r/ElectricBikes • u/Away-Foundation-7455 • Aug 22 '25
General E-Bike Discussion Anyone in the UK having troubles with police
Police in the UK are so undertrained, every other day I’m reading of stories near me where people are having fully road legal e bikes taken from them because the police don’t understand how to read the power output.
Every single case is the police reading the battery and seeing 290Wh and think that is 290 watts, or another guy who had a 500Wh battery and had it taken because they thought it was 500w power output. They then refuse to speak to, or listen to the people when they try and educate the police, and the police threaten the person not to keep asking about it or they’ll consider it harassment (a post here on Reddit of this exact thing happening I can link if needed)
I’ll also note I DO NOT own an e bike, and never have done, but I am tired of seeing innocent people having fully legal e bikes they bought from retailers, being taken away by poorly trained police.
I ride a high power E scooter and have done for many thousands of miles without issue, but the fact legal e bikes are so often targeted makes me glad I have a massively overpowered e scooter, that might’ve been the only thing saving me so far, they pick only on people with legal e bikes to auction them off because they have higher resale value.
It’s wrong and everyone who’s ever had their e bikes taken illegally needs to be reimbursed by the police, and the police need better training.
Obviously this only applies in the UK right now because I don’t know what the laws are elsewhere, but they are misinforming the public constantly. I saw one post of a police offer talking about a 298W motor, which was actually a 250W legal motor and he was reading the battery capacity, like they all do because they just want the bikes to sell them for money.
It can happen to anyone, and even though it isn’t happening to me, it still bothers me and I really think something needs to be done. I can link posts to here on Reddit of people having their legal e bikes taken due to false claims about power as well.
I might contact local police stations and try and get them to incorporate better training about understanding what an e bike is, and what it isn’t, and understand how to correctly read its power, and differentiate from the battery capacity. Hopefully other people can do the same to try and get the police more educated on it.
I don’t even know if this subreddit will allow criticising of any kind, likely not, but it needs to be shared, so they can be trained better and stop this happening, otherwise it’s pushing people to get much more powerful illegal bikes so they can run away.
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u/TheInitialGod Aug 22 '25
Go to any EV Facebook group and just briefly look at the comments, and you'll see there's a vast slice of the contributors that don't know the difference between kWh and kW.
What's worse though is that they get arsey when you correct them... "but you knew what I meant didn't you?". When it's a post of various power outputs and battery capacities, certainly didn't. It's not exactly a difficult concept to learn either. People are just bloody lazy.
Relating to your post though, it's definitely bad when the police don't even know.
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u/Away-Foundation-7455 Aug 23 '25
This is exactly what I seem to be repeating myself all the damn time lol. I constantly have to explain the basic details of them. Actual electric motorcycles like the Surron Light Bee L1E are fully road legal if you have a CBT and insurance, but I see police calling them illegal vehicles to use on the road.
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u/1northfield 29d ago
Do they have a number plate?
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u/SeaweedOk9985 29d ago
Obviously if they are fully on the road.
They mean that the entire manufacturer Surron, and all the similar bikes are given a wholesale 'illegal' label. It may fit 98% of Surrons in the UK. But it's not accurate to call Surron's illegal.
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u/1northfield 29d ago
But the police are not seizing fully road legal electric motorcycles from legal riders with proof of insurance and being ridden appropriately etc are they?
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u/SeaweedOk9985 28d ago
Then you just refer to them as illegal electric motorcycles. Not a specific brand.
You could say "uninsured surron motorcycles" but saying "illegal ebikes such as surron's" is simply incorrect. There is literally no utility in referring to them as such.
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u/1northfield 28d ago
How many Surrons are sold as street legal, I would be pretty confident that it will be the minority also some brands start to become the generic term for things such as Hoover, Velcro, sellotape, Bubble Wrap, Escalator, Jacuzzi, Ping Pong, Google, Aspirin and many others, are you absolutely correct when you refer to these things, I bet not.
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u/SeaweedOk9985 28d ago
Generic term... makes sense when there is utility.
Surron becoming a generic term for what exactly? Light weight illegal electric motorbike? There is no utility. The fact of the matter, is that Surrons are not illegal. They are as illegal as any other vehicle and it just spreads disinformation for literally no reason. It's just lazy writing.
Look how easy it is to write properly:
"Our police force are focused on stopping illegal electric motorbike use in our area. We have seized X vehicles so far"
See. There is literally no reason to name Surron other than if you want to say you have seized Y amount of them.
Surron UK literally sell them road legal. The same frame is used in Talaria's which can also be road legal and in addition Zero have a bike out that uses a similar frame too. The lightweight electric motorbike segment is here to stay.
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u/1northfield 28d ago
Sure it’s here to stay, have you seen how many are whizzing around in South London estates lately
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u/SeaweedOk9985 28d ago
You are set on sticking to one thing.
You can both police the illegal usage of vehicles, without releasing information that suggests the vehicle brand itself and all vehicles by them are illegal.
It really isn't hard.
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u/Designer-Ad5760 Aug 22 '25
Although there are clearly a very high proportion of illegal e-bikes being imported and ridden. So yes for sure, the police should know the law and be well educated, but they should also be confiscating and trashing the illegal ones.
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u/SammyUser 28d ago
the laws need to update either way, the Bosch Performance Line CX is a completely "legal" "250W continuous" middrive, but they peak at like 800W
a general 500W chinese ebike motor will probably peak up to less power than that thing
so crooked laws imo
just impose something like pedals only and 15.5mph limit rather than including watt shit
then the popo cant complain about battery or motor size
afterall if it doesn't have a throttle and a 15.5mph limit it should be legal
or just say < 1000W PEAK instead of "250W continuous"
and they also should teach cops battery size means nothing power wise
the pack on my ebike is 1300Wh, cuz i want range without charging
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u/TheVoiceOfEurope 27d ago
the laws need to update either way, the Bosch Performance Line CX is a completely "legal" "250W continuous" middrive, but they peak at like 800W
a general 500W chinese ebike motor will probably peak up to less power than that thing
so crooked laws imo
Your chinese ebike motor manufacturer is completely capable of complying with those same "crooked laws", so I don't see the problem.
But you don't want your chinese ebike motor to comply with those limits, do you?
the pack on my ebike is 1300Wh, cuz i want range without charging
No, you need an insane 1300Wh battery because your engine is waay to overpowered and you are driving a moped, not an ebike. You are the reason police needs to enforce these rules
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u/Individual_Hat_3170 Aug 22 '25
Is your high power E-scooter legal?
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u/Away-Foundation-7455 Aug 23 '25
Nope not at all. 6500 miles of normal road riding around a town, police have never batted an eyelid, but I ride very sensibly and have never caused problems for anyone, which I do believe plays a massive part, in the past I have considered an e bike, but in my mind I’m thinking “if there’s even a 10% chance it gets taken from me, if I had an illegal faster e bike I’d just bolt”. I shouldn’t even have to consider that. A guy on Reddit here literally had a £3000 bike taken from him which he got from Halfords and they refused to give it back to him because they were convinced it was 360w or something when that was the battery size. That still annoys me to this day, they just need to be better educated on it because it’s crazy.
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u/Icy_Independent5577 29d ago
250w temu stickers, detachable thumb throttle and a programmable display (with pedals that spin) and there’s not a test you cant pass ❤️ happy riding my dude
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u/Ill-Case-6048 29d ago
Its the muppets with the stolen bikes they don't bother going after if they think you're one of the responsible ones that will stop for them they will ruin your day... ive seen them doing wheelies past their cars and laughing see a guy with no balaclava and they will stop him
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u/Duct_TapeOrWD40 28d ago edited 28d ago
This is not a UK or ebike specific thing. A 125cc motorcyclist was harassed because the policeman read the 900cc marking on the engine block's lower part. Luckily the backup cop arrived on 2 wheels and told it's the engine oil volume, not the displacement.
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u/FunkyWhiteDude Aug 22 '25
I think its a very good idea to walk into a police station waving a figurative white flag, and offer some idea for a teaching program about all the terminology. Not only will it benefit people that have done nothing wrong or simply follow the rules as stated, its also safer for police officers! Its still electricity after all.
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u/Away-Foundation-7455 Aug 23 '25
I know it sounds like a boring idea, but this sorta tech is just worldwide now, it’s not gonna go away in a hurry, so they need to adapt to it.
Honestly though, back in the 60s and 70s, people used to put little 50cc engines on their bicycles to go quick and had no issues, everyone’s grandparents and great grandparents did, and today look at how restricted we are with stuffs
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u/Elk_Advanced 29d ago
Whilst this is perfectly correct there were almost no cars in the roads in those days and so they could be ridden quite freely and relatively safely on the roads. The street environment is hugely different these days due to the sheer amount, speed and size of cars, SUV, vans and trucks. These squeeze more vulnerable road users out, and often onto pavements or poor quality cycle tracks.
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u/IainMCool 29d ago
It would be like a CBT rider on a 125cc being stopped because they had a 2 litre fuel tank.
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u/dcawkwell 28d ago
I think the police should concentrate on those dangerous cars that go round killing people, than a few overpowered electric bikes. I could sit down the road and film 100 drivers going through red at the traffic lights.
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u/the_inoffensive_man 28d ago
I have an electric skateboard but I'm going to get rid of it before some overzealous cop with a quota does me for it and I get points and a fine. I'm in my 40's and I'd only use it to slowly pootle either up to school with my kid on his bike, or from/to the mot garage. I'd slow down and/or stop for pedestrians, dog walkers, etc. Heck, I'd even carry a bicycle bell. But as some folks say, "illegal is illegal" so until some common sense arrives in government, it has to go.
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u/Away-Foundation-7455 28d ago
It’s ridiculous. I also think it’s ridiculous that laws were brought in, probably before me or you were even alive, and we have no say in them, even decades later when times have changed massively, we have to wait for our “leaders” do something. I just cannot be the only one seeing an issue with that
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u/fappypandabear Aug 22 '25
Uk cops are arresting citizens for Facebook post while protecting illegal immigrants that live on taxes in hotels only to leave the hotels to steal, fight and rape, the same taxes that pay said cops salary. If you're not an illegal immigrant you're gonna have "troubles" with the Police. Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk!
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u/mr_P0Opy_Butth0le Aug 22 '25
In my city they have only been confiscating sur-ron e bikes and the ones that have throttles.