E Bike at Cross Country Endurance Event

[Calvin27]

ebike owner here and my 2c is they shouldn't be racing together. Charity events and fondos and stuff, fair enough.

I use mine for recreation, but would never to think of entering it in anything aside from paris-dakar rally.

 

[DMan]

ebike owner here and my 2c is they shouldn't be racing together. Charity events and fondos and stuff, fair enough.

I use mine for recreation, but would never to think of entering it in anything aside from paris-dakar rally.

Fair enough too. I didn't realise that so I checked the results as I did that event too with my partner. I think it's shit as there's no mention anywhere in the results about e-bikes. I think it's cheating when they put them together with non electric bikes but have no splitting in the results. It was a hard event if you didn't have an electric motor helping you with the climbing....

 

[Flow-Rider]

In my opinion e-bikes should have their own individual race at an XC event. I don't think there's any harm in contacting the event organiser and voicing your opinion to them.

I've noticed a lot MTB shops are getting into selling them and I guess that there will be problems with sponsorship of races. Bike shops want to sell these bikes to the certain people that they appeal to and then those people have no where to race them. It will be quite expensive to set up an individual race for them at an event like the epic if the numbers are low.

I don't think e-bikes need be on common mountainbike trails. What's going to be next ? If they get to a big enough following their voices will be louder than your common mountainbiker, you might end up with trails in the local MTB parks that are designed to suit them. I don't want to riding those sorts of trails.

 

[Ideate]

I don't think e-bikes need be on common mountainbike trails. What's going to be next ?

Are you against gay marriage too? Sounds like something they'd start their argument off with.

 

[born-again-biker]

e-Bikes are a growing problem.
One article I read stated they are basically what's know as a "gateway bike".
Most users start out with some e-biking with their friends on the weekends, but too many young souls move on to meth-bikes, coke-bikes & ice-bikes.
Once they're addicted to these harder bikes it's just a downward spiral....

 

[Flow-Rider]

Are you against gay marriage too? Sounds like something they'd start their argument off with.

I just don't think every trail needs to be shared with e-bikers. There's lots of other places to ride e-bikes and it's not much different to mountainbiking on dedicated walking trails.

 

[DMan]

I just don't think every trail needs to be shared with e-bikers. There's lots of other places to ride e-bikes and it's not much different to mountainbiking on dedicated walking trails.

I don't care if they do the same trails as me. But in the context of this thread it does fucking shit me that some busted their asses on this event and some did it considerably easier but they were weren't distinguished between. Create a separate class if you're allowing them into your events. And if you ride an e-bike and don't specify it in the entry form then your time doesn't count.

 

[99_FGT]

I have to wonder if we are at a similar point with them as with other entirely new applications of technology we have seen - when the Prius was released I doubt anyone saw the McLaren P1 coming 15 years later. Thats a slightly different example, but it does make me wonder if the ebikes are just going to get exponentially faster and faster over the next few years until they really are nearly like a sustitute for a dirtbike.

The fact that you see conversation about the current MTB brakes being insufficent for pulling ebikes up is a concern to me - given the weight is not THAT much more than a regular MTB, it sorta indicates to me that they are already holding much faster speeds for much longer than regular MTBs.

Ever been in a taxi (or any other vehicle where it is obvious they don't maintain the vehicle or pay for petrol) where they hold the brake and modulate their speed by accelerator input? Brakes are smoking when you get out. On a pedal powered bike you get tired very quickly doing that. You can see the same thing happening on ebikes

 

[Calvin27]

t some busted their asses on this event and some did it considerably easier but they were weren't distinguished between.

i don't care about busting butts to complete events - each to their own. But in a competitive or timed event that isn't a 'fun' style event it's pretty poor form. If you think about the equivalence in other sports, you'd quickly realise how stupid the idea of mixing powered and unpowered disciplines is, even if they are timed separately.

 

[moorey]

Are you against gay marriage too? Sounds like something they'd start their argument off with.

As the owner and user of one with highly illegal power output...you're not a little biased are you? :behindsofa:

Love, moorbags the dickhole.

 

[DMan]

i don't care about busting butts to complete events - each to their own. But in a competitive or timed event that isn't a 'fun' style event it's pretty poor form. If you think about the equivalence in other sports, you'd quickly realise how stupid the idea of mixing powered and unpowered disciplines is, even if they are timed separately.

We're heading to the same point but from different directions. But I agree with your view.

 

[Ideate]

I just don't think every trail needs to be shared with e-bikers. There's lots of other places to ride e-bikes and it's not much different to mountainbiking on dedicated walking trails.

Is that why? Because you think it's the same as mountain bikes pinging down walking tracks with old people and prams?

A mountain bike sharing a walking path != an ebike sharing a mtbike trail or track.

Ebike's only advantages are endurance and hill climbing. In terms of every other aspect, ebikes (pedal assist specifically) are exactly the same as regular mountain bikes.

So what's the real problem you have?

Edit: using an ebike in a non ebike event is not on.

 

[Ideate]

As the owner and user of one with highly illegal power output...you're not a little biased are you? :behindsofa:

Love, moorbags the dickhole.

Are you calling me gay?

Edit: Using an ebike in a race with people without ebikes is cheating.

 

[moorey]

Are you calling me gay?

Edit: Using an ebike in a race with people without ebikes is cheating.

There a Shakespeare quote that I can't remember.....

 

[Ideate]

There a Shakespeare quote that I can't remember.....

Does it go something like this.. lol

 

[Flow-Rider]

Is that why? Because you think it's the same as mountain bikes pinging down walking tracks with old people and prams?

A mountain bike sharing a walking path != an ebike sharing a mtbike trail or track.

Ebike's only advantages are endurance and hill climbing. In terms of every other aspect, ebikes (pedal assist specifically) are exactly the same as regular mountain bikes.

So what's the real problem you have?

Edit: using an ebike in a non ebike event is not on.

They're top end heavy and harder to tight corner with and going up hill is like using 1/8 of your strength so if you built a dedicated trail for an e-bike it will be somewhat different.

They're unregulated for starters, any dick can turn up to the trails on a modified e-bike, pretend to spin their legs while everyone is looking (like I've already seen) and say it's legal or turn up with something that's got twice the power that it should have. Uphill speed is a lot faster, already a problem with 2 way trails where I ride with people climbing in the opposite direction at roughly 7km/h and I'd hate to see how they go hitting blind corners at double + more then you have the braking into berms from the higher speeds.

I'm happy to see e-bikes on the trails if they were sealed for tamper proof, a permit requirement was enforced for people that really needed them and people that ran businesses with small tours that didn't largely impact with normal MTBers.

As the owner and user of one with highly illegal power output...you're not a little biased are you? :behindsofa:

Love, moorbags the dickhole.

Enough said, you can sort of predict this shit when people are fast to get on their back foot. :whistle:

 

[moorey]

Enough said, you can sort of predict this shit when people are fast to get on their back foot. :whistle:

Whoa, ease up turbo. Was just having a good natured dig at a dickhole who ruined a perfectly good spitty. Tom has said a lot on this matter. Never on the back foot.

 

[Gripo]

ironic

It's ironic really...we've spent a couple decades advocating and building cycling only trails and now we let a motorized piece of equipment use them under the guise of some pedal assisted bs....sorry but they aren't bicycles no matter which way you term it....

 

[Psimpson7]

Irrespective of the arguments for and against the use of E-bikes on MTB trails, to be allowed to enter in to a race with no separate classification of the results is laughable.

 

[schred]

Yep, obv a joke, the sort you get from dopey well-intentioned ideals of bicycle inclusivity, that will keep on going if people don't speak up and challenge it. It's a fcking race ffs!

I also think ebikes have a loooong way to run, but given they are basically an unknown, factoring in the diverse and 'different' rider demographic who may hold different values to regular cyclists & mtbers in particular on which the whole trail advocacy thing balances, the evolving and concealed nature of the tech making them ever more motor than bicycle, and the push to sell a sh1tload of them to people who should prob learn how to ride the first place, notwithstanding many mtb trails are self-limiting by their very nature, I don't think a blind embrace of ebikes is the answer, but then I'm not an ebiker so maybe that's my bias.