Cycling as Sport

[George S.]

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/10...-football-season-with-a-season-long-narrative

If you jump from the problems pointed out in this article, to any kind of sport involving ebikes, it's hard to see where you would end up.

Sport, these days, is driven by money and sponsorship and media rights. If you could find a way to get exposure for ebikes, that couldn't hurt in the US. The MAMIL bike is driven by the illusions of performance from the racing circuits. There's something a little goofy about this. A 45 year old man in Lycra is a little goofy, to me.

The younger people on this forum are almost infinitely more interested in performance, relative to the older folks when the Forums started about 2 years ago. Ebikes have no profile in the US, but the performance ebike is almost interesting. Of course, it's also pretty much illegal.

 

[Brambor]

can't we care about both equally ?

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

E-bikes as pollution-free, sustainable transport method will have much more impact than recreational usage.

Rules and regulations are created by people like you and me. If the situation demands, we need to amend those rules.

Ebikes will not gain traction if they are limited in speed/performance. We need to focus our energies where it matters the most i.e., Ebikes as healthy, pollution-free mode of transport.

 

[George S.]

can't we care about both equally ?

In my mind, the answer is 'yes', both. That's sort of what California is doing. It's just that the profile is so low, it seems a little early to start dividing things up. Maybe there is a way to keep a very basic motorized bike strictly in the bike category, let it go on paths, etc. It's just a question, the point @Ravi Kempaiah may be making, that you need some room to push the concept. Maybe nail down that minimal ebike, say that is done and forever protected, but then give the transport bike some room to develop as a concept.

My inclination is to stay in the basic category, the recreation and fitness category. It works for me. Fitness and recreation don't really require performance, so most people would be buying one or the other. So the dividing line might be the Fitness/Rec versus the Transportation ebikes.

(Obviously, it's not for me to decide anything, but what California is doing at least brings things into focus.) The question (for the thread) is almost "Which California category do you want, the under 20 or the over 20 to 28."