Catch 22

Is this in South Manchester by any chance?

Its been going on around Chorlton/Didsbury/Whalley Range for about ten years, at least.

The first few times I saw it I was gobsmacked at the brazen shamelessness of it.... the first time I was picking the kids up from school and they went past on a quite residential road outside a primary school as the kids are coming out, pulling all that shit, people literally diving out of the way. Absolutely mental!

They're literally waving two fingers at the police, ripping around on the back wheel at insane speeds through built up areas, on and off the pavement, with a total disregard for everyone.

I didn't know the police couldn't chase them. I just assumed they wouldn't as it'd only endanger everyone else even more, and lets be honest: what would there chances be of catching a gang of coked-up loons on crossers, who look like they couldn't give a toss about running people over and killing them.

I'm amazed nobody has been hit and killed already. Its surely only a matter of time

It’s not South Manchester it’s Durham and it’s just like you say. They literally do this around the local primary schools and the vicinity where children are walking home. I report it repeatedly knowing full well no police will turn up but when I reported it yesterday someone rang me as they had spotted them, literally as I was on the phone she said we’ve had to call it off as they are not wearing helmets! And yes, they also don’t want them crashing and injuring/maiming/killing members of the public.

Grab a bag of footballs and throw them on the road in front of them, or invest in a black widow catapult and a bag of marbles.

Keep reporting it and get as many people to report it as you can. Happened near us, eventually a copper came round one night for a chat, they'd actually created a nuisance motorbike team that used drones to follow them home. Eventually confiscated and destroyed a few sh!t bikes. There'll be more knob heads along eventually though. It's pretty obvious some of them are dads and there kids so they just perpetuate the idea that what they're doing is acceptable.

Just to add, the copper confirmed the no helmet thing.

I saw this in Didsbury a few years back, I was a bit taken aback when I was sat in traffic and saw a dirt bike undertaking me on the footpath

Same on this side of South Manchester - Brinnington is full of these bikes/riders and the electric MX bikes. Nearly went head on into two kids on one of those electric Stealth bikes on a bridleway in the pitch black. I came round a bend with very bright lights, and two youngish kids came bowling down the track with no lights on. They shat themselves.

There's some round my way, I see the same gang of scroats all the time. 50cc scooters, e-motorcross bikes. No idea what can legally done about it as they just don't give a ****. I'm 100% certain they are drug couriers droping off around town to various customers.

The scrotes in South Manchester seem to favour XR650’s and other big thumpers. These aren’t 50cc things they’re ripping about on

Hit them with your car which you NEED for work. A slap on the wrist and a £250 fine... Bargain

I wonder, is there a difference between "we can't chase them" and "we choose not to chase them" here?

big thumpers

Yes, these are big and noisy - they do it throughout the night too. I’ve been woken up at 2.30am twice so far this week. It’s worse in the summer when I think they must be delivering drugs on them or something as they go back and forth every 30mins or so, 2 up, no helmets natch, from late afternoon until well into the night. At the moment they just seem to be riding different bikes,  every couple of hours so no idea WTF they are up to.

We have cops where I am with DRZ 400s for chasing illegal dirt bike riders. Must be a fun job.

We have cops where I am with DRZ 400s for chasing illegal dirt bike riders. Must be a fun job.

Here in Derbyshire too!

They are all over the place here too, North of Nottingham.
Woods my archery club is in is gets plowed up by them.
its a mix of helmet and balaclavas.
Police do come after them once in a while and have destroyed a fair few bikes (not enough though) over the last couple of years. as mentioned above they have a drone team that try and follow them.

I wonder, is there a difference between “we can’t chase them” and “we choose not to chase them” here?

Here you go...
https://www.college.police.uk/app/roads-policing/police-pursuits

Yes, things can be done but if offenders aren't recognisable then it becomes more complicated. Speak to your local police, perhaps a longer-term plan will be needed

There are a group of 5-6 wannabe gangsters down here in Torquay who steal mopeds on a daily basis. They film themselves and put it on social media. It almost feels like the police are powerless to do anything. They know who they are, but unless they catch them red handed, then they can’t do anything. And they can’t catch them red handed as they are riding with no helmets.
They have been involved in 2 recent accidents , ironically on both occasions they have been knocked off by drunk drivers in the early hours. The DD has felt the full force of the law, yet the thieving little shite had no punishment (other than spending 3-4 weeks in hospital , 1 of those was in a coma in ITU)
Did he learn from that ? No, within a few days of returning he was posting vids of him on another stolen bike 🙄
How do you stop them ? It’s only a matter of time until people take the law into their own hands

reeksy
Full Member
We have cops where I am with DRZ 400s for chasing illegal dirt bike riders. Must be a fun job.

There's only 2 of them for a huuuge area. We've spoken to them a few times.

Oikes/toe-rags were overtaking me on the pavements on X'ers 40 years ago in Knowle West Bristol. KW, Hartcliffe was bad then, god knows what it is like now

Here you go…
https://www.college.police.uk/app/roads-policing/police-pursuits
/blockquote>

Ah, nice. Thanks.

The word "helmet" does not appear in that guide. I'm happy to be proven wrong but that just reinforces my initial suspicion that "we can't chase them because they aren't wearing helmets" is abject bollocks.

 

Any Police on here? How on earth do we get on top of these people? After all if we dont they end up like this..

https://road.cc/content/news/driver-who-killed-two-young-boys-jailed-nine-years-299015

There’s only 2 of them for a huuuge area. We’ve spoken to them a few times.

I guess it's more a PR thing than real policing.

I emailed the Police this morning and they rang me back. So it turns out that the no helmet thing is one of many reasons that a pursuit will be called off - which is obvious really, but it's not the sole reason. For the scrotes it's just another string to their bow. I spoke to an officer who was engaged in the pursuit of aforementioned tossers and she said she was a couple of meters behind giving commentary when control called it off due to them heading down footpaths. Rider was looking over his shoulder and beckoning! She said they also have a bike team but it's very small and needs to be booked in advance - for a particular operation I guess. In addition the bike team are not allowed to pursue on the road, only offroad, and the scumbags know this so stick to the tarmac. 🤷‍♂️

Not allowed by whom?

She didn’t say.

Not allowed by whom?

The person who writes the risk assessment, I'm assuming.

Tranquilliser darts or big stick through the wheel would be the best way to deal with them.

Drifting is our new curse. Police say ring 999 for this crime.

The word “helmet” does not appear in that guide. I’m happy to be proven wrong but that just reinforces my initial suspicion that “we can’t chase them because they aren’t wearing helmets” is abject bollocks.

This was a thing when I was a kid 30+ years ago. A few folk I knew hurt themselves quite badly, don't see how you can counter it.

That’s the spirit! More of that wouldn’t go amiss!

Tactical contact. Good name for a band.

big stick through the wheel would be the best way to deal with them.

My thoughts exactly - a scaffold pole, or sections of handrail pole. Something I read earlier today, it was a Mirror news item, but seems real, someone seems to have become pissed of with similar issues and made up a vicious ‘caltrop’-type thing out of a length of steel tube with sharpened steel spikes welded at intervals along it’s length, the whole thing about the length of a man’s welly sole. It was hidden in a puddle where bikes seemed to be regularly driven through. Truly horrible thing,

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/uk-world-news/spike-trap-that-could-kill-26135763

So this is the state we are in. One of the bikes was abandoned by the roadside last night at about 4pm and a member of the public called it in. No police turned up until this morning though by which time it had been retrieved 🤷‍♂️🙄 Officer dealing with my multiple reports was off duty otherwise she said she would have gone herself.

She didn’t say.

The person who writes the risk assessment, I’m assuming.

yep, urban myth. It’s more that the police are reluctant to pursue bikers at all given the risk to the riders themselves & pedestrians.

I don't doubt that a local police force might be reluctant to do any number of things, often with good reason.

But I can't help but feel that there's a lot of assumptions and excuses flying about here. And that concerns me because there's a fine line between choosing not to do something because it genuinely isn't worthwhile, and a Daily Mail front page headline something is banned political correctness woke snowflakes back in my day something about foreigners.

Call the A-team,
if you can find them.

George Peppard died in 1994... I don't think he'd be much help now.

After watching that vid I was struck with an idea might go a ways to o,at least stopping would be thieves driving off on their stolen bike.

On speedboats theres a thing called a cut cord(I think they're on jetskis too. It was a little plastic thing, clipped into the throttle, on a cord which you wore around your leg. Meant if you ever flipped the boat or fell out the engine would cut out and the boat wouldn't go racing off endangering anyone it then comes into contact with.

A similar idea could put onto a moped. Rider leaved the bike for whatever reason and the engine cuts out. The bike cannot be restarted without the cord being reattached.

Obviously thieves would cotton on to this and carry such about, if obviously it became commonplace.

So to combat this the attachment could be user configured, maybe a series of pins you add or remove to make the interface unique.

A bit difficult to push a 200+lbs moped along the road after stealing it if its not going to start and allow them to ride off. Easier pickings for the cops, and in fact I reckon the thieves would just dump it shortly afterwards to make their escape.

Product design was always an interest of mine. I like coming up with solutions to problems.

After watching that vid I was struck with an idea might go a ways to o,at least stopping would be thieves driving off on their stolen bike.

On speedboats theres a thing called a cut cord(I think they’re on jetskis too. It was a little plastic thing, clipped into the throttle, on a cord which you wore around your leg. Meant if you ever flipped the boat or fell out the engine would cut out and the boat wouldn’t go racing off endangering anyone it then comes into contact with.

A similar idea could put onto a moped. Rider leaved the bike for whatever reason and the engine cuts out. The bike cannot be restarted without the cord being reattached.

Obviously thieves would cotton on to this and carry such about, if obviously it became commonplace.

So to combat this the attachment could be user configured, maybe a series of pins you add or remove to make the interface unique.

A bit difficult to push a 200+lbs moped along the road after stealing it if its not going to start and allow them to ride off. Easier pickings for the cops, and in fact I reckon the thieves would just dump it shortly afterwards to make their escape.

Product design was always an interest of mine. I like coming up with solutions to problems.

Like some sort of key?

Don't be fractious

.

That’s the spirit! More of that wouldn’t go amiss!

I particularly liked the “no visible injuries at the minute “ response.

Don’t be fractious

Well, it made me laugh. 😄