The first batch of illegal e-bikes are being destroyed in a crackdown on the controversial vehicles.
Thirty-six high-powered e-bikes were seized by NSW Police on Sydney's Northern Beaches in mid-September, with 23 of them turned into scraps on Thursday.
The bikes included one capable of speeds exceeding 90km/h and others with speed restriction settings overridden.
They were seized under new state fresh laws empowering police and Transport for NSW to confiscate and destroy illegal e-bikes.
E-bikes are required to have a maximum speed of 6km/h while not pedalling, cut out when the bike reaches 25km/h, and a maximum continuous power of 250 watts.
“This is a graphic warning to anyone riding or buying an e-bike: if you don’t want it turned into shrapnel, make sure it’s legal," Transport Minister John Graham said.
The move comes as safety concerns grow, with Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital recording a 22 per cent increase in e-bike injuries between January and July, compared to the same period in 2025.
In addition, 42 per cent of those injuries were serious enough to warrant a trauma response, with injuries ranging from scrapes and strains to bone fractures, internal bleeding and deep tissue wounds.
“The most concerning are traumatic brain injuries, which can require emergency surgery and result in life-long disabilities," the hospital's rehabilitation medicine head Edward Lewis said.
He urged riders to wear a helmet, avoiding high speeds, and not using e-bikes when under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
“You don't want to end up in rehabilitation medicine receiving months and months of care, such as learning to walk again, because of a foolish decision you made while intoxicated," Dr Lewis said.
The family of veteran ABC presenter Margaret Throsby joined calls for a further crackdown on so-called "fat bikes".
Throsby was injured on a shared pathway in Sydney's south, suffering a hip fracture and head injuries after being struck by two teenage boys.
"I don't blame kids for thinking that's a really fun way to get around, but it does seem like a legislation failure by the adults in the room," her daughter, musician and author Holly Throsby, told AAP.
The use of high-powered e-bikes could require a re-examination of policies around shared pathways, she said.
"If those bikes are going to exist, it seems like there needs to be a separation between pedestrians and those kinds of bikes ... it seems like that mix is not really fit for purpose anymore."
