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news
bikes collage - via South Yorkshire PolicePolice search for gang of off-road motorbikers who surrounded cyclist and sprayed her with mud
Police in South Yorkshire are searching for a gang of off-road motorbikers who assaulted a female cyclist by surrounding her and spraying her with mud.
The incident occurred at around 2.15pm on the 5 March, when the victim was cycling on a bridleway near to Rivelin Valley Road in Sheffield.
She was approached by a group on off-road motorbikes, before "words were exchanged" between the victim and one member of the group according to South Yorkshire Police.
The gang then surrounded the victim and spun their wheels in the mud, covering the cyclist. One person in the gang then grabbed the victim's backpack and tried to pull it off, while another kicked the victim's bike.
An on-bike camera that the cyclist was using was broken during the assault, but officers from South Yorkshire Police Off-Road Bike Intervention Team (ORBIT) were able to retrieve images of the people they want to speak to in connection with the assault and criminal damage.
PC Jamie Walker of the ORBIT team, said: “Unfortunately, this was yet another example of the minority giving the majority of law abiding motorcyclists a bad name. This was not anti-social behaviour, the matter is being dealt with as a police investigation of assault and criminal damage.
“In addition to the police investigation, any riders identified during enquiries will be referred to Natural England with regards to offences of damaging a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).”
Enquiries are ongoing and police want to identify any of the gang members to assist with enquiries. Anyone with information is asked to contact 101 quoting incident number 975 of 5 March, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.
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loads of parking
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15 comments
Idiots like these get motorcyclists a bad reputation. I hope the cops can track these aggressive morons down.
There are enough green lanes where it is legal to ride a motorbike.
fuckin headless morons!!
Any other old cynics think it's more likely they get fingered for 'damaging a Site of Special Scientific Interest' than assault of the lone female?
Motorcylists illegally "green-laning" on bridleways, restricted byways and moorland areas where motorised vehicules are specifically banned, is a dangerous nuisance to other countryside users, as well as being a threat to wildlife.
Horrible noise and exhaust pollution too.
In this case, I expect the cyclist pointed out their illegal behaviour and they got nasty, or they demanded that she get out of the way for them.
I'm afraid I've never been brave enough to confront these sort of people myself.
There is a restricted byway within 1/2 of mile of our house near a village on the edge of an AONB. It's very narrow and a popular walking route for local families. There was once a constant buzz coming from there on summer evenings and weekends. We complained and the police did send officers round who managed to catch the offenders and give them words of advice.
After that the problem did seem to stop.
I hope South Yorkshire police step up patrols in the area where this assault happened and catch these criminals.
Big problem in the Forest of Dean too. I saw some of them when walking, but by the time I got through on 101 they were long gone.
If only they had some sort of visible number to make them easily identifiable...
They do, all police officers have their numbers on their shoulders.
Except when they remove them, as I've seen more than once in demo situations...
there's not going to be many Gas Gas EC 300's with a '221' decal
I don't, for one minute, think that the local police are wondering who these guys are.
It's possible they're known to the local police and rode out from Sheffield, but they could also be a club who've travelled to the area. They don't look like your usual teenage trouble makers on mx bikes, they've got all the gear on and at least one looks to have grey hair.
Used to live north side of Sheffield and my experience in local woodland was the majority of motorbike riders were well dressed on good bikes and knew they were riding illegally...a quick (mtb) ride around the carparks would usually find their vans and then push the police to act as no special unit required to chase down
helpfully identified by a Rossi 46 bumper sticker no doubt!
Some of the bikes don't have numberplates.
If they have been brought there on a trailer or back of the van, they wouldnt need them as not used on the road.
Strangely though there are quite a few of those "Scramblers" that ride around an estate near me without plates and on and off pavements as they please. Although it isn't a pleasant estate at all. It featured in the Road.CC news the other week.