Updated ,first published
Police are scraping social media for videos and gathering CCTV footage to identify members of a mass e-bike rideout over the Sydney Harbour Bridge they described as “incredibly irresponsible, stupid and downright dangerous”.
A group of about 40 e-bike and motorcycle riders descended on the Harbour Bridge during peak hour on Tuesday afternoon before abruptly turning back and riding through the CBD in a mass rideout that lasted more than an hour before police caught up with the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair.
The group was spoken to and dispersed. There were no reports of injuries or damages to property, and no arrests or charges laid.
Footage posted online shows the group of riders on the northern end of the Harbour Bridge before turning around and travelling towards the city. More footage shows the group travelling south on the Western Distributor while peak-hour commuters watched on from cars.
The group was also spotted riding on Harbour Street near the Chinese Garden of Friendship and through Haymarket. Some are pictured without helmets as they approach the main deck of the Harbour Bridge, where it is illegal to ride bikes and e-bikes.
Police are collecting other videos posted online, trawling the footage to identify participants from school uniforms and the few bikes that were registered.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner David Driver said apart from being illegal: “I’m struggling to find the adjective that outlines how stupid and irresponsible this behaviour is.”
“That incident had the potential for a number of people to be seriously injured or indeed killed,” he said on Wednesday.
He said parents of participants should “have a strong conversation with their children”, and warned there were fines exceeding $460 for riding a bike over the bridge, but no amount of money could bring people back to life.
“We don’t want to be knocking on your door and telling you your child has been killed in one of these stupid rideouts,” Driver said.
“Please have that conversation with your children so they appreciate the risks that go with this very immature behaviour.”
The ride came after Sur Ronster, an American online content creator specialising in stunt videos, told fans to meet him under the Harbour Bridge at 4pm on Tuesday.
He is yet to post footage of the incident on YouTube, where a liability disclaimer says “the stunts and tricks displayed on this channel are performed by professionals in controlled environments”.
One young fan, wearing an arm cast and with visible bruising to his shoulders, tells Sur Ronster he had recently left the hospital to meet the creator. Sur Ronster, who has millions of social media followers, is pictured signing the cast and posing for photographs with other attendees. Video shows him leading the ride through the city and Harbour Bridge.
Police did not pursue the group due to safety concerns and Driver noted it’s very difficult for police to stop 40 riders at a time.
“However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t investigate and continue to prosecute,” Driver said.
“We’ve identified some school uniforms … other bikes that were registered … we have very clear footage of who the riders are.”
The incident has prompted further criticism of regulations around e-bikes and calls for licensing and registration.
The NSW government faces increased scrutiny about the proliferation of high-powered e-bikes across Sydney streets, which have included other mass rideouts from young riders taking over public roads and facilities.
Dozens of e-bike riders swarmed the Long Reef Golf Club on Sydney’s northern beaches in January in an incident that locals said was not isolated. A mass rideout in Cronulla was captured that same month, drawing safety concerns from worried locals.
A rider was killed in a collision with a garbage truck in the Sydney CBD in December, marking the fourth e-bike death on NSW roads in 2025.
Premier Chris Minns has announced plans to halve the power limit of e-bikes from 500 watts to 250 watts, which will bring the state into line with rules across the rest of Australia.
Minns signalled further e-bike reform on Wednesday as he declared the status quo “intolerable and dangerous for a lot of people”.
“It’s regrettable that the original decision was made to have a 500-watt output rather than a 250-watt output, because we’re now in a situation where we’re trying to close the barn door after close to a million of these machines are on Sydney streets,” he said.
“We’re working on a program, and we’ll have more to say soon.”
The NSW opposition has called for Transport Minister John Graham to “stand up or step aside”, claiming the incident proved the government had lost control of the roads to e-bike gangs.
“This is grand bike auto in peak hour,” opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said.
Ward was central to the previous Coalition government’s 2023 decision to allow for more powerful e-bikes to be exempt from registration, increasing the power limit from 250 watts to 500 watts.
The change was to allow “easier navigation on inclines and for heavier loads to be carried” while maintaining a 25km/h speed limit at which power cuts off, Ward wrote in a letter seeking agreement on the change.
The opposition is now calling for all bike riders under 18 to display registration plates so police can easily identify riders.
“The government should take action. It’s lost control, clearly, so much so that a TikTok influencer has come here to organise a gang – it’s a middle finger to the government, to police and the community,” Ward said on Wednesday.
“Labor has spent months talking about wattage, speed limits and technical definitions, while dangerous behaviour continues in plain sight.”
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