Posted by: Vikb
Posted by: tashi
Mountain biking is still that sport if you don’t use a motor.
I've been riding bicycles since I was a kid and riding mountain bikes since they were a thing in Canada in the 80's. I've got a vested interest in what happens in the bicycle world and adding motors to bicycles has been the biggest change in that community that I have seen and I think it's a negative change hence my opinion on the subject. Mountain biking is only that sport if you don't use a motor. You can ride a broped on the same trails, but it's not the same activity. The whole strategy of aligning mopeds with mountain bikes was only to get motors on non-motorized trails.
I can't think of one recreational activity that went from strictly human powered to motorized that resulted in a more healthy participating population or less environmental impacts. I don't think that change to bicycling will be any different.
Whelp, based on my experience riding them, they’re mountain bikes because that’s what they ride the most like. So to me, the folks that ride them are mountain bikers so we have more in common than not and I don’t feel the need for the insults.
I’m in agreement with you that’s they’re part of a trend towards laziness for some, they’re not inherently so and you may be choosing to focus on the negative and that’s causing your scorn for ebike users. See the experienced riders, injured riders, trail builders (some of whoms work you enjoy on a regular basis I might add) for examples of more positive uses and you’ll see how laughable your generalization about ebike riders is.
Personally, I used to whine that climbing trails, bermed trails, trail maps, Strava, GPS, made mountain biking too easy (particularly for newcomers to town who hadn’t “paid their dues” yet ;) and opened it up to lazy fucks who just wanted the easy option. Then I realized that the fucked up climbs, janky, unpredictable descents, and unmapped lines were still there, so now mountain biking was actually MORE than it used to be and I got over it, letting me to appreciate the trails (*cough Sobo no michi *cough) and people that these soft new developments brought into the sport.