E-bike tested at 54mph on police rolling road in Canary Wharf

An e-bike stopped by police in Canary Wharf reached 54mph when officers tested it on a roadside "rolling road". The legal limit for motor assistance on an e-bike is 15.5mph.

Footage shared with UB1UB2 shows Metropolitan Police officers putting the bike on the portable testing rig while a crowd gathers to watch. The reading climbs past 40mph, then 50mph, and peaks at 54mph.

In the footage, an officer can be heard saying the bike will be crushed and that the rider will get six points on his licence. The Metropolitan Police has not given any further details of this stop, and the date it took place has not been confirmed.

When an e-bike becomes a motor vehicle

Under UK rules, you can ride an electrically assisted pedal cycle without a licence, registration or insurance only if it meets certain requirements. The motor must stop helping once the bike reaches 15.5mph, and the motor must be rated at no more than 250 watts.

A bike that has been modified, or built, to go faster than this is treated in law as a motor vehicle. To ride one on the road, you need a driving licence, insurance and registration, the same as for a moped or motorbike. Riding without insurance can bring penalty points, and police can seize the vehicle.

With a rolling road, officers can check a bike's speed and power at the roadside. Before, a suspected modified bike often had to be taken away for testing.

Record number of seizures

The Metropolitan Police said in July that it had seized more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters in the first seven months of 2026. That is more than in the whole of 2025, when officers took over 2,200 off London's roads.

The force said this brought the total to more than 4,750 since January 2025. It also said it was one of the first police forces in the country to use rolling roads, so officers can quickly work out whether a suspected modified bike is legal.

The crackdown is part of the Met's wider work on phone theft and neighbourhood crime. Police say illegal e-bikes and e-scooters are often used in snatch thefts and robberies. In one operation in July, codenamed Operation Lexand, officers seized 29 e-bikes and seven e-scooters near Tottenham Court Road station in a single day.

The Met has linked the enforcement to falls in neighbourhood crime in Westminster, one of the capital's busiest areas for tourists and the area where phone snatching has been most concentrated.

Operations in Ealing

The enforcement also covers West London. On 16 September 2025, Ealing officers seized ten e-bikes during a targeted operation in Ealing Broadway. Local neighbourhood officers said the aim was to remove illegally ridden e-bikes from the town centre's streets.

Officers have run more operations in Ealing Broadway since then, including one in June 2026 in which two e-bikes and an e-scooter were seized. Another joint operation with immigration officers there led to six e-bikes being seized and 22 parking tickets issued.

Police advise anyone who owns or is thinking of buying an e-bike to check that it meets the legal requirements, and not to modify it to go faster or to fit a more powerful motor. A seized vehicle may be destroyed if the owner cannot produce the right documents.

Anyone with information about illegal e-bikes being used in crime can contact the police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Always call 999 in an emergency.