Irish police stop DIY enthusiast riding mountain bike fitted with petrol engine

A bit more refinement is needed to hide it in the seat tube so that it can drive the bottom bracket.

Neat job but surely you'd want more than 1 rusty v brake in the stopping department!

There is/was a chap riding a similar bike around Reading - I had a chat with him a while ago at a set of lights near the town centre. Seem to remember he was working as some sort of delivery rider.

So lorry drivers have basically gone 'Mad Max', looking at that pic. I hope he got more than just a talking to for fitting such stupid things to a wheel. 

Not sure I'd want that chain rattling around there.

The new saloon vans of Eire

That's a neat job!

(The bike, not the Boudicca wheel - that terrifies me, and not just because there's no visual indicator of the nuts becoming loose)

There was a guy trying to ride an MTB fitted with a small petrol engine that looked similar to this round our local BMX track. He struggled with it as it was so underpowered and it was defeated by the larger jumps and kept stalling out. Normally anyone with a motorbike would get an earful for trying to take it on the track but his MTB was so obviously gutless, it wasn't going to do any damage. I did say to him that it wasn't legal to ride anywhere because as a motorsied vehicle it wasn't allowed in the park and for use on the road, it'd need to be road registered with a plate and he'd need an approved motorcycle helmet. He didn't seem to care and after a few fruitless attempts, rode off. He seemed harmless enough.

A friend of mine has a MBK mountain bike he's converted like this.  He's gone the whole hog - frame and wheels modification, seat and bar change, small faring, enclosed fuel tank, upgraded lights - it's really good.  He's even got it declared road legal and stuck a plate on the back.

I was returning from Tullamore (Offaly) yesterday along the R402 and just about 1km before Ballyfore, I passed a young lad on a yellow MTB, looked odd as he was going along at a decent pace...but not actually turning the pedals...

yep...he had a small engine fitted just like this one.

No helmet (I'd presume that any motorised bicycle would be considered a 'motor bike' and he'd require one.)

I'm not sure what the law is on converting an MTB into a motorbike, as per NCT/VRT registration etc. Judging by the Gardai response above, I guess it is a total no no...

Not sure Canyon would honour the warranty on my Aeroad...lol.not lol.

I'm sure I saw that bike in Battersea a couple of years ago. Possibly with a Rasta guy riding it. I wonder how it got to Ireland!