the Crazy eDevice rider thread

[Anrai]

Yes, as far as I know is illegal to have pilion passenger.
Also illegal to operate an e-bike that can be operated by throttle and without pedalling.

Ah, I saw "not speeding" and made the assumption that wasn't part of the problem for once.

As for pillions, I located the transport [dot] nsw [dot] gov [dot] au pages stating e-bike riders follow the same rules as regular bicycle riders and that a bicycle can transport as many passengers as it's designed for.

[Mr Purple]

Another one from the 'wacky races' that is school pickup yesterday.

This guy shows up every Friday - drives his unregistered electric 50cc scooter equivalent up the footpath and into the school gates at speed, and takes off at a million miles an hour illegally with his kid on the back afterwards.



I can't even find what model it is by googling the name. Niu seem to be a kick e-scooter brand in Australia that don't sell anything equivalent to this locally. I assume it's meant to be a registered on road scooter. It has indicators and starts with a key.

[foo on patrol]

A quick mention about your concerns for the safety of the kids and kid on the back of it to the local Mr Plod and the problem should be fixed.

Foo

[Anrai]

I can't even find what model it is by googling the name.

Looks like a Niu UQi Sport
the "sport" variant is possibly discontinued(?) and the current models have some minor design changes but here's the current UQi and UQi GT (advertised up to 45km/h) on their global website.

Edit: I did notice that specifically their Honolulu site directly refers to the UQi+ Sport as an E-bike instead of a scooter, which may explain somebody importing one from there and treating it as an e-bike here.

[warthog1]

The bloody thing has indicators, brake light and what looks like a number plate bracket.

[WyvernRH]

The bloody thing has indicators, brake light and what looks like a number plate bracket.

Yup that's an e-moped that should be registered/ insured etc, etc.

Believe it or not the 'real' e-Motorbike crowd get very annoyed (putting it politely) about things like this as it gives them a bad public image.

Richard

[Retrobyte]

A quick mention about your concerns for the safety of the kids and kid on the back of it to the local Mr Plod and the problem should be fixed.

Foo

I'd mention it to the school principal, or the P&C, given the liability risk for the school and the education department in allowing the vehicle onto school premises. Imagine if the parent riding this device injures a student (or teacher) while on school grounds

[foo on patrol]

A quick mention about your concerns for the safety of the kids and kid on the back of it to the local Mr Plod and the problem should be fixed.

Foo

I'd mention it to the school principal, or the P&C, given the liability risk for the school and the education department in allowing the vehicle onto school premises. Imagine if the parent riding this device injures a student (or teacher) while on school grounds

Exactly!

Foo

[Mr Purple]

The guy has apparently been repeatedly told by staff to not ride into school grounds.

I suspect QPS is the only solution.

[jasonc]

The guy has apparently been repeatedly told by staff to not ride into school grounds.

I suspect QPS is the only solution.

A call to the local station may get a result

[elantra]

The guy has apparently been repeatedly told by staff to not ride into school grounds.

I suspect QPS is the only solution.

A call to the local station may get a result

And if it doesn’t then that would indicate that Policing in Qld is completely broken I guess.

[jasonc]

The guy has apparently been repeatedly told by staff to not ride into school grounds.

I suspect QPS is the only solution.

A call to the local station may get a result

And if it doesn’t then that would indicate that Policing in Qld is completely broken I guess.

It is completely broken as far as I'm concerned. A call to the local state member would be next

[warthog1]

I was talking to Police at the hospital the other day. They were stuck with a 20ish young fella who had been threatening to jump in front of a train. Should have been our job but we were all busy with Nanna down and the like. (I must admit I didn't volunteer to look after him as I certainly have limited compassion left and there was none to spare for him. Anyway they were gone to deal with the next idiot soon enough)
They are absolutely snowed under with work and cannot spare the resources to deal with everything.
Spare a thought for how many far quits there are in our society. The number isn't declining nor are the penalties for moronic behaviour suitable to prevent morons enacting stupidity.
A moron riding an unregistered electric scooter is unlikely to register as high as the other acts of violent thuggery that are there to deal with.
Hence this idiot continues to do as he pleases. It will be after he hits someone that the level of importance registers high enough on the scale of tasks to attend that something is actually done.
Sorry, but more Police are needed and there just isn't the money to pay for the number we need. Cutting taxes is an election cry every election. Paying for the services that are required rates alot lower in the mind of the average voter than paying enough tax to supply the services we need.

[redsonic]

Sorry, but more Police are needed and there just isn't the money to pay for the number we need. Cutting taxes is an election cry every election. Paying for the services that are required rates alot lower in the mind of the average voter than paying enough tax to supply the services we need.

You are absolutely right. If we want health and policing funded effectively, we have to accept it will cost us.

[Mr Purple]

A moron riding an unregistered electric scooter is unlikely to register as high as the other acts of violent thuggery that are there to deal with.
Hence this idiot continues to do as he pleases. It will be after he hits someone that the level of importance registers high enough on the scale of tasks to attend that something is actually done.

This is exactly the thing isn't it? It's a victimless crime until he hits someone and it isn't.

Interestingly you'd have to know a bit about the PMD definitions in Queensland to realise that thing's completely illegal. It's technically under the maximum weight (57kg when it's 60kg), the power output is legal for a PMD, the top speed is actually legal for a PMD and really the only way it's outright illegal (for a PMD) is that it clearly has two seats and they're only allowed one.

Of course anyone would look at it and instantly realise 'that's just a electric small scooter which requires registration' but that's not the way the law works.

I sort of don't want to even bother the police about it, but the guy does use it like an absolute a-hole, and does need to be stopped. I agree this isn't really even something the police should have to bother about which is why all of these things should be illegal to import and sell in the first place.

[elantra]

I saw a few of these illegal e-motorbikes on the Tweed Railtrail yesterday.
Easy to tell, they are the ones that were going uphill towards the Burringbar Tunnel with big fat tyres, banana seats and not being propelled by their tokenistic “pedals”.
What gives me indigestion is not that they were there and sharing the Railtrail with other users of various other types of legitimate devices.

What bothers me is that there are more and more of illegal devices and it is an emerging problem or issue in this country about which state and federal jurisdictions are negligently devoid of any sensible plans. (Other than to completely ignore the consequences)
Yes there are lots of issues that need to be addressed, in terms of hazards to others etc.
they are way too easy to be used in a dangerous manner.


Policing is of course a victim of politics.
It’s not sexy for governments to spend money on policing. The governments get more kudos for spending money on other things, like NDIS, Medicare, universities, etc etc etc

Back in the “old days” in Brisbane there was a Cop Shop in most suburbs.
Police were more approachable.

Like any other collection of human beings they weren’t always on the straight and narrow but you could say the same about any professional group - such as NDIS providers etc.

I recall about 40years ago when I was a young bloke, going to a local Cop Shop and whinging about some business operator who I figured had defrauded me of 300 plus dollars.
My mates thought I was being a bit optimistic thinking that some unknown Police Sergeant would be of any use in resolving this issue.

But fair dinkum the Policeman rang the business there and then and negotiated a good outcome.
I don’t think that would happen these days !

[jasonc]

Sorry, but more Police are needed and there just isn't the money to pay for the number we need. Cutting taxes is an election cry every election. Paying for the services that are required rates alot lower in the mind of the average voter than paying enough tax to supply the services we need.

You are absolutely right. If we want health and policing funded effectively, we have to accept it will cost us.

I'm happy to pay more tax for properly funded education, health and policing systems

[Mr Purple]

I saw a few of these illegal e-motorbikes on the Tweed Railtrail yesterday.
Easy to tell, they are the ones that were going uphill towards the Burringbar Tunnel with big fat tyres, banana seats and not being propelled by their tokenistic “pedals”.
What gives me indigestion is not that they were there and sharing the Railtrail with other users of various other types of legitimate devices.

Yep. It's always the ones with the big fat balloon tyres being half heartedly propelled along by someone with very little effort on the pedals.

I was almost taken out by the same guy on the Western Freeway bikeway on both days of the weekend. A portly gentleman wearing a Harley style helmet lazily turning around the pedals on his massive fat tyred e-bike at what was a completely legal and innocuous speed, but unfortunately straight down the middle of the bikeway. He seemed to develop a bit of target fixation the first time and I had to ride into the gutter to avoid him.

Regardless of intent sometimes with these things I'm reminded of the old joke about the 'post turtle'.

https://startsat60.com/media/lifestyle/ ... st-turtles

E-bikes are excellent at opening up the cycling world to people who would otherwise be at home. However sometimes I do question their thought processes. Mind you it might just be 'traffic' as well. And it's irrelevant what device they ride, powered or otherwise - more riders leads to more a-holes because they constitute a certain proportion of the population.

[Anrai]

Yep. It's always the ones with the big fat balloon tyres being half heartedly propelled along by someone with very little effort on the pedals.
[..]
[powered]-bikes are excellent at opening up the cycling world to people who would otherwise be at home. However sometimes I do question their thought processes. Mind you it might just be 'traffic' as well. And it's irrelevant what device they ride, powered or otherwise - more riders leads to more a-holes because they constitute a certain proportion of the population.

Bit of a crosspost but I had the thought running parallel to this that the speeds the 2-stroke bike kids I complain about hoon around at are attainable by a young and fit cyclist, and obviously they're not averse to spending time riding recreationally.
There's got to be some kind of mentality that either cycling is somehow not worth the effort to get fit enough to go as fast as they want, or a lot of them really do just want to be riding a motorbike while justifying to themselves that they can run on bicycle laws (which is often false on the devices of choice!)

Personally as someone I imagine to be on the less-fit end of this forum's userbase I can relate to the embarassment (but really, who cares?) of getting regularly passed by joggers on the slightest of inclines, and I'd assume to many a powered vehicle provides the instant-gratification of no longer being slow without needing to expend any time or effort.

[jasonc]

[Mr Purple]

Bit of a crosspost but I had the thought running parallel to this that the speeds the 2-stroke bike kids I complain about hoon around at are attainable by a young and fit cyclist, and obviously they're not averse to spending time riding recreationally.
There's got to be some kind of mentality that either cycling is somehow not worth the effort to get fit enough to go as fast as they want, or a lot of them really do just want to be riding a motorbike while justifying to themselves that they can run on bicycle laws (which is often false on the devices of choice!)

I think there's going to be more cyclists on e-bikes than actual bikes within a few years so I'm trying to keep an open mind on the matter. This is hard because I basically just don't use a bike as transport - it's all about exercise for me. I can entirely understand the benefits of electric assistance for transport though and just wish I was in a position to consider the same (my commute by any type of bicycle is hideously dangerous - I'll only do it on weekends).

There are some e-bike proponents twisting themselves into knots to find evidence that e-bikes are better exercise than self-propelled bikes.

https://electrek.co/2024/02/20/why-elec ... l%20bikes.

I think for some people and some bikes they may be. But these don't include the massive fat tyred things with 1000W motors where the pedals basically operate as a switch for the motor. Or even worse just run on a throttle. That's not exercise, that's a motorbike without registration. And yes they do have some utility as (illegal) transport but are not bicycles in any way, shape or form.

I can see myself considering a light 250W e-bike at some stage when I get too old and decrepit to climb as much as I do. But I figure the longer I put off that step the less rapidly I'll reach that stage. I am a bit saddened by the current generation of teenagers (and younger kids for that matter) that seem to be jumping straight onto electrical assistance from their start on two wheels. It's not unusual to see 4-5 year old kids riding along with their parents on a child's e-bike around here.

Ah well, still better than another car on the road. Though I'd appreciate not being buzzed by e-scooters doing 70-80km/hr+ so often on our bikeways.

[antigee]

Florida town bans all ebikes and scooters...."On February 14, 2024, a 12-year-old riding an e-bike struck Megan Andrews, a 66-year-old resident of Key Biscayne. Unfortunately, Andrews lost her life in the accident, leading village officials to temporarily ban all electric bicycles and scooters on village roads. Now, that ban has been made permanent by a new ordinance that was passed during a council meeting. According to the new ordinance, any and all motorized scooters and electric bicycles are permanently banned on village streets...."

https://www.rideapart.com/news/723895/k ... ebike-ban/ (possibly advert heavy)

an interesting approach to risk management and definitely ignoring the elephant in the room....to try to put in perspective Florida has one of the highest pedestrian death rates in the USA with around 800 pedestrians being killed on the roads each year that's with a population of around 22million (Australia population 27million, 168 pedestrian deaths last year)

Key Biscayne is a pretty small town population 15,000 or so

[jasonc]

Land of the free.... as long as you're in a car

https://queenslandpolice.cmail19.com/t/ ... jyjlhk-jy/

[redsonic]

I have no problem with the police arresting people riding trail bikes in the local park and unregistered on the road.
These would be the same youths that endanger us riding on shared paths.

[jasonc]

I have no problem with the police arresting people riding trail bikes in the local park and unregistered on the road.
These would be the same youths that endanger us riding on shared paths.

I agree.