Communicating with mountain bikers

[ebikemom]

So, just took an ebike vacation, and had interactions with a few ebikers (!) and several cyclists.

I am not, and have never been a mountain biker, but in one of my conversations, I remembered posts here about the animosity of some in the mountain biking community towards ebikes, mostly in this thread about the Haibike Flyon: https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/haibike-flyon-2019.24257/page-2#post-151532

At any rate, I had a conversation with a guy on a road bike who started asking me about our ebikes. He said he thought they were fine as long as they weren't riding mountain bike trails. It seemed that his reasoning was that ebikes didn't belong there because it gave their users an unfair advantage. He sounded super proud of his own athleticism and that of mountain bikers and seemed to see ebikers as taking something that didn't belong to them, that they hadn't earned. It was interesting. I don't hang out much with folks who consider themselves elite athletes of any type, but I could see in this guy a strong attitude of pride in his physical accomplishments (good for him! I'm sure he has impressive accomplishments!) combined with a sense that he has earned access to certain activities and that others who worked as hard as he did could also have that access.

I was able to point out the issue of ... what if he blows out a knee and can't do it any more? But would be able to if he had an ebike? And that for most ebikers, this is what it is about--it's about assistive technology for our imperfect bodies, and being able to continue healthful and enjoyable activity that we otherwise wouldn't be able to do. He did point out that he felt fortunate that his body has always worked really well for him (and he wasn't a young guy).

Maybe some food for thought for him? Who knows. He was a nice guy. Interesting to do some perspective sharing.

 

[PDoz]

There are many ways to earn access to the trails. Eg Carry a folding pruning saw ( visibly) to clear fallen timber Many of the achievement junkies are too busy pumping pedals to stop and clear that annoying branch, so next time you pass them on a hill, start looking for some debris that needs clearing. Just be sure to park the bike out of the pedal pushers path.

 

[MikeDD]

Check out Electric Bike Action magazine, most of the people who started the mountain bike craze, are now riding e-bikes.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I'd like to offer a little bit of perspective. Back in the 1980s when mountain biking was in its awkward teenage years, I bought a mountain bike and found it to be great fun. Interestingly because I had a checkered job history and some interesting contacts, I often found myself setting up meetings between mountain bike advocates and land managers. It was pretty obvious to me that all of the land management agencies considered this mountain biking thing to be an enormous pain in the butt and most of them fervently wished it would just go away. So in terms of trail access and accommodations mountain bikes have always been kind of a red-headed stepchild.

So I think most mountain bikers are kind of sensitive and paranoid about anything that might restrict their access to the few trails they are allowed on. It is entirely plausible to me that some land management agencies might use e-bikes as an excuse to ban all bicycles on their trails.

In the last couple of years e-bikes have made enormous strides in terms of their legitimacy. So in Washington State, where you now have a right to ride an e-bike on nearly any road, sidewalk, bike lane, or improved surface trail we e-bikers are sitting pretty good. My concern is that if we push too hard and too fast it might backfire on us and we could lose all of the gains we have made.

 

[Riversurf]

seemed to see ebikers as taking something that didn't belong to them, that they hadn't earned. .

It's really late and my brain is foggy, but the first thing that popped into my head when I read this line was "Hey fella, did you build the mountain bike your riding yourself? No? Then isn't it an unfair advantage that all you had to do was shell out some money to buy the privilege of riding in the mountains? What about the hikers on shared-use tracks who have to worry about your bike bearing down on them at high speed around blind corners, because I'm pretty sure people were walking in those hills a long time before they were rolling through them." It's a little snarky, yeah, but it captures my gut reaction to such a contention.