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NSW police have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and handed out two traffic infringement notices for alleged reckless operation following a swarm of e-bike riders converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Incident: A Prohibited Ride

A group of around 40 people riding e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the bridge’s main deck, where cycling is prohibited. The riders then turned around and traveled through the city’s CBD and a nearby district.

"This had potential for people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.

Police said they did not immediately pursue the group out of safety concerns but instead located the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, where they dispersed.

Penalties Issued for Content Creator

Later in the week, police announced they had issued the US social media influencer who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a penalty of $562 and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge incident. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer reportedly has over 3.4m followers on one platform and over 1.2 million on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator gave comments to a local publication this week following the event gained traction on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was among the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to come here respecting the rules and standards of the city. So when I decided to do a public meeting it was not meant to include a ride-out, it was just to say hi near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: either the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

Broader Context on Electric Bike Rules

The spate of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Kids have done reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the injuries that are coming into our ERs are truly severe," the minister stated. "We’ve got to ensure we stop these things coming into the country [and] police are given the powers to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to dispose of them."

The state reported 226 injuries related to ebikes in the previous year. However, in the first seven months of 2025, that number surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.