June 19, 2023, 6:36 p.m. -  tangentdave

Many threads, many ideas. James brought up a great point during the fireside discussion on the second night, ebikes mean more people in the forest. People in the forest addresses the largest hurdle to maintaining and progressing our sport. More sanctioned blue trails means more black+ trails.  I ride all bikes, Flintstone, ebike, moto, and build bikes that blur the lines (omg the most fun). The trail builder decides who rides who rides their trail. Respect the builder.  I don't like asking to pass meat bikes on my ebike on a climb trail. I don't care if an ebike wants to pass while MY liver is pedaling uphill, but I don't want to use electrons to pass a chemical gradient under duress, so I try to use service roads as shuttle when possible. To me, this is the only drama under debate. The difficulty of the climb. If the builder intends a more primitive feel, that means fewer people have access to the trail, because they don't know about it or won't get to it. All for this. Put up a sign, I see it on my ebike, respect.  tl;dr: ebikes climb their own trail or the road, down don't matter unless the trail builder says so.  -dave