Two men in full armour rode Lime e-bikes at each other with striped lances in London Fields, Hackney, on Saturday 17 October. Hundreds watched, and Lime has since told riders not to copy them.
The stunt was staged by East London artist Jack Carden and actor Camtholomew the First. LBC reported that it began as a joke advert, then took off locally. It drew people of all ages to the park that afternoon.
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Footage shows the pair in chainmail, cloaks and helmets, riding the bright green hire bikes towards each other. According to AOL, the crowd chanted “joust, joust, joust” before one rider was jabbed off his bike.
Vice, citing the BBC, said the clips have racked up millions of views on Instagram.
‘Performance art’ on a hire bike
Carden has called the event “performance art”, according to reports carried by Yahoo News. He had billed it as a “free public joust” in advance.
Camtholomew told LBC that he often wears armour in public and likes to make people smile. His reasoning for the joust was simple: “Nobody’s actually done this before, so why not do something cool and bring people together?”
One organiser told LBC they had expected police to shut the event down. In the end, they were allowed to carry on.
That is part of the appeal. London’s parks are full of rules, and a crowd of strangers turned up to watch two men in tin suits ignore the spirit of them. Nobody was fined, arrested or moved on, as far as the published reports show.
Why Lime spoke up
Lime’s reply was polite but firm. In a statement quoted by Yahoo News, the company said it appreciated the “medieval spirit” but that safety must come first, and that its bikes are made for getting around the city.
It added: “We discourage anyone from attempting similar events, to help keep riders and those around them safe.”
The worry is easy to see. A viral dare is cheap to copy. A hire bike is anonymous, sits on every corner and costs a few pounds to unlock. Any one copycat joust might be harmless. A string of them could mean damaged bikes and injured riders, and hire firms hold the fleet and the brand.
None of the reports gives a figure for damage to bikes from the Hackney event. They do not report any injury beyond one rider tumbling off.
Lime has been here before. In 2023, Time Out reported a surge in bikes being tampered with so they could be ridden for free, with TikTok tutorials drawing hundreds of thousands of views and a metallic clicking noise to match.
Hackney Council, meanwhile, has spent time and money on keeping the bikes under control. The council said Lime is the borough’s only dockless e-bike scheme. It requires riders to park in 170 designated bays or face a fine, and it limits speeds in parks and shared spaces. Lime also funds 750 free cycle training sessions for adults.
The council said 92 per cent of the more than 500,000 e-bike trips ending in Hackney each month, over a three-month period, finished with the bike parked correctly.
A bike for the street, not the lists
The joust points to a city that treats its shared streets and parks as a stage. The hire bike has become part of the furniture, which makes it fair game for a joke.
Lime’s position is that the bikes are for commuting. Carden’s position is that a free joust is art. London Fields has now hosted both.
Lime has not said whether it will take any action against future events.
Sources: Vice, LBC, Yahoo News, AOL, Hackney Council, Time Out
This story was compiled by the MDW Newsdesk with AI-assisted tools, using the reporting credited above.
