Over the Christmas holiday, police in North Yorkshire, England, seized an adapted electric bike they claimed was capable of reaching more than 100 mph. Officers stopped the bike during their neighborhood patrols in the Clifton area of York in the days leading up to the holiday. According to the authorities, the bike was able to reach a top speed of 103.8 mph. It’s a figure that goes far beyond the United Kingdom’s strict legal limit for e-bikes, but it’s also a wild claim that warrants some skepticism.
Under UK law, e-bikes are capped at 15.5 mph. Likewise, motors are limited to 250 watts and are required to cut out once that speed is reached. They also have to be pedal-assisted, not throttle-driven. (Not far off from the confusing e-bike laws in New York City.) Police told the BBC the seized bike failed on all counts, complete with modifications that let the motor continue to run well beyond 15.5 mph. If they would have just left it at that, officers would’ve been perfectly justified in seizing the bike. It probably wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow. But what sparked the debate isn’t whether or not the bike was illegal, but whether the claims of triple-digit speeds even hold up.
Why there’s so much skepticism over the reported top speed
For context: The fastest e-bikes you can buy will hardly exceed 60 mph tops. A speed of over 100 mph would place the e-bike in the range of a high-performance motorcycle, not something built on a bicycle frame. The police’s social media post about the e-bike reveals exactly that: a pretty standard-looking e-bike, not a big and powerful motorcycle. Police also failed to provide any sort of explanation as to how they got that “103.8 mph” figure, either. It really opens the floor to a ton of perfectly reasonable questions about whether the number reflects an actual measured speed, a theoretical calculation, or a misinterpretation of onboard data.
That’s not to say that the bike wasn’t still illegal, of course. Images released by the police show what is pretty obviously a heavily modified e-bike, complete with aftermarket battery packs and other restricted parts. Those mods alone put the e-bike outside the legal definition of one. And yet nothing else in the photos would point to such extreme speed capabilities. You can clearly see it’s on a standard bicycle frame, conventional wheels and spokes, pedals, and mechanical disc brakes. These components are not made to withstand sustained speeds anywhere near highway traffic, much less speeds of over 100 mph. That’d likely require a reinforced frame, motorcycle-grade tires, heavy-duty drivetrains, and advanced braking systems, to say the least. (Even reaching 40 mph would probably be pushing it, no matter how fast a budget bike may be.)
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