Your not mounting any sort of argument by stating they are motorbikes.
They are already classed as bicycles according to Australian law, so if they need to be kept off our trails, some solid reasons need to be put forward.
Rarely are things black and white, and these pedalecs are more closely related in speed, weight and horsepower to a mountain bike than a wr450f.
So, if you have reasons why they shouldn't be on trails, state them instead of "because motorbike".
I haven't ridden one, so I'd be interested to see what sort of damage they do on steep loam or clay climbs.
*sigh*. Firstly I'm still boggling that the mountain biking community is even having this discussion, after decades now of working for trail access and then making trails happen. It's like there's a bunch of people who just started biking and don't see the whole picture - and who might be old and lazy and think 'well sure, lets go get an electric motorbike (or some other conscience-assuaging label) to go ride trails'.
Secondly, I'm gonna call it as I see it. Like the Lindarets shirt, bike + motor = motorbike. Australian law makes lots of things legal, like shifting profits to offshore subsidiaries so that tax can be avoided. Perfectly legal. Or owning 40 negatively geared rental properties, and maintaining none of them. Also perfectly legal. Ethical? Hmm. What's legal is reasonably often whatever some lobby group thinks they can get away with.
I'm sure that ridden by a respectful person who has a long view of trail access and etiquette, an electric motorbike would be fine. They would have some riding skills, and know where and when to lay down power. Just like a human powered rider who is capable of continuous 250W output with bursts higher.
Unfortunately this thread plus my experiences with electric motorbike owners tells me that this type of person is a small minority in the cohort of electric motorbike users. Most just want to stick their elbows out and braaaaaaaaaaaaapppppp! (well, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!). fridgie's experience is pretty common. Pedestrians? Look the fuck out. Human powered bike riders? get out of the way. And don't you dare draft...
So why should electric motorbikes *not* be on long-worked for, hard fought mountain bike trails?
Because they, and their owners represent a serious risk to land access and future trail development.
Consider the scenario that an electric motorbike rider runs over a jogger, seriously injures them, and there's a court case. There's a risk that if the land manager incurs any liability, they might not differentiate between electric motorbikes and human powered bikes if/when they re-visit who can do what on their land. The argument will likely go - what is an electric powered bike doing on the land? it's there because trails. Who made the trails? Mountain bikers. Is it viable from a risk management sense to let mountain bikers build trails which attract electric motorbikes on our land? Hmm.
It's easy to see how this is exacerbated for bikes which legally need to be registered (ie anything > 250w, or anything throttled). Why are they on the land? because trails. Who made the trails? mountain bikers. Who does the land manager spit the dummy with? Do they differentiate between electric motorbike access and access for any bikes?
**forgot this bit - there's also the case of the electric motorbiker bombing down or up some trail, crashing and hurting themselves badly. With electric motorbikes targeted at a market which is likely to have significant debt burden, its increasingly likely that a rider will seek compensation from somewhere. But where? Again the question chain will follow.. why were you riding dangerous trails? who built them? why are they dangerous? who maintains them? who signed off on their development? and so on, and so forth.
Mountain bike trails were not just dropped there by the freaking rainbow serpent in the dreamtime. Many people, the people that build this community, had to work hard to get them made and keep them open.
In my view, its a risk this community should run away from, fast!!!
I think it is completely fair to say take your electric motorbike (pedal activated or not) elsewhere.
...and I'll say it again, one more time. There exists already thousands of kilometres of dirt track for electric motorbikes to ride through state forests and national parks. Go use them there - there's no shortage of challenging trail.
Finally, in the course of work I've serviced and test ridden several different types of pedal activated electric motorbikes. There's not much difference from throttled bikes - except you spin your legs instead of your wrist. I'm really not sure why the law differentiates between the two, but I do appreciate that lower-powered units are exempt from registration. They are a really neat way of abandoning cars. They just don't belong on mountain bike trails.
I'm sure a few folk commenting here will see this as outrageously discriminatory and overly black and white. That's OK. A line must be drawn someplace, and in my world, for mountain bike trails, it should be drawn between fully human powered and power assisted bikes.
