Jan. 10, 2017, 3:17 p.m. -  Lee Lau

#!markdown From the Specialized interview here is Cam's question below: My question to Cam and to Specialized. Bravo to Sam Benedict of Specialized and to guys like Sean Estes for chiming in as you've previously done on other articles. The alternative view point is appreciated. I share the view articulated by Todd Hellinga. Ie that a key issue is that ebikes are anathema or at least dodgy in the eyes of land managers (in my local experience all of SW BC land managers restrict them to motorized trails). Introducing ebikes to the mix offloads advocacy efforts onto volunteer orgs. My decades of experience locally is that ebikes proliferation will set back advocacy Sam B talked briefly about what Specialized is doing with respect to Advocacy with land managers. Is this a coordinated effort among many land managers? Or is this just an anecdotal experience? Speaking more generally, is there industry appetite to take over ebike advocacy at the local level? I ask because I suspect local advocacy orgs will not have appetite or bandwidth. I quote: "SB – The land managers’ biggest concern is making sure that it is extremely clear that motorcycles are excluded, in the way that we use the term motorcycle, like a KTM 250. They do not want that line to be blurred because it’s slippery slope for them. We can appreciate that. That’s why it’s a pretty firm line. So that’s where we’re at with land managers. I think that fundamentally they’re okay with the bike itself, but they just need to be extremely careful because there are very very strict rules about gasoline powered bikes. They don’t want to lose whatever ground they’ve made." <http://nsmb.com/specialized-the-e-bike-dilemma/>