We've seen it so often before. A new technology comes along, changing all our lives ostensibly for the better, only for unforeseen consequences to emerge.

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The iPhone, for example. A supercomputer in all our pockets, opening up extraordinary possibilities. But did anyone imagine how it would let guys named Mark or Elon burrow into our brains like worms. Or, even worse, how it would influence what is surely the worst Ferrari car design in history?

Now, thanks to advances in battery tech, electric bikes have become a clean, affordable and fun means of transport. But, did their inventors stop to think they'd enable the rise of baby bikie gangs?

Not since the BMX craze of the '80s has two wheels so empowered kids to link up with other kids and run amok.

I have to admit, they do look like a lot of fun. But, in various parts of Canberra, kids have been menacing their suburbs on these bikes, almost always dressed in black. They've taken a liking to golf courses and sporting fields, which unsurprisingly don't really like them and their tyre treads back.

Melanie Dinjanski reported this week on serious turf damage done at Hawker Playing Fields, as well as an incident at Bonython when 20 youths rode electric and petrol-fuelled bikes through the middle of a game.

They even stole the corner flags, the little buggers. And worse than that, if you can imagine it, up in........

© Canberra Times