Why I call him “Sore Wrongster”
How a seemingly nice guy drives kids toward danger.
As parents, we spend years protecting our children. We keep small ones in car seats, teach them to look both ways before crossing the street and insist on helmets when they ride. We do everything in our power to keep them safe from the obvious dangers in the world.
But today, one of the most concerning risks to our kids isn’t hanging out on a dark street corner — it’s sitting right in the palm of their hand, glowing on a smartphone screen.
If you’ve got a young rider in your house, or even just teens who spend time on YouTube, there’s a good chance they know exactly who “Sur Ronster” is. With nearly 8 million followers across multiple social media platforms, he’s one of the most influential figures in the youth e-bike world. He’s soft-spoken, charming, and comes across as a fun, approachable older brother type.
And that’s what makes him dangerous.
The Illusion of the Nice Guy
It’s easy to spot an influencer who tries too hard — the aggressive stunt riders who loudly praise anyone taking risks. But Wrongster is different. He doesn’t scream at the camera or act openly aggressive. He smiles, speaks politely, dresses conservatively, and plays the low-key cool guy.
Yet under that quiet charm, his content actively sneers at everything we teach our children about staying safe, following traffic safety laws, and being part of our communities. You can listen to him wax on about the good that first responders do and then watch him race 100 mph go-karts in traffic on a freeway in LA. While showing how he narrowly escapes slamming into cars in traffic, he has to realize that he’s modeling behavior for kids to follow. And for what reason? He wants them to copy him enough to buy products from him or his probable sponsors.
Also, it’s hard to miss the ever-present, full-face helmet that he uses to hide his identity. That’s part of his mystique that he uses to attract lore-loving kids. But just know: He’s no Zorro. Wrongster is nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At some point freedom of speech collides with grooming minors for illegal and unsafe activities.
A Brief Reprieve: The “Sore” in Sore Wrongster
About a month ago, Sur Ronster experienced a disastrous crash in Downtown LA while test-riding a very fast illegal e-moto. He flew over the handlebars of an out-of-control bike and suffered severe road rash plus a serious concussion. He was forced to address it on-video when a fellow rider shared his video of the crash. For a moment, safety experts had hope that he would change his ways. He even admitted, “I’ve been a bad influence.” Those words stood out to those of us who had just watched him speed like crazy in Downtown LA, blowing past pedestrians like they didn’t exist. Maybe he felt regret.
But then, a week later he was at it again. Riding on the wrong side of the road, and more. I began to wonder if the concussion had caused a permanent loss of inhibitions, so he might never again have any fear of dangerous speeds or conditions. And it will all go on video. One could argue that greed won him back once he recovered from his injuries. That’s possible, too, and a sponsor may even have talked him back into the game. But the video he did with poking at police-provided education really supports my theory that he now lacks all inhibitions. That TBI wasn’t his first, so who knows how much his combined brain injuries affect him, and how much they’ll affect the safety of his followers.
A colleague told me that her team has been calling him “So Wrongster,” but we had to agree that the crash has — for the time being — left him pretty sore.
He Poked at Police in Orange County, CA
Just recently, this one-man operation staged a Clown-Show stunt by showing up at an official police department e-bike safety school. I can’t bring myself to share the city’s name out of embarrassment for their officers. (You might see it in the video.) Wearing his full-face helmet the entire time — which serves as both his disguise and his camera mount — he took part in this event, recording everything he saw, heard, and said.
He walked right into the facility, hid his face, lied to officers about his identity, and took their written test while filming it, turning a community safety effort into a circus.
Sure, he came across as a soft-spoken nice guy, once again, but the fact is, he planned, filmed, edited and released the entire event as gag reel of sorts, which featured him intentionally breaking several important traffic laws on the way home from school.
I swear, there isn’t a stop sign this guy can’t blow past at high speeds while yapping on about staying safe. It’s a gimmick. It’s a show. It’s entertainment. And it’s also modeling behavior that gets kids killed.
Why This Matters to Every Parent
When our kids watch someone they idolize tease local authorities and treat public safety like a joke, it reshapes how they view the rules. It makes deliberate lawbreaking look like harmless, clever fun.
And the written test? He knew every single rule.
He passed the written safety test easily. It shows that he doesn’t break traffic laws out of ignorance; he breaks them intentionally because breaking traffic laws generates clicks, and clicks generate profit. His math calculates everything … but the human cost.
To show his total contempt for that e-bike safety school, he edited his helmet-cam footage to pair his test-taking with inset video of his wild ride through Irvine, California, filmed just the week before. Right next to a test question asking about riding against traffic — which he answered correctly on paper — he inserted video of himself speeding down a bike lane on the wrong side of a public street. Judging from the comments below the YouTube video, his followers found that hilarious.
He chose to mock safety efforts, taunt the law, and take advantage of the impressionable kids in our community who look up to him. He thumbed his nose at the very officers trying to keep kids alive, actively choosing to manipulate young viewers with humor so he could laugh all the way home.
It’s not just Orange County. In this recent post, he congratulates a young rider for evading the police. To be clear, this influencer isn’t the only one rewarding that behavior. And as a result of this common practice among multiple influencers, young riders have been putting themselves and others in danger while playing that game. Such as the teen in Newport Beach who temporarily evaded police by riding straight into oncoming traffic.
How We Protect Our Kids
We can’t rely solely on standard safety lectures or police rodeos to keep our kids safe. When online stars mock compliance efforts and turn safety checks into viral entertainment, standard rule-teaching simply isn’t enough to counteract that level of manipulation.
We have to fight charm with critical thinking.
This isn’t about banning bikes. And it isn’t even about banning behaviors. It’s about helping kids see that the world is more nuanced than guys like Sore Wrongster pretend. He sells the quick fix for fun, the fast bike that might bring trouble and pain, but that’s not his problem. As parents, we know that kids deserve to have a dedicated space where they can train, perform, and compete on e-bikes or e-motos, and we can help them learn how to advocate for it. Real world stuff. Nuanced. Important. Valuable for them — not him.
Ultimately, it’s about helping our children figure out the difference between a nice, friendly guy and a trustworthy role model. Our children’s safety is too precious to leave in the hands of viral entertainers. Let’s help our kids see “Sore Wrongster” for who he really is, and equip them with the wisdom to make safe, independent choices on the road.
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