E-easy rider: legitimate e-bikes, like this one, require the rider to pedal before the battery-powered motor engages
An angry Croydon retailer has told the producers of Panorama that, ‘Finding a wolf in sheep’s clothing should not be a reason to attack the sheep’
A Coulsdon-based bike shop has filed a formal complaint to the BBC following last week’s Panorama hatchet job fronted by Adrian Chiles: E-bikes: The Battle for Our Streets.
Confused Chiles: the Panorama presenter couldn’t tell the difference between a e-bicycle and a e-motorbike
Energise E-bikes has joined other cycling groups who have criticised the programme’s journalism for being more souped-up than some of the powerful motorbikes ridden by the presenter in the show.
Energise E-bikes has been operating in Coulsdon for almost 15 years, during which time their customers have included the Metropolitan Police, buying e-bikes so that that their officers can better patrol the area’s hilly roads.
Energise’s owner, Ray Wookey, says that the inaccurate language used in the programme could be very damaging to legitimate e-bike businesses.
Wookey’s complaint to the BBC is similar to letters from the Bicycle Association and by the Association of Cycle Traders.
At the core of the issue is the mislabelling by Chiles and Panorama of unregistered e-motorbikes as “e-bikes”, when re-reporting news stories about their use in muggings and phone thefts, being the cause of battery fires and their part in road traffic accidents.
Legitimate business: Energise E-bikes has traded in Coulsdon for almost 15 years
In his letter to the BBC, Wookey wrote: “While the programme intended to raise awareness about safety issues, I found the lack of representation from reputable and legitimate e-bike retailers troubling and potentially misleading.
“Naturally, the safety of road users is the most important thing, but highlighting danger should not involve the misrepresentation of an important and fast-growing sector.
“You may also like to consider that the majority of two-wheeled vehicles featured in the episode were in fact not e-bikes at all, but ‘unregistered e-motorbikes’ which have been mis-labelled as ‘e-bikes’… by unscrupulous retailers and… by the programme itself.
“There were very few legitimate e-bikes shown on-screen, which again is an imbalance that will hurt trustworthy electric bike businesses.
“Repeated use of the phrase ‘illegal e-bikes’ is misleading and damaging. Using this phrasing, or similar, could persuade members of the public that all e-bikes are illegal, when in fact the problem is ‘unregistered e-mopeds’.
“Finding a wolf in sheep’s clothing should not be a reason to attack the sheep. Call a wolf a wolf, and call unregistered e-motorbikes unregistered e-motorbikes,” Energise E-bike’s Wookey wrote in his letter to the BBC.
Electric bicycles, or e-bikes, use small electric motors to boost the pedal power of the rider. However, the motor will not activate unless the rider is turning the pedals.
The majority of the two-wheeled vehicles featured on Panorama were e-motorbikes, which have motors that propel the bike forward without any need for the rider to pedal.
“Such self-propelling vehicles must be registered with the DVLA through a process called ‘type approval’ in order to become road legal,” Wookey told Inside Croydon.
Credible retailer: Energise E-bikes owner Ray Wookey
“Unscrupulous retailers – mainly operating online – often label unregistered e-motorbikes as ‘e-bikes’ on their websites, and the makers of the Panorama programme have followed suit,” Wookey said.
“Up and down the UK, there are reputable retailers of electric bikes, many of which are independent, locally-owned small businesses. Each of these establishments helps to increase the amount of healthy, eco-friendly travel in their communities through the sale of safe and legal products.
“By not including interviews with credible e-bike retailers or industry experts – and instead speaking to a so-called ‘e-bike collector’ – the programme failed to present balanced information. Such imbalance can unfairly influence public opinion and undermine the efforts of responsible retailers who prioritise safety, respectful riding and adherence to the law.”
The BBC had not responded to the complaint letters by the time of publication.
From the archive: How Lime puts the squeeze on bike riders, at 15p per minute
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I watched the programme, and they gave more time to the opinions of a Telegraph journalist than they did to any experts. There was no analysis about the real level of threats on our streets, just lots of chats with some members of the public who were opposed to e-bikes. They repeated a bit of footage of someone running out into a road without looking and being hit by a cyclist without ever pointing out that if you run out into the road without looking then it doesn’t matter whether it is an e-bike, a pedal bike, a car, or a lorry, that hits you – you are going to get hurt.
We do need to invest in safe cycling, but when cycle lanes are introduced in Croydon the Mayor and his Conservative colleagues campaign to get them taken out again.
E-bikes are a major step forward and will become even more popular as time goes on. We need sensible discussions about safety in our streets, not silly scare stories like this programme.