MORE than 40 per cent of the motorbikes pulled over during a police crackdown in the Dales had some sort of defect, officers revealed yesterday.

North Yorkshire Police held the checks after complaints from residents about speeding bikers, accidents and anti-social rider behaviour.

The force sent teams to the upper Wensleydale area on August 31, including some conducting high-profile patrols with others setting up check points with the Vehicle Inspectorate.

A total of 85 bikers were stopped and just under half of their machines were either defective or had been modified illegally.

Faults included bald tyres, illegal exhaust systems and registration plates which had been altered to throw off any police attempt to trace them.

Six motorcyclists were also prosecuted for speeding while others cautioned for breaching the speed limits admitted they were riding more slowly than usual because they had noticed a police presence.

"There are two distinct problems the police are trying to tackle,'' said Sergeant John Lumbard, who co-ordinated the operation.

"The first is high casualty rates among motorcyclists and the second is high speed and anti-social riding by a very small minority of bikers.

"Rather than spend money on customised modifications to their bikes, motorcyclist are urged to use this money to spend on advanced rider training, which will hopefully equip them with the skills necessary to ride a high-performance bike, as well as understand the responsibilities they have to other road users and local communities."