🔗 Share this article

New South Wales police have issued a fine against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for reported reckless operation after a swarm of electric bicycle users gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of around 40 individuals riding e-bikes and motorcycles proceeded along the bridge’s main deck, where cycling is prohibited. The assembly then turned around and rode through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"There was potential for people to be injured and killed," remarked a senior police official the officer on the following day.

Police indicated they did not chase right away the group out of concerns for public safety but instead located the assembly at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, where they dispersed.

Fines Imposed for Influencer

On Saturday, police announced they had issued the US social media influencer who goes by Sur Ronster, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), with a penalty of over five hundred dollars and penalty points each, connected to the bridge ride-out. They added that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer is said to have more than 3.4m followers on one platform and more than 1.2 million on Instagram.

Creator's Response

The online figure spoke with a local publication this week after the incident spread rapidly on digital platforms, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I accept the blame. It was one of the safest gatherings I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, and I intend 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 greet people near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, an illegal act. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of electric bicycles on streets across the country has sparked increasing demands for stricter rules. A senior government official, Mark Butler, commented that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Kids have done stupid things on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the harm that are coming into our ERs are absolutely devastating," he said. "We’ve got to make sure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] officers are granted the powers to take strong action, to confiscate them, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW reported over two hundred injuries related to ebikes in 2024. However, in the first seven months of 2025, that figure surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.