More e-mtb controversy.. News to me, e-bikes "suck" to ride

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DDBB

Well-Known Member
eMTBs Suck to Ride

The final nail in the coffin, the final insidious act of these evil-incarnate machines, is that they simply suck to ride. Most ebikes–even with the latest technology–weigh about 50 pounds. This extra weight is obviously due to the battery and motor. And while the added power counters the extra weight as you climb, my real beef is when it comes time to descend. These absurdly-heavy bikes are awkward and cumbersome to maneuver when the actual fun part of the ride arrives. As a result, the part that we discussed above as the blissful reward isn’t actually so blissful.

Forget getting air. Forget skimming nimbly over the tops of rocks and roots. Instead of flying down the trail, descending on an ebike feels more akin to navigating a boat through a sea of roots and rocks, ploughing through the waves of the singletrack as you slowly make your way ever downwards.


There are plenty of other technological issues, such as distance limits and bugs in the system, that contribute to ebikes’ overall suckiness to ride. I’ve expounded on the possibility of getting stranded on your ebike here, which at the time was theoretical. Since I wrote that article, I’ve heard several stories of this exact scenario happening to ebike riders.
 
"One final application where ebikes may make a lot of sense is for riders who have some sort “cardiopulmonary, neurological, or musculoskeletal disability,” as Michael Paul, our resident doctor, so succinctly put it. And as long as people with such disabilities are using ebikes on motor-legal trails (see above), these machines make absolute perfect sense! However, arguing that because a person has a disability that they should be able to use a motor vehicle on a non-motorized trail is a dangerous argument to make.

Rather, I think we need to realize that sometimes life deals us a crappy hand. I personally haven’t been injury-free in over two years, and that has seriously limited my ability to travel to the wild and beautiful places that I so love. But at the same time, I realize that that’s life, and sometimes life sucks. Sometimes we don’t have choices about what our bodies are capable of.

I think when we hit the limits of our bodies’ capabilities, we have two choices in how we respond to that challenge. Number one, we can work harder to overcome our obstacles. Number two, especially if number one doesn’t work, we can learn to accept that we have biological limitations, and find a way to be happy and whole despite the possibly bad situation that we’ve been dealt. I do not think that one of our choices is to risk damaging others’ enjoyment of wild places by demanding to use a mechanism that has been deemed illegal in a specific area. The last thing I would want is to selfishly argue that ebikes need to use non-motorized trails, and subsequently have all mountain bikers banned from that trail as a result of my actions. Instead, I would rather simply take my ebike, and use it in a place where it is deemed legal.

Some may equate the argument I just made about not fighting for ebike access and claim that I’m contradicting myself, since I advocate that we should fight for mountain bike access in Wilderness areas. However, this is not the same situation, because mountain bikes do not currently enjoy access to Wilderness trails. Arguing that mountain bikes should have access to Wilderness does not carry the risk of removing any current user groups, aka equestrians and pedestrians, from their current use of those wilderness trails. Whereas the danger posed to the current user group of mountain bikers by the introduction of ebikes as a part of that user group, is very real (see “The Problem,” above).


One final common argument for ebikes is that these contraptions, since they do make the climb easier, will help our sport to grow and help more people to enjoy mountain biking. I’ve already argued that we don’t need any more mountain bikers, and if we have to cater to laziness and sloth in order to attract more people to the sport, than I would doubly assert that we don’t need those people in our sport or our industry. Let them keep doing whatever they were doing before–not everyone needs to be a mountain biker.

And if they do want to be a mountain biker, tell them to either pedal up the hill, or see above: buy a motorcycle."
SO ACCORDING TO THIS AUTHOR IF YOU HAVE A DISABILITY ARE OLD, HAVE BAD KNEES OR WHATEVER IT'S "SUCKS TO BE YOU!" AND THAT'S THAT
 
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I think we all need to take a deep breath and realize that this is the Internet and no matter what you are doing there will be haters and detractors. Trying to reason with or persuade all of them (or bluntly any of them) is unlikely to accomplish much and won't do much for your health and happiness.

Having said that, I think this article had a point. Most e-bikes have "relaxed" frame geometries that make them much more stable and forgiving and at the same time much less agile and maneuverable than most non-electric bikes. In my younger and more reckless days I rode a lot of spooky and intimidating single track that I'd hate to ride on any e-mtb I've tried. And it is still easier for 55 year-old-me to get air on my 1992-vintage Trek MTB than it is on my high-tech e-bikes. On the other hand with the relaxed geometry if you can take the lane you can take downhills on roads (paved or not) much more aggressively than you'd ever want to on a vanilla bike.

I'd hate to ride either of these on an e-mtb. And I'd hate to ever try that white line trail...

 
I think it's similar to when snowboards became popular. The purist skiers hated them, many resorts actually banned them which was silly. They were just another way to slide down a mountain somewhat under control. I think there is a misconception of just how powerful a class 1 e-mtb is. It's a little help to get up the hills but many purists consider it "the spawn of satan".. LOL. Telling your audience that you should just stay home if you can't pedal up a steep hill is absurd IMO.
 
DDBB said:
https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-columns/over-a-beer-why-ebikes-are-the-spawn-of-satan-mostly/
Click to expand...

That's an opinion ( ated) article from 2016 , and lets be honest - most of the emtb's on offer back then DID suck on the downhills.

I regularly ride my 2018 emtb ( giant full e pro) and 2017 regular mtb ( norco optic) back to back by swapping between bikes with my teenage daughter, and they are definitely different to ride! Both are fun down hill, but there is no question that my emtb sucks the ground - although I prefer the term "planted " ! I'm not sure if it's the better quality running gear, wider tyres, or difference in weight, but the emtb absorbs rocks / roots / ridges and stays on track through sections where the norco will be bouncing and skipping around. Sure, I can get more air on the norco , and flick it around like an irresponsible teenager, but the giant emtb definitely feels more stable / planted / sucks.

I guess I might be 5% faster downhill on the regular mtb? Perhaps I pose slightly more risk to other trail users when I'm bouncing down hills? Perhaps this is an argument for excluding old fashioned opinionated editors of single line hard core magazines from public land?
 
Having been mtb'ing for over 35 yrs. the sport has changed a lot. BITD the ups and downs were not thought of as separate but blended together to create the ride experience and that is still how I like to ride. I get more grins out of going up though now than going down truth be known as in all that time I bet my wheels have never been further than 2' off the ground and that sketchy death defying stuff and riding really fast going down has no appeal. But put me on some old school single track and I am one happy biker. The fact that I prefer to do it with assist is a personal thing and people like the author above don't bother me at all. Mainly because I know that within a few years he will be assimilated.
 
With this logic As a photographer I hate people who take photos with their iPhone, because it’s a phone not a camera. Greg (the Singletrack article source) just wants to make America great again through exclusion.
 
I just find it amusing to see how people justify their prejudice against e-bikes. As soon as I was aware of ebikes, I wanted one even though I was still riding my acoustic bike almost daily. I never thought ebike riders were "cheating" or a threat, I thought they were a great idea made possible with modern battery chemistry.
 
You should write an op-ed on how cell phone cameras are "the spawn of satan" and see if they publish it :)
 
DDBB said:
You should write an op-ed on how cell phone cameras are "the spawn of satan" and see if they publish it :)
Click to expand...

Or very much tongue in cheek...

Ban the mebikes.

For too long we have shared the trails with sweaty mebikers. They stink. Pumping pedals slowly up hills, irresponsibly polluting precious oxygen only to pamper to their masochistic ego. "sweat the hard stuff " - to hell with all the innocent trail users trapped down wind!

It's time to restrict their territory - lock them into purpose built facilities, preferably a long way from civilization. Ski resorts during summer seem appropriate, hopefully they will see the light and accept modern uphill assistance...preferably enclosed ski lifts so their stench can be contained...

If singleline don't want to share the future with ebikes , that's fine by me.
 
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An interesting article that covers a lot of ground in a somewhat warped way. One bogus point that comes to mind is the down hill factor. Most emtb's I've seen are equipped with disk brakes. I don't own an emtb but I use my disk brake equipped Pedego Interceptor on some pretty rough trails. It's down hill braking ability greatly exceeds that of my Trek mtb with rim brakes. I don't see why an emtb with disk brakes would be any different.
 
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