Controversial bike rent agency Lime unveil new smaller and lighter bicycles after customers reported spate of accidents from heavier predecessors

The controversial bike hire firm Lime have unveiled their new smaller and lighter bikes following a spate of reported injuries caused by their heavier predecessors.

Lime’s new bikes – set to hit London‘s streets next month – feature smaller wheels, which have shrunk from 29-inches to 20-inches, a more secure phone holder and upgraded on-board technology to make the cycles more easy to find and park. 

The most radical change in design is the removal of the large clunky battery from the bike’s downtube to behind the seat. 

According to Lime, the new placement of the battery will make the bikes more sleek as well as making them easier to manoeuvre. But it is also understood this will reduce the risk of injury during rides including the notorious ‘Lime bike leg’.

‘Lime bike leg’ is a particular injury linked to dozens of incidents where users fell off the rental bike and found their leg crushed under the weight of the 35kg cycle leading to fractures and in extreme cases broken bones.

The position of the battery on the downtube only increased the risk of injury – being in the optimal place to put heavy pressure on the leg should a rider fall over. 

And as the bikes surged in popularity – with an astonishing 150,000 journeys being taken on rental e-bikes across the capital daily – so has the number of healthy young people arriving in emergency units with tibia and femur fractures, mangled knees and crushed wrists.

It has become such an epidemic that Jaison Patel, a trauma and orthopaedic knee consultant at one of London’s biggest trauma centres, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, started studying the sharp rise of injuries linked to e-bikes.

Lime’s new bikes – set to hit London’s streets next month – feature smaller wheels, a more secure phone holder and the large clunky battery has been moved to behind the seat

A rider takes a tumble on her Lime Bike. ‘Lime bike leg’ is a particular injury linked to dozens of incidents where users fell off the rental bike and found their leg crushed under the weight of the 35kg bike leading to fractures and in extreme cases broken bones

‘E-bike injuries are in general very common now – we are seeing them on a daily basis,’ he told the Mail in June 2025.

‘I see broken bones, wrist fractures, collarbones, femur and a few tibia fractures as well as open fractures (when the bone has come through the skin). It definitely feels like an upward trend – a lot of my colleagues have mentioned that they too have seen an increase.’

‘It’s partially because of the weight of the bike and the speed that you go at.’

This rise in injuries has unsurprisingly been followed by an increase in the number of people launching legal claims against Lime.

The London Standard reported that the law firm Osbornes Law – who specialise in personal injury – are contacted by up to 10 cyclists a month who have been injured while riding Lime Bikes.

In total six users who claimed to have been wounded while riding the bike received compensation from the e-bike firm, though without formally admitting fault, while Lime admitted liability in a further three cases.

Many of these injuries were caused by issues including faulty seats and brakes.

Sam Collard, head of cycling accident claims at Osbornes Law, said: ‘For over a year now there has been a regular stream of cyclists coming to us having suffered injuries on Lime bikes, some of them extremely serious and potentially life-changing.

‘This constant flood of injured people, who have been hurt because e-bikes have been poorly maintained, shows there is a chronic problem with Lime bikes.

‘It is totally unacceptable that Londoners should be putting their selves in jeopardy of serious harm by simply hiring an e-bike and something needs to be done to prevent a tragedy happening.’

Lime have previously stated that 99.99 per cent of all its journeys ended without injury and their bikes regularly undergo inspection and maintenance.

The older models are not going to disappear from London’s street just yet with Lime planning to gradually replace them with the new Lime Bikes.

It is hoped that the redesign will be more accessible for women and older users thanks to their lower step through height which Lime hopes will make the bikes easier to use. 

The Daily Mail have approached Lime Bike for a comment.