All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

This guy is the best. He gives some on the bike learning sessions in the east
https://www.llbmtb.com/

 

The brakes are great, but ask if he's got the original 34 to put on it, it's a much better fork spec wise being performance elite vs rhythm.

Rhythm forks are OEM only.

 

Ahh good point, I'm not up to speed on my fork specs haha. It says he is open to offers so I'll try to come down a little too...just to see if he bites on a lower price either way haha.

 

I'd say another issue is that e-bikers will probably ride 2x to 4x as many miles in a given amount of ride time. So each e-biker is like adding 2 to 4 traditional bikers to the network as far as trail wear goes. Now does that lead to a significant difference in maintenance time/effort/cost? IDK but that's part of the argument. Give it a few years and I think the conflict will primarily be gone and normal pedal assist e-bikes will be treated like any other bike basically everywhere.

 

So what if your trail network saw a boom in regular bikes? For whatever reason it became super popular and there are a ton of new riders. What if a few riders in your area decide to start training for endurance rides and start riding 2x to 4x more than they were? What if a family of four, that all ride, move to your town? That's all increased traffic. Do you start to limit their rides?

I'd like to see some data that shows that EMTBs will go 2x to 4x as far. I get what you're saying but I don't think, at least in my experience, that this is a real concern.

 

Please forgive me for being blunt, I hope you know this is not a reflection of my feelings towards you but a topic I've been thinking about recently. I am inspired for this soliloquy by your comments. The bolded items above are simply an indication of your priorities. Obviously I'm aware cycling is not a priority for you, you've got a lot going on (including a kid on the way!), but to use this as an excuse for an e-bike is not valid in my opinion. In fact, those symptoms you experience while riding (exhausting, not enjoying descents because tired, etc) are a direct correlation to not prioritizing riding.

Summary: "I haven't done the work to have a good time, but I should have a good time anyways". Lack of accountability seems to be a common thread in society with whether healthcare, universal basic income, or gun control.

Scotty, obviously you are a super smart engineer with a super successful career. I'm not indicating you have a general lack of accountability. But in my experience, more times than not, folks want the reward without the work. I don't see this as a political issue but rather behavioral issue

To be clear; one day I will buy an e-bike. They are super fun

 

You don't need an "excuse" to ride an EMTB.

Same as you don't need an excuse to ride a full suspension vs a rigid mountain bike with cantilever brakes from 1985.

It's a bike. You don't need to prove your worth to ride. It doesn't need to be a priority.

 

Love it. I'm waiting for something like the new Trek Fuel Exe, but with more travel. Dead quiet, light weight, light assist. BUT, give me the removable battery like the new Tranny. If I can choose to ride the bike at 40 lbs w/batery or 37 without, I'm all in. Shit, might even be my only bike.

Rode one recently, amazing. Actually feels like a normal bike under you.

It's unfortunately one of the biggest issues. People who can now reach zones to trails that are significantly above their ability with assist is a real problem. A lot of trail builders (not all, for sure) create harder trails in areas that are harder to reach to purposefully filter out beginners. I have personally see many noobs on ebikes walking down, skidding, even breaking down (like destroying obstacles) serious trails. No joke, a few days ago I saw two of them riding (and pushing) UP a steep and gnarly trail. No idea they weren't supposed to.
I bought an ebike (YT Decoy 29) for my wife a few years ago, didn't even touch it for the first year. It had some issues that I could only resolve by riding it on trail and tuning, and shit I fell in love with riding it. It's my go-to in the spring. So much fun. Even have a few friends to ride them with now.
But that doesn't take away from the lack of etiquette around new riders on those full-power machines. I think the very best proposal I have heard so far around solving this issues is around actually licensing people to ride them. Super simple process: If you buy a full-power ebike you take a short course and get a license and/or plate. This needs to be renewed every 3 years. If you ride without the license you get a ticket. If you ride where you're not supposed to, you get a ticket. No excuses, you took the course.
Of course the problem is actually enforcing this, which is really difficult to do. Here in PC they're not allowed on singletrack. The ticket is pretty stiff, but enforcement is non-existent. I actually saw lifties putting them on the lifts more than a few times. Ridiculous.

 

The most damage ive seen trailwise has been from xc races. Just floating that out there.

 

Now that I know more about eMTB's, I am less concerned than I was about their use. I originally thought they could be throttle-driven. But, they still require you to pedal, and they still require bike handling skills. It's mainly people and etiquette (ignorance of expected trail manners) that worry me. But I think that is mainly limited to renters. The cost of an eBike is a bit prohibitive -- mainly serious MTB riders will drop that amount of coin. And dentists maybe.

 

You mean KPH right, MPH and you're crazy lol.

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This may be specific to the local scene here, but I do see quite a few e-bikers with poor trail etiquette. These are wealthy people/tourists that buy/rent an EMTB and then get out on the trails and don't know how to properly share them. I have had many people descending and almost run me over or just stop in the middle of the trail and stare at me while I'm climbing. To be fair to e-bikers, it's also people who just rent high end mountain bikes and then ride the lifts up. In general, I think the EMTB thing is just highlighting a broader need to teach people general trail etiquette.

My personal take... I hate the idea of having to charge another thing. We have an e-cargo bike for commuting with the kids and I hate charging that. I opted for no AXS on my Offering build for this reason as well. I don't care how cool/good they are, I want my biking experience to be as analog as possible.

 

oh no. i mean MPH. a porsche is very happy at 130-150 mph.

 

I've been 155 maxxing out a Lancer Evo X MR, and well that's sketch. I'm done with my speeding career.

 

yeah....it's a confusing mess. especially around PC. People going UP trails they're not supposed to...again: etiquette. I've almost run into e-bikers going up trails they're not supposed to. and they were almost proud. I just told them they were gonna get hurt real badly. Also had e-bikers going around closed gates to singletrack in CC...while we were on the trail working on it. THAT is a serious fine and potential for injuries and criminal charges. but then again, there were other non e-bikers doign the same thing so....stupid's gonna do stupid.

Haha! funny you say that. I think it was last year that some facebook police person got all worked up about damage to a local park's grass/lawn after a CX race. It was a lot of damage but what he didn't know was taht the race organizers were half a day away from announcing a day to fix any damages and were already working with the parks dept on it. lol.

 

hah! yeah, iv'e done 110 in a Kia before. Not doing that again. I thinkt he fastest I've been since is about 90...in my taco...for a brief downhill segment on the freeway...

 

It doesnt bother me that much, but its happened a few times down here where a trail will get rutted/widened from an XC race weekend.

 

Code is dead now, but holy heck what a deal.
I may have bought the 120 bike for that kind of price

https://slickdeals.net/f/15948958-a...-post-gx-fox-factory-4199-shipped#commentsBox

 

Someone on here just posted a 40-50 some mile ride the other day that was an e-mtb ride iirc. For a normal after work ride, I'm time limited. So if I can climb significantly faster and ride flat stretches significantly faster then I'm going to ride significantly further in the same amount of time. Two loops instead of one, etc. I agree that data would be needed to make policy decisions on this. And I'm not saying that I agree some people riding further is a problem, but that is an argument to be made. Like I said, I think their use will expand at a rate that's so high it won't be an issue in a few years because there will be as many e-mtbs out there as regular ones and trail managers will give up trying to fight it.

One of my local trail networks has an annoying amount of passing lanes, corner cuts, and ride arounds due to annual races in soft conditions. They draw your attention and often pull you off line or give some hesitation that really disrupts the flow of the original trail, so I agree with you there.

I'm not trying to say that potential extra trail wear is a reason to ban e-bikes, but it is something that must be managed as trail networks essentially bring on a new user group.

 

https://www.evil-bikes.com/products/epocalypse

evil has joined the e-bike chat........