Seizures of illegal E bikes

Author
Discussion

irc

Original Poster:

8,199 posts

143 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Well done Polis Alba. At 233 more than a quarter of the dangerous illegal motorbikes seized in the UK were in Scotland.

"Forces across the UK confiscated 937 e-bikes in the year to August 11, according to Freedom of Information (FoI) figures obtained by the PA news agency."

"among the forces with the largest year-on-year increases in e-bike seizures were Wiltshire Police (from 24 to 64), Police Scotland (from 60 to 233), Derbyshire Police (from four to 23), Northumbria Police (from 18 to 58) and South Wales Police (from 66 to 137)."

It's a start.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/24604...

J4CKO

42,819 posts

207 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
See it when someone gets nicked on one, "Police should be tackling proper crime, not kids on bikes" ffs.

Seen a few round here, crossers and the electric types, every one driven with zero regard for any traffic regulations, mounting the pavement, wheelying and not wearing a helmet.

Been quite a few riders ending up in casualty, some of them weight 50 kilos and will do 60, even 80 mph, but its just spoilsports stopping kids having fun.

Legal eBike is 250 Watts, pedal assisted, the assistance cuts out at 15.5 mph, I can see how someone could perhaps have a little more power, but 3000 plus watts is taking the piss, 12 times more, for even the least powerful Sur Ron, some are up to 10,000 watts, even kits to add a 3000 watt motor to a normal bike, a bike designed for a rider capable of maybe 800 watts, briefly, so throw four times the transient max and make it continuous. Yep. no problem with that, maybe add in some ancient rim brakes or really crap cable disks for good measure.

I wonder if you splat someone riding illegally like that whether you can still get screwed, would say its pretty likely you end up in court, with higher insurance etc, even if you do nothing wrong, so glad they are getting these turds off the road.

LunarOne

5,759 posts

144 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Are you saying that the motorbike seizures are illegal? Or that the seizures are of illegal motorbikes? I assumed the former when reading the title, and thought you were being sarcastic with your "well done" comment.

irc

Original Poster:

8,199 posts

143 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
My bad. Seizures of illegal bikes. I've had a couple of close high speed passes on canal towpaths from them. I need to drive a legal vehicle why shouldn't they?

Scrump

22,939 posts

165 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
irc said:
My bad. Seizures of illegal bikes. I've had a couple of close high speed passes on canal towpaths from them. I need to drive a legal vehicle why shouldn't they?
I have tweaked the title to clarify, hope that is okay.

irc

Original Poster:

8,199 posts

143 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Scrump said:
irc said:
My bad. Seizures of illegal bikes. I've had a couple of close high speed passes on canal towpaths from them. I need to drive a legal vehicle why shouldn't they?
I have tweaked the title to clarify, hope that is okay.
thanks.

Louis Balfour

27,682 posts

229 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
irc said:
Well done Polis Alba. At 233 more than a quarter of the dangerous illegal motorbikes seized in the UK were in Scotland.

"Forces across the UK confiscated 937 e-bikes in the year to August 11, according to Freedom of Information (FoI) figures obtained by the PA news agency."

"among the forces with the largest year-on-year increases in e-bike seizures were Wiltshire Police (from 24 to 64), Police Scotland (from 60 to 233), Derbyshire Police (from four to 23), Northumbria Police (from 18 to 58) and South Wales Police (from 66 to 137)."

It's a start.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/24604...
The photos suggest they are targeting Deliveroo riders on their relatively tame motor assisted jobs. I wonder how many Sur-rons they seized.

dudleybloke

20,476 posts

193 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
There's some absolute fools delivering food on ebikes round here.
Doing stupid speeds on busy pavements, randomly cutting across roads and junctions relying on the drivers to not kill them, even going the wrong way around 3 lane islands.

PurpleTurtle

7,592 posts

151 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
If my area (Reading) is typical there are two types of illegal e-bikes:

Sur Ron motorcrossers - typically ridden by skinny ratboy drug dealer types dressed mostly in black with a hoodie and face covering. Always up to no good, speeeding, reckless riding, stunts, phone and handbag snatching, evading Police whilst drug dealing.

Chipped mountain bikes - typically ridden by Deliveroo/Just Eat/Uber Eats riders, max'ing out their time delivering McDonalds to people, only offence they are generally committing is riding over the 15mph limit, without lights if they can be arsed to fit them.

Are there any more?

Sheets Tabuer

19,645 posts

222 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Hope they don't come out to the countryside whistle

Louis Balfour

27,682 posts

229 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all

It does seem that electric vehicles are a problem that the authorities cannot solve. There are so many now from skateboards upwards. Virtually none are insured I'd wager, yet they can go very fast.

gregs656

11,404 posts

188 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Personal electric vehicle transport makes a massive amount of sense in towns and cities. The legislation should move with the times on this.

Gareth79

8,039 posts

253 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
PurpleTurtle said:
Chipped mountain bikes - typically ridden by Deliveroo/Just Eat/Uber Eats riders, max'ing out their time delivering McDonalds to people, only offence they are generally committing is riding over the 15mph limit, without lights if they can be arsed to fit them.
The bikes are usually only ridden on throttle too, there is only a token amount of pedalling. This means it's effectively a motorbike, they just don't want to bother with doing a CBT, getting insurance, and also they want to ride without risk of being done for other offences such as red lights, riding/parking on pavements, parking on yellow/red lines etc.

nuyorican

1,865 posts

109 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
gregs656 said:
Personal electric vehicle transport makes a massive amount of sense in towns and cities. The legislation should move with the times on this.
Agree.

Grudgingly.

irc

Original Poster:

8,199 posts

143 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
PurpleTurtle said:
Chipped mountain bikes - typically ridden by Deliveroo/Just Eat/Uber Eats riders, max'ing out their time delivering McDonalds to people, only offence they are generally committing is riding over the 15mph limit, without lights if they can be arsed to fit them.

Are there any more?
No licence, No insurance, No reg plates. No tax. Driving without due care and attention. No crash helmet

"Any electric bike that does not meet the EAPC rules is classed as a motorcycle or moped and needs to be registered and taxed. You’ll need a driving licence to ride one and you must wear a crash helmet."

https://www.gov.uk/electric-bike-rules


Hugo Stiglitz

38,038 posts

218 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
gregs656 said:
Personal electric vehicle transport makes a massive amount of sense in towns and cities. The legislation should move with the times on this.
Yes up to 15mph. They really are ridden very badly. At least on bicycles you are constrained by your fitness.

I was riding my R1200RT home from work one night at 30mph in a dark cold urban road. I was undertaken by a Ubereats cyclist who then weaved across the front of me twice whilst tapping presumably his phone on his handlebars.

I'll be honest I could have wiped him out by accident. It's a regular thing round my way.
I'd love an e-scooter but again it's spoilt by people who ride high powered ebicycles and scooters very badly.

Even out mointain biking idiots on e mountain bikes think they are cool doing 30+. Idiots.

gregs656

11,404 posts

188 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Hugo Stiglitz said:
Yes up to 15mph.
At any speed, the legislation must catch up. You should be able to do a CBT or equivalent, there should be license pathways, the laws on helmets should catch up, registrations etc etc.

At the moment the only thing in place is trying to stop the wave of change from happening. It is ridiculous that personal electric transport (of all kinds) which are relatively affordable, no roadside emissions, take up far less space than a car etc etc is having widespread adoption held back because no one has taken on legislating them.

You don't have to explain to me what a problem they can be (I live in a city) but IMO the benefits far out weigh the costs, particularly as the costs can be mitigated to some extent by putting some thought into it.

I see loads of people rolling around on stuff that wouldn't have looked out of place in a science fiction movie not so long a go. It's a huge opportunity.

Hugo Stiglitz

38,038 posts

218 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
gregs656 said:
Hugo Stiglitz said:
Yes up to 15mph.
At any speed, the legislation must catch up. You should be able to do a CBT or equivalent, there should be license pathways, the laws on helmets should catch up, registrations etc etc.

At the moment the only thing in place is trying to stop the wave of change from happening. It is ridiculous that personal electric transport (of all kinds) which are relatively affordable, no roadside emissions, take up far less space than a car etc etc is having widespread adoption held back because no one has taken on legislating them.

You don't have to explain to me what a problem they can be (I live in a city) but IMO the benefits far out weigh the costs, particularly as the costs can be mitigated to some extent by putting some thought into it.

I see loads of people rolling around on stuff that wouldn't have looked out of place in a science fiction movie not so long a go. It's a huge opportunity.
No you can't build a functioning 125cc moped from a £100 kit from China.

You can with a £50 old bicycle and a £100 electric kit. That is scary. You can enact legislation but you can build a fast, cross pavement speed thing that'll get away from any law and order.

paulw123

3,709 posts

197 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
nuyorican said:
gregs656 said:
Personal electric vehicle transport makes a massive amount of sense in towns and cities. The legislation should move with the times on this.
Agree.

Grudgingly.
Whilst I hate the things as it's very rare to see one actually being ridden safely, I do agree that they are a good way of providing personal transport.
However, they do need to abide by all the laws and also be held accountable to traffic offences in the same way of motorist would be with fines/bans etc.

Surely anything that can do over 15mph should be registered and insured as a moped would have to be

Edited by paulw123 on Tuesday 24th September 20:32

gregs656

11,404 posts

188 months

Tuesday 24th September
quotequote all
Hugo Stiglitz said:
No you can't build a functioning 125cc moped from a £100 kit from China.

You can with a £50 old bicycle and a £100 electric kit. That is scary. You can enact legislation but you can build a fast, cross pavement speed thing that'll get away from any law and order.
That's what I am saying, it is huge democratic transport and it should be encouraged. At the moment it is in a weird area where we are criminalising people for adopting exactly the type of transport we are encouraging. It's dumb.