Ebike & trails

[Ed Rosa]

Hi , I'm new here and to the ebike world . Just bought my fat ebike and I'm loving every minute of it . I went twice to the trails but didn't have any "purist" encounter , was wondering if people out there are getting some kind of issues with regulars mtb'ers .

 

[one4torque]

My brother is an avid "purist" who lives/rides in boulder Co...... he tested out my ebike and thought it was "neat".... and said he could never ride it in Boulder.

I ride trails by my house..... and just use extra care to drive respectfully, and slower around the mtn bikers.... so they don't get an ebike rash and complain.

so far so good.. just a bunch of stares ususally

 

[MLB]

Oh yeh. They don't like them mostly. The nay sayers say they tear up the trails (all that power!!) Fat bikes are better for sure, but you'd still get dirty looks here for "cheating". It's so stupid......

 

[Kaldeem]

If it's not against the law, like MOAB where you can't ride any electric bike, then who gives a flying Fahq about what "purists" and other shallow minded cyclist think. In 5-10 yrs they'll be on the other side of the fence raging on purists for being so behind the times.

 

[MLB]

OR they are 100% of the bike advocates out there effecting change.
Think they might be able to get them banned starting in state and national parks and moving on from there?
I do.

 

[one4torque]

Kind of like jetskiis in the early days..... you could ride them everywhere without much trouble...... it was not until they became widly popular that the restrictions setin...
I prefer that the ebike community (of which I"m a new member).... stay small and under the radar.... however, there are business peeps.... hoping to bring this wave in to the masses...... which is OK.... just watch out for the unintended consequences.... reg's reg's / restrictions / taxes.......

 

[Chandlee EBS]

IMBA has finished their first closed-coarse study of E-MTBs and presented their initial findings at Interbike. It consisted of 500 laps with a mountain bike, E-MTB (class 1 ebike of course) and a motocross bike over a hard pack circuit. Keep in mind, this was only the first study and I don't have the report in front of me. Also, IMBA's official policy is "if it has a motor, it's not a mountain bike." This first study found that while the motocross bike displaced far more soil than the mountain bike, the E-MTB did very similar trail damage to mountain bike on flat ground only slightly more damage to the trail in accents. IMBA will continue their research with different trail types, but this first study bodes well for the future of e-bikes on trails.

Keep in mind, the industry is only encouraging single track use for Class 1 e-bikes without throttles or cadence sensors. If you see an overpowered bike on the trails, please inform the rider that they are ruining it for the rest of us.

Fortunately, e-riders have represented themselves well at this point. While, e-riders are statistically faster than normal commuters on-road, they are slower than normal commuters on greenway and shared paths. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26093098)

Check out: mountainbike.about.com to check out some to the e-mtb experiences we've had here.

Update: here we go: https://www.imba.com/news/eMTB-early-study-results

 

[Ed Rosa]

Thank you for the info . I've been going to the trails a lot these last weeks and I been going slower near other mtb'ers and specially hickers . I've been "teaching"a lot of people what is pedal assist bikes and got the feel of more acceptance when ppl realize there's no throttle.

 

[Ed Rosa]

Oh yeh. They don't like them mostly. The nay sayers say they tear up the trails (all that power!!) Fat bikes are better for sure, but you'd still get dirty looks here for "cheating". It's so stupid......

Yeah I got that cheating comment too the other day , I told him I was there to have fun and not to break any records

 

[one4torque]

My wife rented an e bike in bend or this week. It seems they are accepted here.

 

[Kaldeem]

Can't we just have our own s*it? they can have MOAB and Boulder white caps, I just a place where I can ride and not be looked down upon. I mean holy fahq. I'm looked down upon because I'm overweight, so I buy a bike for FUN and EXERCISE and I'm still looked down upon because I can't pedal up a hill or hold the right cadence or hit the trails. F'ck them. I'm going to build my own EBIKE trail here in Co. where if you're not powered by a battery you're getting a PERMA BANNED and 500$ fine!

 

[one4torque]

Dont sweat it kal, the beauty of ebikes you dont nec need a flat groomed trail to reduce rolling resistance like the bikes of old.... The elec assist allows you to ride places traditionally inaccessible to the no e crowd.

Just stay off private property and have fun.

Oh and bring a cell phone in case of a bad spill.

 

[MLB]

Kind of like jetskiis in the early days..... you could ride them everywhere without much trouble...... it was not until they became widly popular that the restrictions setin...
I prefer that the ebike community (of which I"m a new member).... stay small and under the radar.... however, there are business peeps.... hoping to bring this wave in to the masses...... which is OK.... just watch out for the unintended consequences.... reg's reg's / restrictions / taxes.......

It's not the wildly popular part that gets you banned, it's the numbnutz doing stupid stuff and giving the whole movement a bad name with the folks in charge of making the rules........... in jetskis case, drunk/impaired operators running into lots of things.
Will be the same thing eventually with Ebikes due to idiots going too fast for the conditions/environment. We've had one pretty bad accident locally that I know of, Ebike running into another biker and breaking their leg.
Get you restricted quickly when you hurt OTHER parties........

 

[one4torque]

Ive created my own freeride path around my hood..... I would never have ridden this with one of those outdated pedal bikes of old.... Best part is there is no traffic or rules on my path... Best part... Total freedom.