BBC criticised for reporting police apprehending “e-bike driver” without mentioning the machine was illegal; Sadiq Khan reps Rapha on latest mouth-frothing ride for social media + more on the live blog
Wrong again...
It’s becoming such a recurring criticism that at a certain point you might start wondering if it’s a conspiracy over incompetence. Or rather, ignorance.
Police in Cambridgeshire last week shared a video showing one of their officers rugby tackling a man riding an illegal bike through Peterborough City Centre. As someone who immediately went into a ruck as they were too timid to tackle in P.E., I’ll defer to the wider expertise of the road.cc readership on the merits of the officer’s technique, but it looks impressive nonetheless.
“Neighbourhood officers were conducting a day of action in Peterborough city centre last week to address the use of illegal e-bikes and e-scooters.” Cambridgeshire Constabulary wrote.
“During this, numerous high-vis officers attempted to stop a man as he rode an e-bike at a high speed. However, he hadn’t quite spotted our plain clothes officers who were waiting for him and managed to bring him to a stop!
“The e-bike was tested and found to provide electrical assistance to speeds of up to 23mph – the legal limit being 15.5mph. The man will now be reported for numerous driving offences.”
Hmm, not great reporting by the force there. Yes, they mention the officers are examining illegal e-bikes, but they neglect to explicitly say the bike of the suspect is illegal, only implying as such in the final paragraph.
Even then it’s open to misinterpretation. You could be forgiven for thinking 15.5mph was a speed limit which all riders must keep below, like driving a car, not that it was a maximum speed of all e-bikes.
But it’s much better than the Beeb…
No mention of the e-bike being illegal there, misrepresenting what the suspect was actually riding. Because it certainly doesn’t meet the requirements of electrically-assisted pedal cycle. And it doesn’t appear compliant to be a motorbike. And if it is then it certainly shouldn’t be ridden down the pedestrianised high street.
Somehow the text of the BBC’s brief write-up of the story is even worse however…
“CCTV footage has captured the moment a police officer took a flying leap to tackle an e-bike driver after he failed to stop for “numerous high-vis officers”.
Again, no mention that the e-bike is illegal or why they might have been stopped. They also decline to mention the bike is illegal when quoting the police, referring only to a “high-speed” e-bike. That’s before we get to the strange phrase e-bike driver.
It’s deeply irritating. How is anyone uninformed of Department for Transport regulations (believe it or not there are many) supposed to come away from reading what the BBC wrote with the impression that legal e-bikes even exist? This conflation only fuels misinformation.
But I suspect many of you knew that already…
On Reddit, there’s been plenty of criticism of the BBC’s choice of words…
“Have you ever been fined for riding your eBike without a licence or insurance? No? Me neither. That’s because legal eBikes (Electric Assist Pedal Cycle or EAPCs) don’t need either to be cycled. Not only that but the BBC did a poor job of saying that eBikes should be limited to 15.5mph. That’s what the assistance should be limited to, not an absolute speed limit.”
“It’s non stop at the moment. if you landed in the UK from outer space and only read the news you would think e bikes are responsible for most traffic injuries and deaths.”
“[A] flying leap to tackle an e-bike driver? So was he driving or riding? Is it an ebike, a motorbike or a car? This seems like a quick article they put out that they don’t really care about so didn’t check anything. As long as it says ebike it’s going to get them views and that’s all that matters.”
“I still don’t understand why we didn’t adopt the European naming, is so much better. Instead of which we have used e-bike to confusingly mean any and all the above making any conversation confusing.”
The confusion continues…
Happy belated birthday!
Sadly what would have been the 80th birthday of Freddie Mercury fell on a non-live blog day, so we’ll be compensating here instead:
I missed the 80th anniversary of his majesty’s birth yesterday
— Odd This Day (@oddthisday.bsky.social) 6 September 2026 at 17:14
Near miss at the Tour of Britain
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23 mph e-bike, that's disgraceful, he will get in the way of the traffic going that slow.
An interesting 'e-bike' I spotted yesterday. One of those 'official' Amazon electric delivery bike/mini van type contraptions. As you turn out of my road it goes up a hill. The Amazon delivery guy didn't pedal when he set off, or as he turned up the hill. No number plate or helmet, so using it as a bicycle. Have Amazon delivery drivers on the e-bikes found a way to modify their vehicles illegally?
@kil0ran I had a slightly different experience at Ride London. Riding up the Mall towards the finish line, a young lad who was doing the shorter ride (the one where they join the route 16km or so from the end?) was playing Billy BIg Bollocks and swerving all over the road, playing up to his mates. He swerved right across the front of me and I've no idea how I managed to miss him.
It certainly does. Er, no it isn't - as one of the commenters you've quoted points out, it's the speed at which the assistance should cut out - there's nothing to stop you going faster than that without the assistance. If you're going to pick apart what other people have written, it might be best to make sure that what you've written is accurate.
@Mr Blackbird Its amazing for keeping fit in the cold, dark months in the UK. I stopped using it when the price went up simply because it didn't offer me good value for money any more. I have probably ridden indoors on the trainer about 4-5 times since march this year because the weather has been so bloody consistently good for cycling. I have a training peaks subscription that does more stuff for me and includes a "zwift like" platform so thats replaced it. I quite enjoyed the Zwift races but perhaps not enough to pay for another cycling related subscription. I would have been more interested in keeping it if there was a better pricing structure to reflect my desire to have it available over the summer but not paying full price.
@ChasP The price increase wasn't particularly egregious if you consider that they hadn't raised it in a very long time but the lack of a family plan was certainly something they should have addressed.
@Rendel Harris "perfect trimming of the gears after every shift so that the chainline was always absolutely perfect" Ah - so you're using their "cog-shifting" system where the rear and/or front are displaced sideways so the chain always runs without any lateral deviation? (IIRC I've seen a design that does this - for a ?"mid-drive" system on a velomobile. Looked interesting mechanically which is likely why I've never seen one again...)
@OldTom additionally the guidance "take appropriate action to let [an emergency vehicle] pass" doesn't *require* that you have to drive onto the cycle lane / footway to demonstrate you're doing so. In fact you're enjoined not to endanger other road users or pedestrians and avoid mounting the kerb. I believe in NL separated cycle paths next to roads are built to a spec that envisions motor vehicles crossing them and so it may be possible for those to *use* the cycle path to get round motor traffic in a pinch. Of course in the UK most cycle facilities (even bi-directional ones) are too narrow to allow this...
"no cables to stretch" Cables don't stretch, the housing ends simply bed in a little. Set up, bed in, readjust then it's all good until you need new cables. Digital vs mechanical is about whether you want easy now or easy later. Easy now can be harder later, harder now is generally easier later. Like so many things in life that this applies to.. take your pick.
@Rendel Harris "Do try not to be quite so silly in future please." Good luck with that one. History suggests that Nigel/Jack is ineducable and so deep in his own little rut that climbing out is impossible.
3 thoughts on “BBC criticised for reporting police apprehending “e-bike driver” without mentioning the machine was illegal; Sadiq Khan reps Rapha on latest mouth-frothing ride for social media + more on the live blog”
It certainly does.
Er, no it isn’t – as one of the commenters you’ve quoted points out, it’s the speed at which the assistance should cut out – there’s nothing to stop you going faster than that without the assistance. If you’re going to pick apart what other people have written, it might be best to make sure that what you’ve written is accurate.
An interesting ‘e-bike’ I spotted yesterday. One of those ‘official’ Amazon electric delivery bike/mini van type contraptions. As you turn out of my road it goes up a hill. The Amazon delivery guy didn’t pedal when he set off, or as he turned up the hill. No number plate or helmet, so using it as a bicycle. Have Amazon delivery drivers on the e-bikes found a way to modify their vehicles illegally?
23 mph e-bike, that’s disgraceful, he will get in the way of the traffic going that slow.