Ok, so far been with you. But this last post…
If I'm reading this right: Access rights no longer an issue, erosion studies accepted common knowledge, no hiker conflict, nobody will lump us with other used groups to ban us, the uninformed average Joe won't take the other side?
Most of this could be soundly disproved just by scrolling through the topics on this board alone. Better yet spend a minute looking through mtb history, and then boning up on the current issues mtb'ers are facing. Or even a moment of reflection would be enough for the average mountain biker I'd think.
How about: Ernie Crist (rip), Monica, the war in the woods, the chainsaw massacre, new hiker parking lot, and what does NSMBA do? The Sierra Club, militant environmental groups, the trail shutdown in Portland, the petions we've all signed to keep trails open, the fight for National Park access, etc, etc. Off the top of my head anyhow.
Hell, even my own forgotten unused little trail took years of neighborhood meetings and trail maintenance to keep open. And even then we were shut down, for most of the reasons you listed in the post above as non-issues.
Ok, anyhow. Sorry Eco, you seem like a good bloke.
Moving on. Shut them down now. Let the offroad e-bikers figure out their own issues, before they get lumped in with us and they become our issues. Let them figure out user conflict, trail impact studies, etc. Common sense says there's no way. But let them figure it out, and somewhere far away from the mtb and hiking trails.
I think the BLM in Moab got it right. Posted signs on trails banning e-bikes:
"The Moab BLM has determined that motor assisted bicycles (electric, gas or diesel) are motorized vehicles. Use of motor assisted bicycles is only allowed on motorized trails. Please visit the motorized recreation pages for trail information. The use of motor assisted bicycles is NOT allowed on mountain bike trails."
Sorry, maybe i wasn't clear enough. I am right with you on all of what you have said. And, I was not advocating any form of passivity. However, a lot of this history is history, and please don't tell me that we have accomplished nothing with all of it. We have. I think banning ebikes from trails will be easier than it would have in the bad old days. But, am I advocating that we all become complacent and ignore the challenges we still face? Not for a second. We should do whatever we must to ban e-mountainbikes from all of the trails we share, with ourselves and other human powered users.
The thing is though, we cannot do what the MOAB BLM did. So, we must get the authorities (municipal gov'ts, private LO, etc.) to do what the MOAB BLM did. Starting with a ban, and including education like plenty of signage.
I think, we are pretty much on the same page.
fall any fall line
