could just buy himself a faster bike. And then so
that became my middle son's bike, and you know the
rest is history. Now they're all zipping around and I
(29:04):
think they all go too fast, but there's nothing you
can do about it. Definitely not buying my kid an
e bike. But what I will do is wait until
the county or city auctions them off after they impounded
all the kids Christmas presents.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I appreciate the call.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Is that how you think this works? I have news
for you. When the Christmas presents get impounded, the good
stuff doesn't go to auction.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
The good stuff goes to the kids of the cops.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
You don't know this. The cops kids have the best stuff.
The cops kids always have the best fireworks. The cops
kids always have the best bikes. Yeah. I grew up
across the street. My best friend his dad was a cop,
and boy did they have He had the best fireworks
every Fourth of July. You know why his father was
(29:57):
a cop. He had great bikes and skateboards. You know
why his father was a cop. So when they impound stuff,
they don't send it up. The stuff that goes out
to the auction that's the sucker stuff. I can't believe. I'm
the first to tell you that, plain and simple. Guys.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
I've been working with e bikes for five years. If
the kids are fifteen and under, they should not be
riding around. They're dangerous as heck. And you can say
all you want about the parents. The parents are being
very irresponsible. The e bikes are babily basically babysitters. They
don't have to drop them off the school, they don't
have to drop them off to camp, to the mall
(30:35):
and what's other stuff, and they end up doing the
same thing.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
All the kids do wheelies.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, I know about the wheelies. I do know. I've
bought new brakes a number of times because of the wheelies.
But we did wheelies on bikes. So this is and
you can say it's irresponsible parenting. You might be right.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
As I said, I won't know how I did.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
As a father of three sons until they're eighteen and alive.
I'm doing my best. But here's how I explain it
to my wife, and she'll never understand because she's a girl.
You can't. You can't outflank knucklehead when you're dealing with
(31:16):
young boys. You just can't.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Like I told you, you were strict where.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
They can e bike and they will build ramps and
do jumps and they're gonna jump way higher because it's
an e bike. You can't outflank knucklehead. You just have
to stay on top of it. But you're never gonna
catch it. Young boys will do knucklehead things and think
about it. We did that too. We had what we
(31:44):
were building and modifying our bicycles that were not e bikes,
but they were bicycles. There was always leftover parts, and
sometimes there would be enough parts left over to build
part of a bike. And we had one of those,
me and my friends in the neighborhood. You know what
it was called. It was called the ghost bike. This
(32:05):
bike had two wheels and a frame and I think
a seat, no handlebars, just like just where the handlebar goes,
just like that pole in the middle, and we we
rigged up something so you could turn the steering wheel
a little bit, but it didn't have you know, handlebars.
It just had something to turn the wheel that was
(32:28):
inside the front fork of the frame. And oh, no chain,
so there's nothing. You're not peddling forward and you certainly
you can't reverse and go and break the back wheel.
So no chain, two wheels, frame and then something cute
to turn the front wheel as you lean forward. And
(32:51):
that was called the ghost bike. You know what you
did on the ghost bike, you went on ghost rides.
Ghost rides are where you dare your friend to go
further and further and further up the hill only to
ride down the hill, and you know, see if you survive.
And that's what ghost riding was. So that was dangerous
and we didn't have helmets, so that was dangerous to do,
(33:13):
but we did it. Some people fell, sometimes you'd leave
them there. That was always funny, like if somebody fell,
But at the same time another group of friends called
and said, hey, we're playing street hockey. We need four
more guys. We'd be like, oh, well, we should probably
should go down the hill and help our friend, but
he'll be fine. That's the way way. Hey. We never
(33:37):
got to the Tailor Swift. The Travis Kelcey engagement. What
day do you think they chose? I got sixty seconds? Mario?
What day? I have no idea of the month, but
I have to say thirteen. Good for you. Nikki. What
day she's got?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I mean, come on, you cannot not say thirteen. I'm
not a fan of hers at all.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Well, so I don't know you.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Is it the thirteenth.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Of That's right? Thirteen. Call it numerology, call it a
lucky number. But this number works for this girl.
Speaker 9 (34:12):
I was born on the thirteenth. I turned thirteen on
Friday the thirteenth. My first album went gold in thirteen weeks.
Also thanks my first song that ever went number one.
It had a thirteen second intro.
Speaker 8 (34:28):
And every time I've.
Speaker 9 (34:29):
Ever won an award in an award show, I've either
been seated in the thirteenth the thirteenth row or row M,
which is the thirteenth letter. And when I won the
Horizon Award at the CMA Awards, the producer.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Came up to me when I was sound checking.
Speaker 9 (34:41):
And said, all right, we're gonna go in thirteen seconds.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
I would say thirteen is working for Taylor Swift. I mean,
she nailed it. That is one lucky number.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Is she going to create a thirteenth month for that wedding?
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I don't know. She's going to get married on June thirteenth,
twenty twenty six, and I say good for her. So
we'll see where this goes. And maybe they'll have thirteen kids.
I don't know, but I would stick with that number.
It is working. Lou Penrose on kf I AM six
forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (35:11):
App KFI AM six forty on demand
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