Police clampdown tackles scourge of illegal and life-threatening e-bikes on capital's streets

Dozens of illegal e-bikes and scooters, including one that could reach speeds of 86mph, were seized and crushed as part of a crackdown in Cardiff. Shaurya Shaurya reports

- JONATHAN MYERS

HERE was a sense of real satisfaction amid the sound of metal snapping and the loud bangs of tyres bursting.

It was the sound of 135 illegal e-bikes and scooters that had been seized from the streets of Cardiff being crushed. The officials behind the month-long operation were there to watch.

The summer-long operation specifically targeted areas like Cowbridge Road East, Albany Road, and Crwys Road, with e-bikes capable of reaching speeds ranging from 40mph to 70mph-plus and collectively worth tens of thousands of pounds being taken off the streets.

In Cardiff, these seizures and the subsequent dismantling of the bikes was done under a joint effort by the council and South Wales Police in a scheme named Operation Totara.

We were able to join the police and Cardiff council on one of the raids in Cowbridge Road East, in the Canton area of the city.

On the day, there were plain-clothed and uniformed officers and members of Cardiff council's Off Road Bike Enforcement Team.

We did not have to wait long for some action, as within a few minutes an officer standing next to me heard something on his radio, and just like that, we all ran towards a potential rule-breaker.

Officers ahead of us had stopped someone and brought the first bike to us. Officers very quickly found others who were breaking the law, and a rider was soon stopped riding an adapted e-bike near us.

The regulations say that e-bikes must have pedals, a maximum power output of 250 watts, provide assistance only when the rider is pedal-ling, and cease providing electric assistance once the bike attains a speed of 15.5mph.

While the speed meter on the bike could not tell how fast the bike was going, officials could determine that the bike broke the law anyway as it failed to follow other regulations.

Around the same time, an older man was spotted by some of the officers, pushing another illegal e-bike by hand.