E-Bikes- They work!

Whatever. It's not the same. Comparisons are worthless. You either like them or you don't. 

Personally, I prefer the simplicity of my "acoustic" set-up. In fact, I am such a curmudgeon that I just re-built my '86 Rocky Turbo road bike....I won't be trying to convince anyone that it's "better". Anything that gets you outside is better. If I want assist, I'll go all-out and I'll get the KTM 525 out of the shed.

What I will ask you, if you decide to ride an E-bike....please don't park at the lot on Fromme. That's just f'ing lazy.

FYI....seems there was a commercial outfit running an e-bike group tour on Fromme last week. Truck/trailer dropped them off at the outhouses, then parked down on Coleman. The group did a couple of laps...at least one on Expresso.

I'm gonna miss the good ol' days....but then again, the good ol' days have been changin' since the early 80's.

Posted by: Captain-Snappy

WADR Tashi, then why are you reading and responding to a post on e-MTBs?

Don't waste time expecting others to change their behaviour, when controlling one's own actions and/or reactions are the only realistic options.

I’m responding because I’m a consumer of this website and I’m letting the owners know what my preferences are.  Up to them to decide what sport they want to cover.

I don't really have an opinion on e-mtbs, not really interested in them myself, can see some truth in both pro and contra views. But sometimes the hate/fear seems a bit out of proportion? The only thing you can say for sure about the impact of e-mtbs is that they have the potential to increase trail usage because they enable more people to ride more, faster, longer, or even at all.

I'm pretty happy to see how little they've caught on here in Whistler. Outside of Crankworx, I saw one couple riding up to Howler on them. During Crankworx, I did see two guys climbing Instant Gratification wearing air filter masks. I'm around ~100 rides so far this year, so it doesn't seem like it's working out as well as the manufacturers hoped around here.

Are they gaining popularity on the shore?

I'm all for motorized bikes on motorized trails, I don't think I'd half ass it with a pedal assist e-bike if I were to go that route though. Trailforks does have an "eBike Allowed:" field now.

There must be an appropriate website for e-mtbers somewhere else to debate alternate facts and the good people on both sides.

This is a mountain bike forum. Clearly the industry stands to make a boat load on e-mtbs and has decided on shoving them down the throats of mountain bikers. They're taking out 2 page ads (ahem, Specialized) in MTB magazines trying to get us to move over to another sport for fucks sakes, trouble is it's all marketing driven. They're completely ignoring any discussion of the repercussions. "They work!", "Havent bought flannel yet, but I might!". "E-bikes, they're great :D!"

It's still early days, but already out walking with my 6 year old daughter one of those off-road monstrosities came around an uphill corner *on the sidewalk* at 20mph+ straight at her. Near miss and scared the fuck out of us. No apologies, no slowing down.

Anybody that is saying they can't see the looming nightmare that e-mtbs will create for us is either getting paid to sell us out, or needs to think harder.

Posted by: luckbox

I'm pretty happy to see how little they've caught on here in Whistler. Outside of Crankworx, I saw one couple riding up to Howler on them. During Crankworx, I did see two guys climbing Instant Gratification wearing air filter masks. I'm around ~100 rides so far this year, so it doesn't seem like it's working out as well as the manufacturers hoped around here.

Are they gaining popularity on the shore?

I'm all for motorized bikes on motorized trails, I don't think I'd half ass it with a pedal assist e-bike if I were to go that route though. Trailforks does have an "eBike Allowed:" field now.

I thought WORCA has banned them on their trails no?

Seen quite a few, they are catching on here. Funny thing is the last two times I have seen them the person has fish tailed and spun out going up tech on them. Why is that, thought they were just assisted? As an ex dirtbiker kinda looked like too much throttle....

what a joke

There's a report on Trailforks of some douchebag Devinci industry guys, including a west coast rep, riding ebikes on Into the Mystic/LOTS during Crankworx and feigning ignorance. Losers... too bad no one took pics.

Seems WORCA has softened the wording on ebikes a bit flip? Or maybe i am mis-remembering a more strongly worded statement in the past. http://www.worca.com/trails/trail-etiquette/

Just curious, do you think they are douchebags because they rode ebikes on a trail where ebikes are explicitly forbidden or because they rode ebikes at all?

i made the mistake of testing an eBike.   Never had so much fun on a bike.  Sold my DH and AM bikes and have a down payment on a 2019 assisted bike.     I wouldnt have gotten one if i lived on the shore as i anger easily and would want to avoid conflict.   

I live in an area in which trail access is logging road but really steep and relentless.   I maintain the trails during the winter along with other locals,  via trails moto.   The network,  much like most of squamish was built by the trials moto community,  but we have found ways to share and get along.

I wonder if eMTBs will find their place.

Posted by: klankilla

I live in an area in which trail access is logging road but really steep and relentless.  

I can definitely see in certain parts of the province where ebikes would be a real benefit and a far better option than running shuttles.  As I've been thinking about moving out of Van, some of the areas I'm looking at would be great for an ebike. 

I think there's a place for both but also recognize the some of the drawbacks. Vancouver is the perfect storm where you have a large population base, very large riding community and easy access to a lot of trails. If there was a hug shift to ebikes then I think there would be some issues, but over time those might settle out. We have to face it that part of the problem extends beyond just the ebike - population numbers. Just look at the issues with great hiking trails, some of them are like highways at rush hour. There's a huge demand for outdoor rec and we're probably well overdue for govt's to consider significant levels of funding for trails which includes full time paid trail crews, more trails and mtb specific trails in provincial parks in the greater Vancouver area.

What exactly was the intent of this post? To me, a Forum is community that actively participates in discussing a subject at hand.

First of all, there is no intent to discuss anything on the part of the original poster. Several questions went without a response. Basically, it was a dump-and-run ad.

Second, I fail to see how this relates to a forum for "the Shore".

If the mods are OK with this approach (looks like they are), I have a few items I'd like to shill as well....let me tell you about my gas car. I get some awesome cardio spinning the gas pedal all the way to Whistler. It's a '96 Toyota Forerunner and it's for sale. I'll post a picture of it next to my used skates and the popcorn machine on wheels that I bought on Sky Mall...it makes great recovery food.

I'd like to thank Mr Norona, I think we were all really worried that e-bikes wouldn't "work". 

Now we know.

Thanks Dave (for nothing)

Posted by: Hepcat

This is a mountain bike forum. Clearly the industry stands to make a boat load on e-mtbs and has decided on shoving them down the throats of mountain bikers. They're taking out 2 page ads (ahem, Specialized) in MTB magazines trying to get us to move over to another sport for fucks sakes, trouble is it's all marketing driven. They're completely ignoring any discussion of the repercussions. "They work!", "Havent bought flannel yet, but I might!". "E-bikes, they're great :D!"

Anybody that is saying they can't see the looming nightmare that e-mtbs will create for us is either getting paid to sell us out, or needs to think harder.

As of now my new bike purchases will be limited to those firms that do not sell e-bikes.

Guess I better buy that dream bike soon........meh.