Mountain Biking is at a Weird Place

Fully Rigid, 12/28/24: Part 2 of 4

Before we begin part 2, of course we want to acknowledge that the “industry” provides us bikes and stuff. We get it.

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Mountain Biking is at a Weird Place: E-bikes to the Rescue (Part 2 of 4)

Before I begin, I don’t hate on e-bikers. I don’t get why e-bikers immediately jump to “you’re a hater” whenever anyone questions the land use policy implications of e-bikes on public lands/trails. I mean, come on. Are you that insecure with your e-bike self that anyone who questions public lands policy implications is a “hater?”

Anyway. Let’s get back to it.

The proliferation of e-bikes on trails these days is without question due to the industry needing to sell you a bike/stuff.

The way I see it, mountain bike (slash) e-bike industry has somewhat lost its way. I mean, wasn’t mountain biking always about pushing yourself in the mountains, you know, like, it was understood as being “hard” to do?

Or, wait. Is this about mountain biking being too hard as we age, or is it about selling more bikes?

So, the industry aged and maybe they want to keep riding, eh? That sounds about right, maybe, and they want to be able to do what they did when they were younger, is that it? People in the industry have aged and they see e-bikes as the next step in the progression of mountain biking? Are e-bikes the fountain of youth, perhaps?

Or, wait. Is this about mountain biking being too hard as we age, or is it about selling more bikes and the idea that we need an e-bike as we age?

E-bikes are something people want, right? Or, is it the other way around, as in, we’ll make you think you want an e-bike? Don’t you want to go up that hill like you did when you were 30 years younger?

E-bikes in ads. E-bikes in shops. E-bikes built to hide the motor. E-bikes are just like mountain bikes. E-bikes give you the same work out. E-bikes don’t cause any more adverse trail impacts than mountain bikes.

And much of that last statement is based on a study or two, meaning it’s not well researched. And some of that was done in coordination with people who likely saw the financial benefits of e-bikes for their organizations.

Hello, mountain biking organizations who are now trying to represent mountain bikers and e-bikers and trying to tell us that we are all the same.

No, we are not all the same.

I get it, though. E-bikers could be new membership opportunities. E-bike lobby could mean more money into the org. More money means more trails (maybe?) and more money means more paid positions/salaries/pay raises, maybe?

When mountain biking organizations tried selling us this nugget -- Class 1 e-bikes are all we want on trails, with regard to e-bikes, so that more people can have “access” and meaning that the orgs were not in favor of Class 2s and 3s, at least not in a public statement – some of us were saying, hold on a minute.

Let’s be clear, none of us skeptics were opposed to the medically-needed e-bikers and their access challenges. We’re down with trail crews using e-bikes to haul tools, too.

ADA considerations with regard to access, is not what some of us are concerned about, as in: of course ADA/access is entirely okay.

We were/are concerned about the possibility of opening up trails to all e-bikers, from a land use policy perspective.

That won’t happen, they said. Class 1 only, is what they said.

Land Use Policy

Ask any avid mountain biker about their recent trail experiences and I bet they’ll talk about seeing e-bikes on trails where they’re not permitted. Some of us will add that we’ve seen throttle bikes on trails, too, where they are not permitted.

Slippery slope. That’s what some policy people call it.

The slippery slope is here.

Are we slip slidin’ away?

Part 3 of 4 coming up next.

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Fully Rigid is a monthly column by James Murren about Mountain Biking Issues within the Mountain Biking Community.