#!markdown
I agree with you 100%
E-bikes already look like normal mountain bikes to the lay person. With every
Tom Dick and Hairy running around every trail at 20mph I am worried that the
difficult trail access situation in my home town (a mtb mecca) will become
much worse. I could see it being very easy to just ban all mountain bikes
since determining which bikes were and were not e-bikes would be too
difficult.
I'm also disappointed in NSMB for posting this article. The question shouldn't
be HOW do e-bikes work, it should be WHY e-bikes should or should not be
banned before they do permanent damage to trail access and reverse everything
IMBA has done in the last 20 years. Bikes are given to magazines/ website for
subtle promotion. This one is no different.
I've only seen e-bikes on the trails a couple of times. And so far they have
lived up to my worst fears. People on motorized DH bikes being much harder on
the trails than any normal mtb would be. As an example, I was passed by a guy
on an old specialized big hit going uphill on singletrack (he was going a
solid 15+mph). Because of his motor he just passed me off trail instead of
waiting five seconds for a legitimate passing opportunity. As I saw his rear
tire kick up leaves and sticks I saw the inevitable reduction of mtb trail
access.
Nov. 4, 2014, 9:21 a.m. - anon
#!markdown I agree with you 100% E-bikes already look like normal mountain bikes to the lay person. With every Tom Dick and Hairy running around every trail at 20mph I am worried that the difficult trail access situation in my home town (a mtb mecca) will become much worse. I could see it being very easy to just ban all mountain bikes since determining which bikes were and were not e-bikes would be too difficult. I'm also disappointed in NSMB for posting this article. The question shouldn't be HOW do e-bikes work, it should be WHY e-bikes should or should not be banned before they do permanent damage to trail access and reverse everything IMBA has done in the last 20 years. Bikes are given to magazines/ website for subtle promotion. This one is no different. I've only seen e-bikes on the trails a couple of times. And so far they have lived up to my worst fears. People on motorized DH bikes being much harder on the trails than any normal mtb would be. As an example, I was passed by a guy on an old specialized big hit going uphill on singletrack (he was going a solid 15+mph). Because of his motor he just passed me off trail instead of waiting five seconds for a legitimate passing opportunity. As I saw his rear tire kick up leaves and sticks I saw the inevitable reduction of mtb trail access.