#!markdown
"But they’re not “motorbikes.” Everybody knows what a “motorbike” is and if
you insist on shutting down every conversation about e-bikes by proclaiming
that they’re the same thing as a CRF450 then you sound a bit silly and you
probably don’t deserve to be a part of the discussion."
That's a straw man argument designed to shut down a legitimate line of
discussion on this topic. Motor + Bike = MotorBIke. That doesn't mean it's a
high powered motorcross weapon. We could and still can build low power gas
motorcycles with pedals. Should we be saying they are mountain bikes if they
are light and low power enough?
Personally I think the whole issue would be better received and easier to deal
with if we stopped trying to shoehorn these electric mopeds into the term
"mountain bike." Electric mopeds, mountain moped or something similar. It
makes it clear to the mountain bike community and to the land owner managers
that this is a different thing.
Of course that means having to look at them from scratch and figure out where
they belong and how they should be managed. Not one of my local trail systems
on Vancouver Island allows motors. They don't specify how powerful, gas or
electric energy storage….they just say "Motorized Use Prohibited". So anyone
wanting to ride a mountain moped legally around here is out of luck unless
they stick to roads, find an OHV area or own some private land.
I suspect nobody who wants to sell these products to make a $$ wants this ^^^
because it without piggy backing onto an existing user group like mountain
bikers the idea of adding motors to trails is a pretty high hurdle to get
past. As it is you are going to have a lot of people who buy into the
marketing for these mopeds and buy them having no legal trail system to ride
and ending up with an expensive toy that they have to use illegally or use in
a way that wasn't how it was sold to them like cruising the MUP.
This Jimmy Mac interview is worth a read: <http://stevetilford.com/2014/08/03
/exclusive-jimmy-mac-interview-why-i-left-mountain-bike-action/>
Jan. 10, 2017, 6:21 a.m. - Vik Banerjee
#!markdown "But they’re not “motorbikes.” Everybody knows what a “motorbike” is and if you insist on shutting down every conversation about e-bikes by proclaiming that they’re the same thing as a CRF450 then you sound a bit silly and you probably don’t deserve to be a part of the discussion." That's a straw man argument designed to shut down a legitimate line of discussion on this topic. Motor + Bike = MotorBIke. That doesn't mean it's a high powered motorcross weapon. We could and still can build low power gas motorcycles with pedals. Should we be saying they are mountain bikes if they are light and low power enough? Personally I think the whole issue would be better received and easier to deal with if we stopped trying to shoehorn these electric mopeds into the term "mountain bike." Electric mopeds, mountain moped or something similar. It makes it clear to the mountain bike community and to the land owner managers that this is a different thing. Of course that means having to look at them from scratch and figure out where they belong and how they should be managed. Not one of my local trail systems on Vancouver Island allows motors. They don't specify how powerful, gas or electric energy storage….they just say "Motorized Use Prohibited". So anyone wanting to ride a mountain moped legally around here is out of luck unless they stick to roads, find an OHV area or own some private land. I suspect nobody who wants to sell these products to make a $$ wants this ^^^ because it without piggy backing onto an existing user group like mountain bikers the idea of adding motors to trails is a pretty high hurdle to get past. As it is you are going to have a lot of people who buy into the marketing for these mopeds and buy them having no legal trail system to ride and ending up with an expensive toy that they have to use illegally or use in a way that wasn't how it was sold to them like cruising the MUP. This Jimmy Mac interview is worth a read: <http://stevetilford.com/2014/08/03 /exclusive-jimmy-mac-interview-why-i-left-mountain-bike-action/>