Tightening up on modified bikes: fines, seizure and confiscation for irregular vehicles
The latest episode took place in Sassari, where the Municipal Police seized 10 vehicles equipped with electric motors capable of travelling at over 50 kilometres per hour. In recent days, a Carabinieri operation in Pescara
3' min read
3' min read
From the rigged mopeds of the 1990s to modified bikes capable of reaching 70 kilometres per hour. It is the other side of the 'revolution' that has come with pedal-assisted bikes that travel without number plates and insurance and populate streets and historic centres. Vehicles that are transformed into 'new bolides'. Precisely for this reason, the various local police forces have decided to launch a real clampdown with controls and sanctions.
From Sassari to Milan, the squeeze on modified bikes
The latest episode took place in Sassari, where officers seized ten velocipedes equipped with a motor and capable of travelling at over 50 kilometres per hour. A much higher speed than provided for by the law, which, as Gianni Serra, commander of the Sassari municipal police, emphasises, 'provides for a maximum speed that can reach, depending on the case, 25 kilometres per hour'.
The ten bikes were in use by riders and had been modified with the installation of dummy engines 'but powerful, capable of making them go far beyond what is required by law. In addition, unlike the motorbikes, they were without insurance and those riding them without a licence and helmet'. The ten velocipedes were seized for confiscation and then scrapped.
This is just the latest operation. In the past few days, the Pescara Carabinieri, during an operation to check the legality of electric bicycles, stopped 18 people riding suspicious velocipedes: nine of them turned out to be irregular and were therefore subjected to a specific test by means of an apparatus supplied by the Bari Motorizzazione Civile (Vehicle Licensing Authority). The controls ascertained powers and speeds exceeding the limits set by the regulations. More than 30,000 euro in fines were issued.
In Milan, fines worth 400,000 euro in July
.In Milan, in the first days of July in the meshes of the Carabinieri and the local police, dozens of riders and citizens ended up travelling faster than the 25 kilometres per hour required by law. On that occasion, 54 vehicles out of 71 checked were seized and 226 fines of around 400,000 euro were issued.
