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 legal e-bike motors.
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…
Cyclists killed by driver in collision
A horrible case…
> Three arrested after two cyclists killed by driver in Kent collision
Bike-carrying bike
An excellent carousel of cargo. Who needs a car?
A few of my weirdest loads with cargobikes
by
u/Eliaskram in
carryshitolympics
Memory lane
We’ve got a couple of features on the site that might tickle your fancy while you’re here.
Firstly, with some pure nostalgia to inject into your eyeballs is Steve’s look at the now-defunct British bike brands that have fallen by the wayside…
> 9 classic British mountain bike brands lost to time
Then, we’re launching a new series where we go back through some of our older reviews and see if they’ve aged like fine wine or milk. Test of Time begins with Dave taking a look at the growth of Zwift and indoor training more broadly…
> Over a decade since it revolutionised indoor training, has Zwift stood the test of time?
A new team for Tao?
Ah, Tao Geoghegan Hart, the Giro winner who has struggled to recapture the form of 2020. Or the form of 2023 when he looked a strong bet for a second Giro title only to suffer a near career-ending crash that left the Londoner temporarily in a wheelchair.
After three underwhelming years at Lidl-Trek, Daniel Benson reports he’s now set to move to EF Education-EasyPost. With Richard Carapaz reportedly leaving, it would be a hell of a gamble to replace their talisman with a rider who’s been out of form for so longer.
That said, I suspect the 31-year-old will have a significantly lower salary than the Ecuadorian. Fingers crossed it works out for him!
Go for a ride and connect with nature, they said...
Brompton going gravel?
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Weekend racing round-up: Pidcock, Politt, and Pogacar
Where to start on a bumper weekend of racing news? Maybe off the bike, where we received confirmation that Tadej Pogacar has signed a new contract running until 2032. The deal represents a two-year extension on his previous deal and is also understood to involve better access to private transport arrangements, as well as a salary increase.
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It had been a pet theory of mine, based largely on last year’s Tour de France that Pogacar might be reluctant to sign another contract, given the apathy he emoted during the race. But he’s now contracted to remain with UAE Team Emirates-XRG until he’s 34. That’s plenty of time to chase the stats and records of Merckx and Hinault, who both retired at the age of 32.
The team also announced that the Slovenian supremo would not race again this year as he continues his recovery from injury, meaning we’ll have a new male world and European champion, as well as a new winner of Il Lombardia. Exciting times!
One man whose preparations are going rather well for those races is Tom Pidcock. After becoming a mountain bike world champion once again, the Brit returned to the road at the punchy GP Industria & Artigianato, where he outkicked Christian Scaroni to claim victory…
One week after becoming MTB world champion, Tom Pidcock wins the GP Industria & Artigianato solo 🤯🏆 pic.twitter.com/869Bbbqw6S
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) September 6, 2026
A little closer to home, Lewis Askey couldn’t hang on to his lead at the men’s Tour of Britain as UAE set about steam-rollering the opposition. Tim Wellens attacked on Saturday’s ascent of the Kidstones pass and caught the day’s early break. He subsequently dropped all bar Cees Bol to leave the duo co-operating towards a shared glory. Bol took his first pro victory since another stage of the Tour of Britain in 2022, whilst Wellens took the race lead.
The following day, UAE exploited howling winds in the Scottish borders to animate the race. Four UAE riders, including Wellens, were at the front of the race along with Filippo Ganna and Ben Wiggins among others.
That strength in numbers meant that when Nils Politt and Florian Vermeersch attacked individually, the others were forced to chase whilst Benoit Cosnefroy and Wellens could sit on the wheels. Politt soloed to victory, which he dedicated to his grandfather, whilst Wellens cemented the 10th GC victory of his career, ahead of Lewis Askey and Jasper Stuyven who rounded out the podium.
A final mention from the Tour of Britain goes to Ben Swift. The 39-year-old, who is the last remaining professional from Team Sky’s 2010 roster, announced last week that he would retire at the end of the season, after a long career including national titles, several Grand Tours and the respect of a peloton. Even in his final year he picked up a national championship on the track and helped Matt Bostock achieve Commonwealth Gold. A very impressive career…
Right, last but not least, we have a final week of a Grand Tour beckoning, one that increasingly looks like Enric Mas’ to lose. Who would have thought that a couple of weeks ago?
On Saturday’s stage to Sierra de la Pandera, won by Marco Brenner from the break, the Spaniard extended his lead past two minutes, with Primoz Roglic losing ground to Mas and Felix Gall, who leapfrogged him into second overall. It must be said that Mas has looked incredibly assured in the past couple of days, aided by an excellent Movistar team who are outperforming expectations.
The big story yesterday was the heat, with searing temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius forcing the race organisers to shorten the stage by 70km. The end result was an intense stage of several attacks and small breaks forming, with the front one making it to the finish with Wout van Aert. The result was not really in doubt…
So, whilst the riders recover today for the final time, we have an exciting race to look forward to, with Roglic favoured to take back significant time on Mas on Thursday’s 32km time trial. It’s all up for grabs!
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And breathe…
Mayor wraps up in Rapha
Man goes for a bike ride wouldn’t make a story, even by live blog standards. Nor realistically would Sadiq Khan going for a bike ride necessarily make it onto this page. But, this time our eyes noticed something…
The Mayor is wearing Rapha! Both a jersey and windproof jacket by the looks of it. I might have to send it over to our tech people to try and identify how new it is, since it does after all send conflicting messages.
If it’s 10-15 years old, was he as Tooting MP swept up in the epitome of when British Cycling was cool, and the brand were sweeping over MAMILs like there was no tomorrow. If it’s pandemic era clothing then was it maybe purchased when the brand was becoming uncool, usurped by cheaper brands. Was the Mayor out-of-touch?
Or is it new? Has the knight of the realm been swooning over Fran Millar’s shake-up and re-design of the brand, that has become as much a lobbyist within the professional sport as it is a clothing manufacturer.
Will we also see Sir Sadiq wearing £350 jeans? Will the mayor’s tacit endorsement of the brand spark an upturn in financial fortunes? It’s too early to say…
Incidentally, it is remarkable and horrifying the scale of abuse he seems to be getting in the comments of his Facebook post. Many dehumanising, some wishing aloud for his death. Maybe we can dream of a simpler time where mickey-taking over the Mayor’s 2010s-coded MAMIL-ification is as bad as it gets. Not every dream comes true after all…
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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Latest Comments
I have cycled in many countries and found the Spanish to be the most considerate road users to cyclists, whatever their laws say.
If I'm reading this article correctly, this new law only applies to cyclists under 16 years old. Is that correct ? If so, then it makes perfect sense.
@mitsky I used to get a good 70-80% of my reports resulting in more than a warning letter I'm afraid these statistics are based on a highly unreliable police source: them saying they have 'sent a NIP'. You're not alone - Cycling Mikey is also now quoting 'NIPs sent' as evidence the police took real action. The infamous and essentially useless Met outcome spreadsheet only claims to provide 'intended outcome', and the reason they refuse to provide the actual outcomes is that they don't want victims to know how few of these punishments result in any penalty at all. There's a reason I'm still, 4 1/2 years after the event, battling Lancashire Constabulary and their assistants at the Information Commissioner for information about what they actually did about this: ttps://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/ The reason is that they did either nothing at all, or sent out the worthless advice letter. I'm now using the routinely ignored Victim's Code, and there has been no progress for years.
Cycling looks a lot safer per mile or per hour if you can remove from the statistics all the people riding on the wrong side of the road at night with no lights after a few drinks. Driving also looks a lot safer if you can remove the same sort of people from the statistics.
@Paul J Spanish police seem to be relatively lenient when the only potential harm from a dangerous behaviour could happen to yourself. What you're describing might be similar to how they react to crossing the street while there's a red light. While (AFAIK) technically it's illegal, usually nobody will bother you - unless something happens. In fact, I've even seen police officers doing that!
@KentRider how did you get Kent Police to request the video? ...how did you find out the consequences for the drivers? Very important questions! The last thing the police want is indisputable evidence, and their most valuable and most often wielded weapons are refusal to respond to reports and refusal to look at evidence- often disguised as 'we're so busy, we don't have the time'. Police inaction has far-reaching consequences: the NW Traffic Commissioner is supposed to supervise Lancashire Stagecoach and other bus companies, but as far as he's concerned if there was no police action, there was no problem and he follows the 'head in the sand' solution. Police officers really are the main enemies of cyclists. ttps://upride.cc/incident/sk19evw_stagecoach42_closepass/ ttps://upride.cc/incident/4148vz_travellerschoicecoach_closepass/
@wtjs I appreciate You've faced a depressingly unco-operative police force. The Met police, untill recently, were relatively good at taking action. I used to get a good 70-80% of my reports resulting in more than a warning letter. But now that they are getting more reports than they can cope with the hit rate is about 10% if not less.
@I love my bike An answer to the increasing number of EVs and the drivers also doing this with their plates is for someone smarter than me. Which is pretty much everyone. But I'm thinking that in the future, when an EV owner goes shopping and parks in the car park, the CCTV can catch the vehicle if it is illegal and call security and the staff can refuse to serve them. I'm also thinking larger shopping centres might offer free charging to customers so again, this can be denied for any dodgy plates.
@mitsky I've got ghost plates on my bikes. Actually, I think we all have! It saves the time, cost & effort of having actual ones ; ) I wonder how 'I'm a cyclist' motorists counter that? (Do EVs that charge at home miss out on surveillance?)
Spanish bullfighters: always wear a crash helmet.
16 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.
@mdavidford Well spotted, and duly amended! The perils of an under-caffeinated morning 🙂
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?
@squired I wondered if there was some definition of what type of bikes/mini vans Amazon was using, but a google didn’t find it. Lots of congratulatory news stories, but I couldn’t find exactly what kind of machine they are.
@eburtthebike
https://www.mubea-umobility.com/en/products/technology
and
https://www.aboutamazon.co.uk/news/sustainability/amazon-electric-delivery-vehicles
@Wales56 Thanks for that link. Yes, it was one of the cargo bikes that I saw, but no pedalling needed! I’m going to pay more attention to them now, to see if that was a one off.
It does say
which suggests it gives you a ‘start assist’ boost, meaning you’d need minimal pedalling to get moving.
@Wales56 Thanks for that. As an ex-technical author, the writing could do with a bit of tidying up.
“With a gradeability of up to 18% it is an excellent climber, taking ramps in any conventional parking garage in a stride…..”
“……and includes less wear-prone components that need servicing.”
“…maneuvering…”
Also rather strange use of the word ‘recuperating’ to describe regenerative braking: is this some modern definition?
That writer wouldn’t have passed the tech author course.
I ride an EAV (electrically assited vehicle) occasionally and the way it works is, from standing it uses a throttle to get some momentum and then the rider has to pedal. The motor assist is restricted to 15mph.
When the rider sets off, they do not need to pedal, but it’s only for a short time, as the throttle accelerates the EAV. Otherwise the rider would struggle to make it move from still.
23 mph e-bike, that’s disgraceful, he will get in the way of the traffic going that slow.
Why are there different speed limits for e- bikes – too slow to keep up with traffic in town, so annoying for drivers on the road, and way too fast for anywhere they interact with pedestrians. Daft – make it 20 or even 30 or limit cars to 15 and have all the traffic flow
@Carbon cycle Two rather difficult points there: firstly if you raise limits for ebikes because they are “annoying for drivers on the road” you are opening the door for people to start saying well human-powered bicycles are annoying for drivers on the road as well, not many of them do 20 mph and virtually none do 30 mph, so let’s ban all bikes except ebikes; secondly, 30 mph is quite some speed on a bicycle and it demands a good level of skill and experience to handle that safely, especially in traffic. If you allow that level of speed, it won’t be long before it’s decided that people need training and licensing and insurance and possibly MOTs on their machines as well. I’m sure your comment is made in a positive spirit but those negative consequences would far outweigh any positives.
@Rendel Harris I’m sure your comment is made in a positive spirit…
I’m not. These ‘I’m a cyclist myself…but we need much higher speeds for EAPCs and we will have ‘all the traffic flow’ says diehard driver to me. There’s even a Trojan Horse: ‘or limit cars to 15′ which he doesn’t mean and knows won’t happen’ and a giveaway for his real motive: ‘so annoying for drivers on the road’. No Higher Limits for EAPC Assistance!
Trollfinder General
I think said poster may be being ironic, or taking the lead from the first version of the article which confused maximum assisted speed with maximum speed.
That said, in a way NL has followed this line (albeit for reasons of safety more that “it stands to reason…” – but that includes taking account of human psychology)!
Cyclists *are* banned from roads with higher speed limits. (No “trapped in our homes!” folks, this is really no loss, as there are usually equivalent or even better routes. Although perhaps pro cyclists might quibble?)
Where most of the mixing occurs motorists *are* limited to rather low speed (30kph, so less that 20mph – or lower).
More questionably, I believe they’ve had a look at significantly faster e-bikes. (S-pedelecs are available, albeit with some limitations as to where they should go). Possibly because they still have actual motor scooters on much of the cycle infra…
Primarily to annoy a certain rightwing troll, I’d just like to point out that it’s no longer Sir Sadiq but Baron Khan of Tooting. I don’t really approve of titles but that one has sent the far right commentariat into such a sizzling (gammon) rage that in this case I think it’s allowable.
I see Sadiq Khan’s posts on fakebook from time to time and the comments are truly disgusting, even by FB standards.