Fear and frustration as trail bike 'clowns' tear through suburbs

Owen Brady has lived at Gateshead for more than 40 years and told the Newcastle Herald unregistered motorbikes have been terrorising the streets around his home for the past year.

He said he was speaking out now because he was fed up and fearful an innocent bystander would get hurt.

"This is not just day and night, this is all the time," Mr Brady said.

"We've had these clowns out at three o'clock in the morning.

"I've had enough ... something has to be done."

Mr Brady said he'd seen riders in the Carbeen Street area without helmets, without headlights at night, doubling up, speeding, performing "wheelies", travelling on the wrong side of the road, going through parks, kneeling on the seat and hurling abuse.

"It's just dangerous, you have to see it to believe it, some of the things they do," he told the Herald.

"They are lucky they don't kill themselves or other people ... I can see somebody getting killed."

He said the noise was relentless, louder than his Harley Davidson, at all hours, including in the afternoon in broad daylight.

"The last five years it's been very quiet here, now the bikes have come back, it's bad," he said.

Mr Owen said police were not doing enough to crack down on the motorbike mayhem, and when teenagers were caught, they got a "slap on the fingers".

"I am not the only one who has rang the police, half the neighbourhood has, they've had enough," he said.

"I just want to make our place a little bit safer."

A NSW Police spokesperson said Lake Macquarie officers regularly respond to reports of unregistered trail bikes in the region.

"Through intelligence-based policing, police have increased proactive patrols and taskings targeting trail bikes and traffic offences in areas where there are higher rates of reported incidents," they said.

"As part of normal duties, officers conduct regular patrols around the area, with a focus on community interaction."

The use of unregistered trail bikes in residential areas across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie has been an ongoing issue for police and locals.

Video footage seen by the Herald shows riders tearing along a footpath at Broadmeadow and doing wheelies in Merewether.

The Herald has also been told of dirt bike riders careening through the park between Sandgate Road and Wilkinson Avenue and pulling stunts.

Earlier this month, Lake Macquarie police made a public appeal for information after trail bikes tore up turf throughout the popular Green Point Reserve.

In February, a 19-year-old boy was arrested at Belmont after sparking an alleged police pursuit on an unregistered motorbike.

That same month, a cyclist was hospitalised with suspected spinal injuries after a motorcycle being ridden on a Glendale bike path crashed into him then fled.

Police urged anyone who witnessed anti-social behaviour at any location to call police immediately, or share information with Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.