American Social Media Personality Penalized Following Large-Scale Electric Bike Ride on Sydney Harbour Bridge
NSW police have issued a fine against an US-based online influencer and handed out two driving violation citations for alleged reckless operation after a swarm of e-bike riders gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during the busy commute on Tuesday.
The Event: A Prohibited Ride
A group of approximately 40 people riding e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the bridge’s main deck, where cycling is prohibited. The riders then turned around and rode through the downtown area and Haymarket.
"There was a risk of serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.
Police indicated they did not chase right away the riders out of concerns for public safety but instead located the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.
Penalties Issued for Influencer
Later in the week, police announced they had issued the American online personality who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two violation tickets for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a penalty of over five hundred dollars and penalty points each, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.
The influencer reportedly has over 3.4 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 1.2 million on Instagram.
Creator's Response
The content creator gave comments to a local publication recently after the incident gained traction on digital platforms, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.
"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he said. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to greet people under the bridge."
"I did not know the area well, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: either the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we turn around, basically, before entering the bridge. I chose at the time to go back."
National Debate on E-Bike Regulation
The spate of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard on the road."
"Kids have done stupid things on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are coming into our ERs are truly severe," he stated. "We must ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are granted the powers to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."
The state recorded over two hundred injuries related to electric bikes in the previous year. However, in the first seven months of 2025, that number surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.