‘Severely inappropriate’: E-motorbike hoons caught on CCTV riding inside shopping centre
Updated . First published at
Police are hunting a trio who rode e-motorbikes through a Canberra shopping centre after dark, damaging the floor and conducting a burnout.
Three young men, two riders and one passenger, were captured on CCTV entering South Point Tuggeranong in Greenway about 8pm on June 15.
The e-motorbike riders were captured on CCTV at South Point Tuggeranong. ACT Policing
The bikers were seen travelling at speed through the empty shopping mall.
Footage shows one of the riders stopping and deliberately doing a burnout, which damaged the floor and left large black skid marks near a customer service desk.
Bike safety advocates say behaviour like this “tarnishes the reputation” of e-bike riders.
“These are illegal electric motorbikes that are being used, whereas the vast majority of people ride safe legal e-bikes,” Pedal Power ACT President Joe Murphy told Nine.com.au.
“What we saw in this footage there is illegal electric motorbikes being used severely inappropriately.”
Murphy said he suspects the e-motorbikes used in this incident are illegal.
“They’re just using a throttle, there’s no peddling involved,” Murphy added.
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“The illegal e-motorbikes have massive amounts of power. They’ve got big batteries, and these people are just riding them really inappropriately.”
In the ACT, motor-assisted pedal bikes can only have 200 watts of combined maximum power and pedelecs – or electrically assisted bicycles – can have up to 250 watts of continuous rated power.
Pedal Power ACT President Joe Murphy said incidents like this give safe e-bike riders a bad name. Joe Murphy
While these high-powered e-motorbikes are illegal on ACT roads, they are still being used in public settings.
Murphy warned they are “highly accessible” for young people.
An off-road e-motorbike can retail for as little as $1800.
“We would support a law that prevents these sorts of motorbikes coming into Australia and being used in a public setting,” he added.
“They should be used appropriately, they should be used in the right setting, and really that’s what we’re looking for here.
“We want to make a clear distinction between safe, legal e-bikes and illegal electric motorbikes.”
Police are now calling on the public for assistance to identify the three young people. ACT Policing
The electric motor cannot assist the rider when travelling more than 25 kilometres per hour.
ACT Police have released the footage and asked the public to help identify the three youths.
One of the riders was wearing white shoes, light coloured pants, a black hoodie, blue vest, black gloves and a grey helmet.
The second was wearing black-and-white Nike shoes, dark pants, a black hoodie with a white pattern and a black helmet.
His passenger was a male with fair hair wearing shorts, a light coloured jumper and a dark vest.
“ACT Policing acknowledge that it is difficult to identify people wearing helmets but are asking members of the community who may recognise the youths or the e-motorbikes to come forward,” police said in a statement.
Anyone who can assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers via the Crime Stoppers ACT website or on 1800 333 000.
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