ebikes on the Shore

I believe that Andrew is probably right. Cats out of the bag when it comes to official mountain bike spots and public perception of what a mountain bike is.

Oh well.  Get ready for more rouge trail building and poaching as the purists attempt to keep the trails quiet and tight.

I just hope all these e-proponents step up for the maintenance and advocacy side like they claim will happen....after a couple decades in the game, I'm spent and pretty much done. Holding out hope that we don't see a resurgence in user conflict or overuse due to ease of speed and access, but generally people suck and are selfish, so I'm staying cynical. It's been tough the past few years even without the extra users from moto-bicycles, not sure how much more capacity our trails have at this point and I know we're seeing increasing push back against new trail development here in Whistler, so expect trails to get more congested, imo.

Posted by: FlipFantasia

I just hope all these e-proponents step up for the maintenance and advocacy side like they claim will happen....after a couple decades in the game, I'm spent and pretty much done. Holding out hope that we don't see a resurgence in user conflict or overuse due to ease of speed and access, but generally people suck and are selfish, so I'm staying cynical. It's been tough the past few years even without the extra users from moto-bicycles, not sure how much more capacity our trails have at this point and I know we're seeing increasing push back against new trail development here in Whistler, so expect trails to get more congested, imo.

Do you think that there are currently enough pedal mtb people doing their part? Granted Whistler is a different environment with a much higher level of transient riders so it’s probably skewed towards not enough in your locale but I would guess that overall there’s not enough people getting involved everywhere. 

I also wonder about the ratio between ebike converts and brand new riders on ebikes and their relationship with volunteerism. I would guess that a good chunk of those converts were not involved before they switched.  

From a volunteerism standpoint maybe it’s time a paradigm is set, something along the lines of for every X number of laps you do you should be putting in Y number of hours/days into trail maintenance or advocacy. I know for a long time it’s been stated as a day’s labour or a day’s wages but there hasn’t really been any sort of qualifier attached to that.

Posted by: AndrewMajor

Recently, Wade Simmons told me that in ten years half the bikes I regularly see on North Shore trails will be Pedelecs. I think he 's wrong. I think it'll be five years. There is a dam holding back purchases right now as the joiners wait for Pedelecs to be mainstream enough. And as my friend Alex says, "taking the easy way out has always been mainstream." The Dam breaks this year. More sorries.

Right now you have friends who are walking back all the venom they've ever spewed about Pedelecs. The machines are already accepted for commuting and all the Armageddon and catastrophe predicted hasn't really occurred (just endless anecdotes about assholes riding way too fast on shared resources). We're well beyond the early adoption stage with mountain Pedelecs and people are buying them right now who were looking to join a lynch mob last year. Yes, Dave Norona called it - wrap your head around that. Yeah, sorry.

North Shore shops will sell 100+ offroad Pedelecs this year. Next year it will be thrice that at least. Being an asshole to one person on a Pedelec is like killing one spider in your kitchen. It would probably be better for everyone if you just let it go. If not this year, then definitely next year, every time you walk into a local shop there'll be a 50/50 chance that someone who works there will bring up Pedelecs unsolicited. Sorry.

It's not doom-and-gloom, it's the reality. You can quit and do something else with all the free time and money you'll suddenly have. You can join and be one in a sea of e~mea culpas. Or, you can just keep pedaling your person-powered-bike in the woods with or without your like-minded friends. Sorry.

If you can't stop thinking about it on the trails then I'd recommend single speeding and harder tech-gnar descents. There's no capacity for bicycle philosophizing when you're eating your own lungs climbing No Quarter and trying to survive down Boundary...

Sorry,

Um ok. The irony is our beloved NSMBA says its up to the land managers, don't want to rock the sponsorship boat..... As these things get faster, lighter and not being able to tell which ones are legit pedal assist and those that are hacked and pretty much a motorbike. I see trail use issues? Just because the bike industry and their shills are telling us how it is, don't expect this to end well. They could care less as long as they sell these motorbikes.

No one has a right to these trails, we are guests. The more these things resemble motorbikes, the further we move away from it being mountainbiking to it being a motorsport. Then who knows where it all ends up. Will we lose trail access? I guess it's up to the land managers.

Sorry,

Posted by: FlipFantasia

, but generally people suck and are selfish,.

hmm... ?

Hey Brock, any chance you're around 50?

You know that on DNV managed land, e-bikes are not allowed and are considered the same as motorbikes..... Rocky Mountain Bikes was upset that during a demo last fall, they couldn't have ebikes. I think most people are unaware....

I think Instagram is worse than ebikes and strava....

Humans.....relax and read what you have been typing - AndrewMajor is quoting me on ebike take-over timeline, Syncro is already speculating on ebike burnout, Flipfantasia is whinning about trail maintenane and advocacy....and that's just a recap of page 8 on this thread....pathetic. Stop the panic, we are live hypocritical lives, yet some of you still need to point fingers and criminalize ebikes. Why? 

Look around your life, nothing has changed? That big screen 8K t.v., that lithium mining Atacama desert nightmare Tesla in the drive way, your new $2000 Apple you're typing on, how about the $1.38 liter gas you filled up your Volvo with to drive to the new Fromme parking lot built with fossil fuels, internet, chainsaws (used to cut tress down to build the trails you ride - remember there used to be hand saws), electricity, ski chairlifts. airplane travel versus boat or sail powered vessel....I mean we really could go on forever. You will die, I will die, does it matter what our opinions are in the big picture? You are conceited if you think so, collective conscience will always prevail; if it's meant to be, it will be.

Stop the lunacy and embarrassment, the commentary is petty . If ebikes take over, so be it, if they die, well then I guess it was a fad. Either way, I will still be riding my bike in one capacity or another, who really gives a shit anyhow?

Posted by: MrSimmons

Humans.....relax and read what you have been typing - AndrewMajor is quoting me on ebike take-over timeline, Syncro is already speculating on ebike burnout, Flipfantasia is whinning about trail maintenane and advocacy....and that's just a recap of page 8 on this thread....pathetic. Stop the panic, we are live hypocritical lives, yet some of you still need to point fingers and criminalize ebikes. Why? 

Look around your life, nothing has changed? That big screen 8K t.v., that lithium mining Atacama desert nightmare Tesla in the drive way, your new $2000 Apple you're typing on, how about the $1.38 liter gas you filled up your Volvo with to drive to the new Fromme parking lot built with fossil fuels, internet, chainsaws (used to cut tress down to build the trails you ride - remember there used to be hand saws), electricity, ski chairlifts. airplane travel versus boat or sail powered vessel....I mean we really could go on forever. You will die, I will die, does it matter what our opinions are in the big picture? You are conceited if you think so, collective conscience will always prevail; if it's meant to be, it will be.

Stop the lunacy and embarrassment, the commentary is petty . If ebikes take over, so be it, if they die, well then I guess it was a fad. Either way, I will still be riding my bike in one capacity or another, who really gives a shit anyhow?

lol - it’s a good thing...

actually no, F.U. with calling Flip a whiner. back to the troll bin for you.

I'm actually not against them, I'm for managing them and planning for the impacts of more users and different use types, Wade....which no land managers or e-pushers are really doing aside from expecting traditional mountain bike advocacy groups to do it for them. And as a long time volunteer I've decided that I'm personally not interested in that.

Todd

Posted by: LoamtoHome

You know that on DNV managed land, e-bikes are not allowed and are considered the same as motorbikes..... Rocky Mountain Bikes was upset that during a demo last fall, they couldn't have ebikes. I think most people are unaware....

I think Instagram is worse than ebikes and strava....

Is this true?  The DNV has classified them the same as motorbikes?  Id be interested to see where that has been documented for reference.

BREAKING NEWS: Mountain moped company employee thinks it would be best if mountain mopeds are allowed on non-motorized trails.

In other surprising news, the sun rose in the east this morning and human activity has environmental impact. Groundbreaking.

Posted by: FLATCH

Hey Brock, any chance you're around 50?

almost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF2X1o0FGA0

I love how the bike companies think they call the shots. Cute.

I'm actually not against them, I'm for managing them and planning for the impacts of more users and different use types, Wade....which no land managers or e-pushers are really doing aside from expecting traditional mountain bike advocacy groups to do it for them. And as a long time volunteer I've decided that I'm personally not interested in that.

Todd

C'mon Todd, you really need to ask questions like this? Think big picture buddy. Yes, of course it will be managed, but think about how long it took groups like WORCA or NSMBA to emerge from the scene. E-bikes, are in this time right now. Saying things like "e-pushers" is kinda like a hiker in the late eighties commenting on how "knobby wheeled enthusiasts" are ruining the trails, a bit hypocritical. I don't see why mountain bikers in your headspace take this so to heart, it's really the same as windsurfers versus kite-boarders, surfers and SUP'ers.....it will all work out. And like petty said:

tashi

In other surprising news, the sun rose in the east this morning and human activity has environmental impact. Groundbreaking.