Victoria’s E-Bike Rules and Why We Need a Legal Place to Ride

By Kirk · Melbourne VIC · Updated 18 Oct 2026

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Walk along streets around the CBD and surrounding suburbs after school and you'll hear them: Surron- and Talaria-style electric dirt bikes. Kids love them, parents buy them, and almost everywhere they're ridden, they're illegal. I think the answer isn't only more fines — it's somewhere legal to go.

What the law says

A road-legal e-bike in Victoria is 250 W max with assistance to 25 km/h.^1,2 Anything more powerful or faster — which includes these e-motos — is a motor vehicle. Unregistered, it can only be ridden on private property or designated off-road areas.^2,3 Ride one on a road, footpath or shared path and you face fines for an unregistered vehicle ($1,018) and unlicensed riding.^2,4

Enforcement is ramping up. In Victoria Police's Operation Consider (Aug 2025), 52% of e-bikes intercepted were overpowered and 257 infringements were issued.⁴ In 2026 Mornington Peninsula police added drones and impounds.⁵ The government has told AMA Victoria that forfeiture is “under active consideration”.⁶

Why not the Yarra Bend / Fairfield parklands?

It's the obvious open space near us, but it's close to a non-starter. Motorised vehicles, including trail bikes and motorised bicycles, are banned on Yarra Bend's paths and tracks.⁷ The park is on the Victorian Heritage Register (H2398)⁸, is culturally sensitive land beside the Birrarung (Yarra), and carries flood and landscape overlays. Riding in parks without authorisation also breaches public land rules.³

What could work

• City MX Ride Park, Laverton North — council land (Wyndham) run by a private operator, about 20 km west of the CBD, with beginner–intermediate tracks and bike hire. It's the closest model to what the CBD and surrounding suburbs need. [Check current opening days and prices with the operator before visiting.]
• Gold Coast's Electric Moto Park — in March 2025 the City of Gold Coast voted to lease a disused motocross reserve at Reedy Creek to an electric moto club, pitched as Australia's first electric-only ride park and explicitly as a way to get kids off the streets (subject to approvals).
• A licensed venue on industrial, quarry or buffer land — run by a club or operator under a Motorcycling Victoria track licence, with insurance and track standards.¹⁰ Electric bikes are quieter than petrol, which helps with neighbours.

What you can do now

• If you own an e-moto, ride it only on private land (with permission) or at a sanctioned venue.
• Tell your council (Darebin, Merri-bek, Yarra, Banyule) you want a legal riding space — youth and open-space strategies are where it starts.
• Parents: check the specs before you buy. If it's over 250 W, it's not a bike in the eyes of the law.

Background research: Kirk's track-proposal brief (Oct 2026). Gold Coast and City MX details come from council and operator sources summarised there — verify before relying on them.

Sources

1. Transport Victoria — Electric bikes
2. Victoria Police — E-bike safety (updated 15 Jun 2026)
3. Conservation Regulator — Vehicle use on Victorian public land (PDF)
4. Victoria Police — Operation Consider results via Bicycle Network (Sep 2025)
5. Bicycle Network — Police drones swoop on non-legal e-bikes (27 Jul 2026)
6. AMA Victoria — Policy and advocacy update (2 Apr 2026)
7. Parks Victoria — Yarra Bend Park
8. Victorian Heritage Database — Yarra Bend Park H2398
9. Victoria Legal Aid LawHub — What is a bicycle?
10. Motorcycling Victoria — Track licence information

Checked 18 Oct 2026. Rules and prices change — always confirm with the source before you buy or ride.