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Bike thefts on electric motorbike/cycle looking thing (feddit.uk)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This morning in SE London, I witnessed 2 people on what looked like a motorcycle, but it was electric, push a guy off his bike on the bike path, and pickup his bike drive away with it. Civilians tried to stop them, but the bike they were on was very fast, and silent.

The two people on the bike looked ominous. All dressed in black. The bike had no decals on it, was all black as well. Balaclavas, helmets, what looked like ski googles, and tactical clothing. They were driving like assholes as well, as they got away with the bike.

The bike owner was shaken, but ok it seemed. Bike seemed brand new, shiny, and purple, but I've no clue whether it was expensive.

How are these electric motorcycles street legal, and what are they called? Are there many makers of them, or are they usually from the same company?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You do have motorbikes with electric engines that are otherwise treated by law just the same as a petrol motorbike (riders need to have a motorbike licence, wear helmets, have insurance, the bike must have an MOT and be road-worthy etc).

Then you have electric bikes, which don't legally require any licence, insurance, safety gear. However they can't be very powerful - they can't go above 15.5 mph without pedaling and only have a 250W motor.

You'll also get electric bikes which have been modded to exceed those limits - e.g. a more powerful motor has been swapped in. That bike is then illegal and could be seized by the police.

These kinds of gangs often do use illegal bikes for their anti-social activities. It's just too difficult for the police to catch them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Thank you, this is very insightful. My bet would be that this was a modded ebike of some kind, although I wasn't able to get details from the bike to see if it had any kind of tags or anything on it. Chances are, even if it was required, people like this won't follow the rules anyway, so it wouldn't have any, and thus be illegal.