The accident, as you may have heard, happened in Cowell’s backyard in Malibu, in August 2020. He had seen the electric bike at a show in his home country, had talked to the manufacturers and had a unit shipped from London to Sunny California. He had just unpacked it when, without reading the included owner’s manual, he jumped in the saddle and thought about taking it for a ride around the property.

Unfamiliar with the controls, he hit torque, and that was enough to send the e-bike into a wheelie which, in turn, threw Cowell onto his back. He broke three vertebrae and had to undergo intensive surgery and months of recovery therapy as reports claimed he would never be able to walk again. Fortunately, he is now back to normal.

Better yet, he told ExtraTV’s Terri Seymour. Simon Cowell feels so much better and his fitness has improved so much that he would even relive this ordeal if he had the chance to step back in time. This, despite the fact that “If it had been another millimeter, it would have been a different story” and he would be paralyzed.

There is a certain bravado in saying this, which tries to mask a lesson learned the hard way. Cowell plays his badass role to say, in a very roundabout way, that he learned from his mistake and is wiser because of it. Maybe that’s the only good thing to come out of the ordeal, after the fact that he’s still alive to tell the story.

Because Cowell was excessively reckless about it all. The ” electric bike “ he bought and then tried to use without first familiarizing himself with it is not a “bicycle,” as in, a “electric bike.” It is an electric moped that is marketed as the most powerful on the market, a trail bike that comes with a 15 kW Engine (20 hp), 60 times more powerful than anything approved for the road in Europe. It has good pedals, but only so that it can be sold as a ” electric bike “, since you can only use it with the couple.

Right after the crash and the long recovery period, Cowell was still trying to blame the makers of that track bike, the Swind EB-01. Although he admitted on social media that he should have read the owner’s manual, he also publicly stated that the electric bikes that were “Mainly motorcycles with electric motors” were dangerous, and to warn people about them. His example was confirmation of that, he said, detailing how he was launched into the air, how excruciating the pain was and how he came to be. this close never to walk again.

Whether you know Cowell for his work as a music producer and record company boss, or for his always fun appearances on talent shows in the UK and US, and whatever you think of him , his words carry weight. They carry even more weight when they describe him as the victim, a rider who had been tricked into buying a powerful electric motorcycle into thinking it was an electric bicycle, and who was nearly killed because of that.

In reality, Cowell was only a victim of his arrogance. He is a passionate cyclist, with more than 3 years of experience in driving electric bikes of all makes and models, which he buys himself. He rides daily and, according to reports, will use his fame to secure appointments with business leaders, just so he can learn more about a model that piques his interest, as he did with the Swind EB-01. He knew exactly what he would get with this bike, but he was too careless or lazy to read the instructions on how to use it and unfortunately he paid the price.

On the positive side, it looks like he’s learned his lesson, even though he doesn’t say it out loud. These days, he explains, he rolls “Electrically assisted bicycles”, that is, real electric bikes. He still loves to ride a bike and he does at least 10 miles (16 km) a day, which he calls his “the most creative” time of the day. Silver linings and all that.