#!markdown
I agree with Todd's arguments but yours would be easily countered:
- Increased trail erosion due to more riding. It should be noted that pedal assist e-bikes do not cause more trail erosion compared to a normal bike, but increased use/mileage is a valid observation. Unfortunately I feel that restricting users based on increased use/mileage is a dangerous argument as technically you could ban someone on a regular bike for doing too many laps of a particular trail or riding for too long. Slippery slope here.
- Much higher climb speeds leading to up/down user conflicts. I think it's best to simply say higher average speed could cause some trail conflict. Regarding up/down, rider on rider interaction, logic says that the rider travelling in the trail's designated direction should have right of way. On 2-way trails, then the climber gets the right of way. Of course this is situational but the basics remain: follow good trail etiquette. IMBA has some basic rules here: <https://www.imba.com/about/rules-trail>. Having ridden e-bikes, I can say that higher average trail speed really only comes into play on uphills where interactions, in my opinion, would be few. The descents are not any faster and on traverses, you can quickly hit the max speeds (32km/hr in Canada) but going beyond that speed is difficult due to the weight and often times motor drag of the bike. Speeds above 32km/hr are pretty easily achieved on a regular bike. Common senses applies here since the terrain and rider skills will ultimately dictate the max speed on a traverse.
- Nebulous category definition: It's actually very clear what an pedelec can and can't be. For example 250w motors are currently the max for motor size and the bikes can only be pedal assist. Now there's issues with tampering with the software and hardware of ebikes but this should follow similar rules as vehicle modification. Hard to enforce yes but that is not enough of an argument to ban e-bikes based on the above argument.
FWIW, I do have issues with a throttle system, and although I'm presenting
arguments in favour of pedal assist bikes, I won't be trading in my regular
bikes anytime soon. The experiences are vastly different and to put it simply,
an e-bike doesn't scratch that "itch".
Jan. 10, 2017, 3:50 p.m. - Kenneth Perras
#!markdown I agree with Todd's arguments but yours would be easily countered: - Increased trail erosion due to more riding. It should be noted that pedal assist e-bikes do not cause more trail erosion compared to a normal bike, but increased use/mileage is a valid observation. Unfortunately I feel that restricting users based on increased use/mileage is a dangerous argument as technically you could ban someone on a regular bike for doing too many laps of a particular trail or riding for too long. Slippery slope here. - Much higher climb speeds leading to up/down user conflicts. I think it's best to simply say higher average speed could cause some trail conflict. Regarding up/down, rider on rider interaction, logic says that the rider travelling in the trail's designated direction should have right of way. On 2-way trails, then the climber gets the right of way. Of course this is situational but the basics remain: follow good trail etiquette. IMBA has some basic rules here: <https://www.imba.com/about/rules-trail>. Having ridden e-bikes, I can say that higher average trail speed really only comes into play on uphills where interactions, in my opinion, would be few. The descents are not any faster and on traverses, you can quickly hit the max speeds (32km/hr in Canada) but going beyond that speed is difficult due to the weight and often times motor drag of the bike. Speeds above 32km/hr are pretty easily achieved on a regular bike. Common senses applies here since the terrain and rider skills will ultimately dictate the max speed on a traverse. - Nebulous category definition: It's actually very clear what an pedelec can and can't be. For example 250w motors are currently the max for motor size and the bikes can only be pedal assist. Now there's issues with tampering with the software and hardware of ebikes but this should follow similar rules as vehicle modification. Hard to enforce yes but that is not enough of an argument to ban e-bikes based on the above argument. FWIW, I do have issues with a throttle system, and although I'm presenting arguments in favour of pedal assist bikes, I won't be trading in my regular bikes anytime soon. The experiences are vastly different and to put it simply, an e-bike doesn't scratch that "itch".