Last summer,fat bikes hit their peak in Cronulla where I live. They also reachedplague proportions in coastal communities along the eastern seaboard. Children as young as 10 were riding the electric bikes,sometimes with friends onboard,often without helmets,on roads and shared paths. Adults were taking family on outings,with two toddlers as pillion passengers. Teenagers carried surfboards under one arm,scooting down roads at high speed.
As their numbers have grown,locals from the Gold Coast to Torquay havecomplained to councils and police about fearing for their safety,but to date,the response by law enforcement has been negligible or nonexistent.
Let me clarify that people worried about the proliferation of fat bikes are not members of the Fun Police. Many,like me,ride a bike and are likely to be part of the greener and cleaner cities’ brigade who want fewer cars on the road. Electric or not,bikes are a great way to move around and an enjoyable way to exercise outdoors. More people on bikes equals ahealthier population and environment.
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But the advent of high-powered fat bikes,which – legally – can only be ridden off-road on private property,is not going to decrease the incidence of diabetes or help young people develop a love of exercise. With tricked-up motors of up to 1500watt,well above thelegal limit of 500w allowed on NSW roads,many of these bikes require no pedalling. All that’s needed to reach speeds of more than 50 kilometres per hour is the twist of a throttle – also illegal on e-bikes,according to Transport for NSW. They are potentially lethal weapons driven on roads and paths,mostly by children too young to have a licence.
Ase-bike sales have increased,so have the number of people presenting at emergency departments and doctors’ surgeries,according to Dr John Crozier,recent chair of the Trauma Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Data collected specifically on e-bike injuries is of variable quality,Crozier told me,but he is one of many in the medical field who have seen fat bikes become a “clear,present,and rising health threat straining an already heavily burdened health system”. An avid cyclist,Crozier says he fears the “light touch” regulation of fat bike sales and usage will continue to load emergency departments with an epidemic of preventable and often serious,life-altering injuries.
Sales figures for fat bikes also don’t exist because – as general manager of Bicycle Industries Australia Peter Bourke explains – the majority of fat bike brands are not members of the national bike industry association as they feel “they are a different market”. Bourke says the lack of law enforcement could rest with the confusion created by the seven different legal definitions of e-bikes across the country and inconsistent rules around theimportation,sale anduse of e-bikes.