That is the warning from Queenstown Trails Trust chief executive Mark Williams, who says they are also causing costly trail damage.
Mr Williams, who last weekend caught two Sur-Ron e-motorbike users on the Lake Hayes track and also found motorbike tyre tracks all the way up Arrowtown’s Bush Creek trail, said what was "frightening" was these "very powerful" e-motos could go up to 70kmh, 80kmh or 100kmh, surprising legitimate track users around blind corners, for example, because they were totally silent, unlike normal motorbikes.
"It needs to be stamped out before someone gets killed, because that’s how serious it is.
"The community here doesn’t want to see anybody get injured on the trails, but the more we see of these bikes on the trails, it’s going to happen."
Mr Williams suggested there was "potentially a new group of users coming in and thinking, ‘great, we can get away with riding these because they’re ‘e’. They’re e-bikes, so we can ride any trails we want"’.
However, he stressed they were not e-bikes, but motorbikes, and as such were banned from all trails.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency recently confirmed any bike with a motor larger than 300 watts and/or which was not propelled by muscular action or pedalling was considered a motorbike, he said.
These e-motos, he pointed out, could range from 2000W to 10,000W, and could weigh 50kg to 85kg.
Because unauthorised trail use by e-motorbikes/motorbikes may result in infringements or prosecutions, Mr Williams encouraged anyone encountering them to get their details and report them to the police as soon as possible.
Whakatipu Department of Conservation (Doc) operations manager David Butt said "causing damage to natural or historic features of a reserve, conservation area or national park may result in imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding $100,000, or both".
Last week, Queenstown Vertigo Bikes owner Tim Ceci said he came across someone riding a 2500W Sur-Ron e-motorbike, with a throttle and no pedals, up the very popular Salmon Ladder trail in Fernhill.
"Some idiot last year rode a motocross bike up Beached As trail, which goes to the top of Fernhill, at 6pm on a beautiful summer’s day.
"It is not OK to use these machines on public trails — it’s dangerous and disrespectful and just against the law, basically."
Queenstown Mountain Bike Club president Pete McInally said it seemed the issue had become more serious over the past 10 days — he wondered if it was the same three or four riders causing havoc everywhere.
There was no evidence e-bikers caused more damage to a track than a normal bike, in complete contrast to the effect of e-moto riders using a throttle and accelerating out of corners, he said.
The club did not have a big budget to repair trail damage.
Coronet Peak manager Nigel Kerr said they would be very concerned if any e-motorcycle riders used the skifield, on or off the trails, during their summer mountainbike season "both from a safety point of view — the sheer speed they come upon people and there’s not really an audible warning — and a track maintenance point of view".
By Philip Chandler
