How to spot an illegal e-bike

NSW Police explain which e-bikes are illegal in NSW. Footage by NSW Police

Transcript

00:00The current legislation in New South Wales for e-bikes is probably best understood just

00:04with three points. First thing is the bike shouldn't be assisted by any motor over 25

00:13kilometres an hour. The motor itself should not be over 500 watts and any throttle that's present

00:22can only assist the rider up to six kilometres an hour and from that point forward everything

00:29that is assisted is only assisted with the the rider actually pedalling the bike so the primary

00:36form of propulsion should be pedalling with the motor assisting. Most common probably modifications

00:42or illegal e-bikes that we see now scattered through Sydney and all over for that matter

00:48is the throttle e-bike so we have bikes that have been allowed or even come as the factory out of

00:56the factory with a throttle actuator so they're not pedal assist or pedal orientated at all they're

01:03just all throttle so they're effectively an electric motorbike so the throttle's fine like I said up to

01:09six kilometres an hour after that it has to be the motor only assisting you pedal. The other one we see

01:16is bikes travelling far in excess of 25 kilometres an hour so some of the legal bikes can be decoded so

01:30they obtain a code from the retailer or from the manufacturer and then that unlocks the bike so that

01:38it is able to go speeds far in excess of 25 kilometres an hour we see a lot of bikes that

01:46travelled over 25 kilometres an hour straight out of the box so there's a lot of those that are coming in

01:51and uh and home homemade ones so where you can buy the bike as a kit you buy a motor you buy yourself a

01:58battery and a control unit slap it to any bike and that will do way over 25 k's an hour and isn't required

02:06to be pedal assist at all so we see a lot of those where the the chain's been removed the cranks have

02:11been removed and they're effectively illegal electric motorbikes another issue we see with some of the

02:17e-bikes is um the actual weight of them so especially some of the ones that are well over 500 watts

02:25what comes with those are 1500 2000 two and a half up to five six thousand watts they all come with a lot more

02:32weight uh 50 kilos is is the limit under the legislation for an e-bike if it's to be a legal

02:40e-bike anything over that uh it's not able to be an australian standards e-bike so the current

02:46legislation in new south wales in relation to e-bikes mainly relates to three points first point

02:53bikes can't go over 25 kilometers an hour or be assisted by the motor over 25 kilometers an hour

02:58second is if they do have a throttle that throttle can only assist the rider up to six kilometers an

03:05hour after that it becomes pedal power only with the motor assisting and the third is the motor cannot

03:11be over 500 watts other states are actually 250 watts so new south wales is 500.