New South Wales police have issued a fine against an US-based online influencer and served two traffic infringement notices for reported negligent driving after a swarm of electric bicycle users gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.
A gathering of around 40 individuals riding e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The riders subsequently reversed direction and rode through the downtown area and Haymarket.
"There was a risk of people to be injured and killed," stated NSW police assistant commissioner David Driver on Wednesday.
Law enforcement indicated they did not immediately pursue the riders out of safety concerns but instead located the assembly at a scenic Sydney lookout near the city gardens, where they dispersed.
Later in the week, police announced they had issued the American online personality known as Sur Ronster, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), carrying a penalty of over five hundred dollars and penalty points per notice, connected to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.
The influencer is said to have more than 3.4m followers on one platform and more than 1.2 million on Instagram.
The content creator gave comments to a major newspaper recently after the incident gained traction on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a negative image.
"I accept the blame. It was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to abide by the laws and norms of Sydney. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a ride-out, it was just to greet people under the bridge."
"I did not know the area well, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: either the group rides the full length 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."
The increase of electric bicycles on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard on the road."
"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are truly severe," the minister stated. "We’ve got to make sure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are given the authority to crack down, to confiscate them, to crush them, to dispose of them."
The state reported 226 injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. But, in the initial half of 2025, that number surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths.
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