Police force announces crackdown operation on illegal bikes…but wrongly calls them e-bikes; Bikepacking gear company bought by Castelli owners; World Championships head to India + more on the live blog
Same as it ever was...
In the last few weeks, we’ve covered quite a lot of instances of news outlets misreporting illegal bikes as ‘e-bikes’, despite the machines they’re referring to not meeting the legal definition. In the limited defence of these organisations, it doesn’t help when police forces themselves continue to confuse everyone.
Today’s instance comes from Merseyside Police, who have provided an update on Operation Gears, their plan “to relentlessly pursue those illegally riding e-bikes, e-scooters and electric motorcycles, and using them to facilitate crime.” It seems from a distance to be a form of broken windows policing, taking tough action against more comparatively minor crimes as a means of tackling and deterring more serious offences.
Merseyside Police aren’t probably too interested in the scrambler bike and “illegally adapted e-bike” that two people were seen riding, though the scrambler bike was seized by police. But the possession of cannabis, a knife and machete on the persons arrested will make the operation worthwhile. We’re a cycling website though, so we’re more interested in the two-wheeled bit of the operation.
What’s fascinating from Merseyside Police’s statement announcing the operation is the repeated reference to those “illegally riding e-bikes”, “who choose to ride e-bikes illegally”, or “any illegal use of e-bikes”. There’s no suggestion from any of those phrases that the bikes themselves are illegal, only that they can be used illegally. But what does that mean to the layperson? Does that mean wheelies? Does that mean riding without a helmet? Does that mean riding without a level two Bikeability badge?
The only explicit reference we get to the bikes themselves is to the person riding the “illegally adapted e-bike” who was arrested, although there’s no suggestion that his bike was seized.
Perhaps this is part of the problem with the law, that because these bikes can be used on private property with the landowner’s permission, they cannot be automatically described as illegal, even though people’s exposure to them is in public spaces.
But it creates a situation where anyone reading the press release is none the wiser as to the legal status of these machines. For a police force that’s supposed to be clamping down on them, that’s not an ideal position to be in. They also have a Facebook Post making no mention of the distinction…
It’s all very tiring, and makes efforts by the e-bike industry to distinguish their legal credentials all the more futile. Either way, this story isn’t going away…
Racing round-up: Groundhog day of sorts
Remember yesterday when I mentioned an Uno-X rider taking their first pro victory. Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V, although today’s stage wasn’t decided by a bunch sprint.
Antonio Tiberi, he of cat-killing infamy, attacked on the final categorised climb and survived a close call on the descent…
Great save! 😳
Antonio Tiberi has a big moment as he pushes to stay in front of the chasers! 😲 pic.twitter.com/iJyoXI6BDE
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) September 24, 2026
But he was reeled in by Tim Wellens, who declined a call-up to the Worlds in Montreal to race for his UAE paymasters, and Uno-X’s Tobias Svarre. Then on the final cobbled drag to the line, the 22-year old Norwegian Svarre pipped Tiberi to take the stage and the overall lead in the race ahead of his fellow escapees…
INCREDIBLE FINALE! 🔥
22 year-old Tobias Svarre beats Antonio Tiberi and Tim Wellens to claim the Queen Stage at the Cro Race! 🇩🇰👏 pic.twitter.com/qmx3HXFQLz
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) September 24, 2026
It should be said that the Worlds have resumed in Montreal today, with the women’s under-23 road race currently still with 50km to go, and the men’s junior road race due to begin later this evening. I’ll let Ryan fill you in on those results tomorrow…
Any excuse for a Fab Four photo...
It’s been a hot minute since we talked about next year’s Tours de France Grand Depart, so let’s check in on what’s been happening over there.
There being Liverpool where the Tour de France Grand Depart trophy has been on display! Yep, the Grand Depart trophy is a thing…
The occasion of the trophy’s visit is the opening of a new Cycle Hub at the Liverpool One outdoor shopping centre, providing storage for 50 bicycles. Liverpool, in case you’d forgotten, also hosts the finale of the second stage of the men’s race next July. It’s led to my favourite Grand Depart-related marketing photo, after all…
Racing in India
View this post on Instagram
Yesterday, the UCI confirmed the news we’d long been expecting. India will host the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in 2032 for the first time. The most populated country in the world has long lagged behind other countries in its cycling development but the sport’s governing body are inspired the championships could be a catalyst for growing the sport on the subcontinent.
The city of Pune, in the west of the country, is behind the bid and had been facing a rival bid from the Dutch provinces of Groningen and Drenthe, which would have also hosted the para-cycling world championships. The big wigs in their ironed, embroidered UCI shirts came to a swift solution however, by awarding the world championships to them in 2034. Masterfully done.
It should be said that earlier this year Pune was something of a testing ground when it hosted the inaugural edition of the Pune Grand Tour – a five-day stage race held at 2.2 level, combining several Australian, European and Asian teams at Continental and club level, as well as two Indian national teams and the Pro Tour Burgos Burpellet BH. The race attracted large crowds and has already been confirmed for next year, upgraded to a 2.1 (third-tier) race that might just attract a WorldTour squad or two.
View this post on Instagram
And while we’re here, here’s the schedule of world championships now booked comfortably into the next decade…
| 100 | 2027 | Haute-Savoie |  France |
|
| 101 | 2028 | Abu Dhabi |  United Arab Emirates |
|
| 102 | 2029 | Aarhus/Copenhagen |  Denmark |
|
| 103 | 2030 | Brussels |  Belgium |
|
| 104 | 2031 | Trentino |  Italy |
|
| 105 | 2032 | Pune |  India |
|
| 106 | 2033 | Not yet announced | ||
| 107 | 2034 | Groningen/Drenthe |  Netherlands |
|
Sigma Sports steadies the ship
Tailfin bought out
A little bit of industry news to bring you today comes from bikepacking gear maker Tailfin, who have just been bought by the Italian MVC Group, which also owns Castelli and Sportful.
The original owners, fronted by CEO designer Nick Broadbent, will retain a minority stake and continue to run the company for the timebeing. Indeed, MVC Group have highlighted the “valuable pool of technological expertise, design capabilities and intellectual property” that the company has acquired, with a view to supporting “the development of new solutions for triathlon and outdoor sports, where MVC Group operates with Zoot and Karpos respectively.”
MVC’s CEO Emilio Foa says, “With Tailfin, we are not simply adding a new product category: we are integrating a leading brand whose positioning around excellence and strong focus on innovation are fully aligned with our own brands, while also being complementary to their offering.”
Broadbent, as you might expect, is similarly upbeat. “Since Tailfin was founded, we have invested heavily in innovation to develop products that set the standard within the rapidly growing category of bikepacking and adventure cycling. Joining MVC Group will allow us to accelerate this journey further, leveraging the Group’s industrial strength and international presence, while preserving the identity, autonomy and innovation culture that have made Tailfin so successful.”
Today's unhappy Reddit post
Nothing major, just a bit of internal routing woe…
Cycling Rules!
This is not a statement of fact, but rather the headline of a long post looking at many of the announcements the UCI has made during the World Championships.
The biggest announcement is the governing body’s ongoing safety efforts, including an ongoing crash investigation, gender disparities in injury rehabilitation, and the introduction of GPS trackers. Ryan has a long write up on all of that here:
Also included in the announcement is an introduction of genetic testing of all female athletes as a means of “protecting the female category”. The UCI has followed the lead of the International Olympic Committee, having previously banned all trans women who transitioned after experiencing male puberty in 2023.
Elsewhere we have final confirmation that the women’s Vuelta a Espana will move from May to October, whilst the Vuelta a Burgos will move to May. The only change in the men’s calendar is the Eschborn-Frankfurt one-day race returning to its traditional slot on the 1st of May.
Remember UCI points? The all-important metric for determining promotion and relegation to the WorldTour. Well now we have a sliding-scale points system rolled out allowing teams to gain points by fielding their riders in non-road World Championship or World Cup events. That’s track, cyclocross, mountain biking and gravel – good news for the teams of Van der Poel, Brand and Pidcock. No artistic cycling though. Meanwhile the track world championships are bringing back motor-paced racing after a 30 year absence.
There’s also a Junior Nations Cup launching, providing a coherent season format for junior racing and around the world racing, although whether it’s expected for these teenagers to travel over the world for every event isn’t exactly clear, though given there’s a ranking system you’d have thought that might become a necessity.
Finally, national team coaches will be made to take additional online exams to the ones taken to become a run-of-the-mill directeur sportif. I’m sure the likes of Thomas Voeckler and Lizzie Deignan are delighted by that announcement.
And breathe… as an addendum to all that, Ryan’s piece makes reference to the Lugano Charter, the 30-year-old agreement that put a halt to much of the aerodynamic madness of the 1990s. If you can stomach any more Rapha-related stuff after the onslaught on the past few days, the brand have put together a pretty good write-up of what that actually entailed and meant for the sport as part of the promo for its new 90s-inspired range of gear. Wheel changes, weight limits, bike geometrics, the lot.
Today's happy Reddit post
A social media post of a local business wanting to support cyclists and install accessible useful infrastructure? Something we love to see!
“This is basically guaranteed to make you a cyclist’s hotspot if the flat whites are good and croissants reasonably priced”
“It’s great when small businesses care & cater for us and we’d love to return the favour by picking up a coffee or two!
Rapha woes
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Latest Comments
Baroness: "...the concern of pedestrians – many of us elderly and disabled – put at risk and having to use pavements and crossings with trepidation (and in some cases stay at home)..." Just wait 'till she hears about motor traffic! (Presumably her point would be "I still can, but not those cyclists...") I could be very wrong but does the good baroness walk everywhere? I've got a suspicion she might drive (or be driven) quite a bit? Ah, but ... careful and considerate responsible licenced and insured drivers, identified by their vehicle numberplates ... which means that any deaths of pedestrians crossing roads or even on the pavements could only be the work of a few reckless drivers. And fortunately the legal system has no problems permanently removing them from the road at the first offence...
@lesterama I chose a Fairlight. I think the attention to detail and craftmanship is just as good, but you save a chunk of cash. The obvious caveat is that it depends on what features you want/value. Fairlight only has four models, all with steel frames. There's nothing in Fairlight's line up that is a direct comparison with this Definition Integrale, for example.
RE: Build it and they will come, #782 "Glasgow isn't Amsterdam" - good to see this despite "but we have weather in Scotland!" / "But our city was bulldozed for motor traffic so we can't go back" / "We have narrow historic streets" / "There's no cycling culture here!" / "but there's a hill" etc. But yes, Glasgow isn't Amsterdam in that picture because: - the junction has very little provision for cycling (what about those going left?) - "single file" - carrying stuff on backs (not slinging your bag in the front rack / basket) - lots of "dress for the journey, not the destination" (hi vis, helmets etc) - no children to be seen
@the little onion Whilst it might seem that way I think perhaps it is a good thing for a crackdown to be launched against drink-cycling ebike renters. They have become a very popular alternative to public transport or cabs after a night out and speaking from experience in London at closing time you will see a large number of quite clearly drunk people staggering out and hopping on a Lime or Forest bike, and when I'm cycling or taking the bus in town late at night I do see a lot of people quite clearly not in a fit state to be riding any bicycle weaving about in traffic. Of course, I'm sure there are a number of people who ride their personal, privately owned ebikes when not in a fit state to do so but I think that would be quite a small number, simply because ebikes are expensive and highly nickable bits of kit and most people wouldn't risk leaving them locked up outside in London at night whilst they go to a pub or club. I would have no problem with the police running a campaign to stop Lime etc riders at random for sobriety checks, with the proviso that they do exactly the same with motorists.
@mctrials23 Agreed. An accurate exposition.
@jasperdog Tell us about them, then!
@mdavidford Whilst there is a need to regulate Lime etc, particularly around pavement parking, I’m not sure why hire e-bikes need anti drink-cycling rules but hire non-e-bikes don’t. Seems a bit culture wars-ish. Plus the comments are absolute proof of why people can’t distinguish between EAPC e-bikes and illegal e-motorbikes
@Motivated Yes, the colour of the bike was deliberate for that reason.
@tomlew yes, I have been looking at the beam pattern of the Toro and it seems to be actually round like a flashlight and therefore even for MTB is wasting light shining to the sky. I guess this is done to enable upside-down mounting. I agree this is not ideal when used on the road. I would not buy a light with a cutoff, so I guess I'm searching for a light with a shaped beam. 2000 lumen minimum. If there are suggestions, I'd be interested. Maybe something targeted for gravel as I imagine this bridges the light pattern between MTB round and road with a cutoff.
This sucks. I really hope someone helps to return the bike. It appears that the color was chosen to be similar to the Luton Town team colors, but this was not mentioned precisely in the article. 99% of the time, I'll go for a nature piss in as innocuous place as possible ... i.e. round the back of a cemetery :-) ... instead of stopping at a cafe for the toilet. I have no airtags or other measures to recover my bike were it to be stolen. I'd be in the same boat as this guy.
24 thoughts on “Police force announces crackdown operation on illegal bikes…but wrongly calls them e-bikes; Bikepacking gear company bought by Castelli owners; World Championships head to India + more on the live blog”
I think the police’s wording in these cases is accurate: it is the use of those e-bike on public roads that is illegal. The existence of the e-bike is not illegal, nor is owning one/buying one/selling one/modifying one/riding one on private land with the landowner’s permission. It would therefore be technically inaccurate for the police to simply call them “illegal bikes” as you suggest.
I can see your point that that does open the door to a degree of misinterpretation by the public who might wonder in what way they were being used illegally when the answer is in fact any use on public roads (assuming not registered/licensed/insured etc.). But I think there’s enough information out there that it you can find the answer in a couple of seconds on google, so really ignorance is not an excuse.
@OnYerBike Doesn’t it just need some sort of reference to illegal e-bikes on public roads?
@OnYerBike there is, unfortunately, plenty of ignorance (and refusal to be corrected) out there
@OnYerBike whatever the niceties, what we really need is a different term for the type of pedal assist e-bike that can be ridden on public roads without a licence or registration, and other bikes with electric motors. The conflation of the two is very damaging to the wider active travel agenda.
@Steve K I think we’ve mentioned before using e-moto for these electric motorbikes. Fits with the motocross styling of most of them.
@Steve K Legal Electric Cycles, or Leckies.
Likes
Don’t all head units have GPS tracking built in, nowadays? Can’t the UCI hook into this or do all the manufacturers use different protocols? Hopefully they will use it to calculate the gaps between riders and groups too as measuring it using the motos is way off
@redimp Head units have GPS receivers, but generally any transmitting capability is short range communication like Bluetooth. If you’re cycling with a mobile phone, then the head unit can connect to your mobile phone, and the phone can relay tracking information externally (e.g. Garmin LiveTrack), but I’m assuming most pros aren’t carrying a phone with them on races.
@OnYerBike a small bluetooth receiver with a 5G transmitter (should be small enough to glue underneath the saddle etc) should suffice then. The 5G receiver could be in a support vehicle
@redimp Given they are approaching this as safety equipment, I think they are right to want a system that is a bit more robust, rather than bare minimum “should suffice”. I don’t think you want to rely on a support car being nearby, as the whole point is that riders can become separated from the race convoy.
I also can’t imagine a GPS receiver itself takes up too much space/weight/power. Given you need a separate device to transmit the data anyway, I don’t see a big downside in just including the GPS receiver in said device, creating a self contained unit. Needing to connect it the the head unit is an extra step that could go wrong. And indeed, if you have a separate GPS receiver in the device, you can forego the hardware required to communicate with the headunit over bluetooth.
@redimp Gluing to the bike isn’t ideal, because it’s the rider they want to track, so if they move to another bike the tracker would ideally move with them.
So it could be on the helmet and also record head impacts like they now do in other sports. But you may then be needing helmet change at some point in the race if it stops transmitting….
The Velon transmitter might do most of this but it’s only on the primary bike, not the ones on the cars.
There’s no perfect solution available yet!
The ones they’ve been using in their trials appear to have a mount that goes under the saddle, and the unit then clips into that, so presumably you keep a mount on each bike, and if you have to change bikes you just unclip from one and clip on to the other (at the same time as you’re transferring your head unit).
@redimp Head units don’t generally transmit GPS information to other devices.
Also in remote parts of the country e.g. in the mountains there may be no mobile data or phone reception which means satellite comms would be needed to fill this gap.
This would suggest a separate unit with its own power source, mobile data and satellite comms. The technology already exists in proprietary devices e.g. Garmin Fenix 9 Pro InReach so this is not infeasible.
50 month disqualification for drunk driving….
Anyone else seen such a long sentence (for anything)?
https://www.cambsnews.co.uk/news/exclusive-photos-reform-councillor-peter-reeve-banned-from-driving-for-50-months-after-drink-driving-conviction/46153/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx305y59l1ngo
Sad news from my neck of the woods. Straight road, daylight, good conditions, etc. A road – the A59 just outside Skipton – I’ve cycled on many a time, as have others on this site, I’m sure. It’s the main route between West Yorkshire and Cumbria, through the Yorkshire Dales.
RIP.
@the little onion a man has died after the bicycle he was riding was involved in a collision with a van
We all know what happened despite the attempt to transfer blame to the cyclist: the motorised vehicle smashed into the rear of the cycle and killed the cyclist. The police and everybody else who have attended the scene knows that, but they persist with this distorting, evasive language while pretending to be impartial and ‘awaiting the investigation’. I expect the same language was used about a tragedy that I’m sure TLO is familiar with: at a bridge across the Wharfe on the Burley side of Ilkley a manslaughtering b*****d overtook a queue of cars behind a cyclist waiting to turn right over the bridge, and came hammering along the wrong side of the road and killed the cyclist as he tried to complete the turn during a gap in oncoming traffic. A single narrow lane was all he had to cross! The case took aeons to to come to court, during which time the MB was allowed to continue driving. The A59 and A56 are Death Highways which worry me a lot when cycling to Leeds to visit my daughter.
@wtjs Don’t the police have to use this neutral language (nauseating as it is) so they can’t be accused of jeopardising the eventual trial.
@Mr Blackbird No they don’t- it’s just a police dodge designed as part of the ‘get the driver off killing a cyclist, or at worst a joke suspended sentence’ procedure. It’s rather like the stupid police attempt to insist on incriminating videos being removed from social media, when what they really don’t like is the public being allowed to see how indisputable the evidence really is. Daniel Thomas has now been charged with criminal damage or some similar charge for slashing a dinghy out in the middle of the Channel- the video was livestreamed and has since been shown on TV to countless people. Are the police saying ‘he can’t possibly have a fair trial now, we’d better let him go’? No, they aren’t- they only use that dodge when the people who have been KSI’d/ offended against are people they don’t like: and cyclists are among those
But those who experienced it in ’22 or ’24 are still good?
Good news about the UCI road champs being held in India. It should raise awareness of cycling and draw more South Asians into the sport.
Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan athletes are starting to perform well at world level in several athletics track and field events, so hopefully the same will apply in cycling. Hopefully opportunities to take up and progress in cycling will apply to both males and females.
David Byrne coffee cup bike racks. I think a few of these in a range of browns would be perfect.
An espresso version would be better, to put the top of the mug somewhere near the bike. (Or maybe a Sheffield stand…)