Police crack down on illegal e-bikes | A Current Affair

They’re fast, loud, and often illegal.

Police say it’s time to take these dangerous e-bikes and unregistered scooters off our streets. #9ACA | Subscribe here: http://9Soci.al/v6PJ50GjSKI

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Well, how many times have you had to dodge an ebike on the footpath? They’re silent and can travel at great speed. It turns out many of them are illegal and shouldn’t be on our streets. Police have had enough and the crackdown has begun. I’m aware of bikes doing 80 km an hour. They’re everywhere. Whether they’re delivering food, providing joy rides for kids, or just getting around town, ebikes are also all over the internet. Kids hooning on them like their motorbikes doing crazy stuff on it. It’s become fashionable, unfortunately. And it’s just dangerous for the the young rider. It’s dangerous for the people that are around them as well. The problem is almost every one of them is illegal. Is it a throttle? Yeah, they’re illegal unfortunately in New South Wales. So, anything that’s throttled and cis, not propelled only solely by the pedals, it’s actually an illegal bike. Sergeant Brett Barnes is head of the bike unit in New South Wales. Two simple rules make using these bikes against the law. One is uh in New South Wales if the bike uh actually has power that assists over 25 km an hour. The second would be that if the primary means of propulsion is not pedaling. So if you can sit on the bike and the motor just sends you along without you pedaling then it makes it an illegally ebike. So I could sit on this bike for instance and I could just use this the throttle here. That’s correct. I could just use that throttle. My feet wouldn’t even be on the pedals and it would take off. Absolutely classically illegal. Classically illegal. the um we see a lot of these bikes often with like rusted chains. This one’s probably a classic example and the thing is cuz the chain’s never been used. It just sits there. Uh a lot of them that end up impounded by police actually won’t even have a chain on it, but they’ll still be getting ridden around wherever. Sergeant Barnes and his team have been on a blitz across the state, stopping, grilling, and educating riders who face fines up to $3,000 as they are effectively riding motorbikes. Just so you’re aware, um, in New South Wales, you can’t actually have anything in throttle assist. Has to be only by propelled by the uh, pedals. Does that make sense? So, technically, this is an illegal bike. A current affair went with the bike squad to Paramata Mall in Western Sydney for a lunch hour blitz. Every single rider stopped was on a batteryass assisted illegal bike. Almost all of them delivering for Uber Eats. This is the starter. Can I show I understand you’re saying without that the power has to be only the I but this bike it cannot go with. So that’s why I’m saying they’re illegal. The crackdown has extended into schools. The bike unit recently attended this college in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and inspected every bike in the racks and found 99% of the ebikes were illegal. The principal then wrote to every parent and told them their kids were banned from riding them to and from school. Education for the kids is important, but for the parents too, they’re the ones you got to get through to. It’s a great way for parents to, you know, make their kids a bit more mobile without the parent having to take them to soccer and for, you know, to take them to school and take them everywhere else. So, I totally understand that as well. I think you’ve just got to do your due diligence and make sure that what you buy is in fact a legal bike under the legislation. Social media plays a big role. kids on regular bikes juiced up with power packs they buy off the internet, mostly out of China. You can also buy the kit, which is just a rear wheel, battery, and then a control unit, and then you can slap that into any old bike. So, we’re seeing a lot more of those bikes that have high wattage motors are capable of, you know, speeds that shouldn’t be anywhere near a foot path or a road. This is the stuff I’ve been seeing on Instagram and Tik Tok where kids are on a street and they’re doing monos and they’re going past cars. A lot of those were the kits that you were talking about and they’ve just juiced up their regular bike. Yeah. The dangerous thing about those is is the the frames aren’t designed to go at those speeds. The brakes aren’t designed to cope with those speeds. Nothing about the bike is actually designed to work at that speed. The problem is with technology, not just with bikes, with everything is here to stay. These bikes aren’t going anywhere, are they? No. And ebikes are great. I I think they’re a brilliant thing. They’re certainly not going anywhere. I think we’ve just got to be um you know, work work with the manufacturers, work with the community and and uh you know, introduce the ebikes that are going to work safely in our community, not the ones that are going to pose a danger to the community. And get the message through to parents 100%. Yep. Get the message through to parents. And what’s also so scary, how many of those riding ebbacks in our story were young and not wearing a helmet?