Police stop and confiscate ‘incredibly dangerous 80 MPH’ electric bicycle

Police in the UK have confiscated what they say is the fastest electric bicycle they’ve ever seen, suggesting it was capable of reaching speeds of 83.2 MPH.

It was reportedly one of more than 100 illegally-modified electric two-wheelers seized by police in Sunderland so far this year.

The Northumbria Police shared several images of the bike, revealing a DIY build using a high-power direct drive rear hub motor, a triangle bag-mounted softshell battery, and a large speed controller slung under the down tube. The bike itself appears to be a fairly standard mountain bike converted into an e-bike.

E-bikes in the UK are permitted to reach electrically assisted speeds of just 15.5 mph (25 km/h) and do so on pedal-assist only. The bike in question was apparently capable of significantly exceeding that legal limit.

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Police shared an image of the bike’s LCD panel showing a max speed of 83.2 mph (134 km/h), though this is almost certainly the “no-load” speed reached from lifting the rear wheel and allowing it to spin up freely without resistance. Police say that they stopped and confiscated the bike when its rider was seen traveling at 35 mph (56 km/h). They were alerted to it “following reports it was travelling in front of a car.”

Due to the nature of roads in the UK, e-bikes that ride on them are generally in front of or behind cars, and occasionally next to them.

Electrek’s Take

This is pretty dumb for a number of reasons. First of all, those bikes and components aren’t meant to handle these kinds of stresses. Any number of parts could fail catastrophically. The tires can fail early, the freewheel can lock up and cause the crank to whip around while sending several fragments of your fibula to places they shouldn’t be, the suspension fork can shear from hitting a bump at such speeds, the dropouts can literally tear out and send your rear wheel in a different direction at speed… the possibilities are endless. And that’s just the risk to the rider, not even yet getting to the risk they cause to others, depending on how and where they ride.

Then there are the legal issues, and the fact that these knuckleheads are going to ruin it for everyone by bringing a bad name to actually legal e-bikes. Most of the “illegally fast e-bikes” are clearly not bicycles (we’re talking Sur-Ron dirt bikes and similar), but this one is actually built on a bicycle frame and thus further confuses the public and law enforcement regarding legal and safe e-bikes.

If you want to go 35 mph, just get a scooter. There are plenty of good options.

via: BBC