There’s been a vocal portion of the MTB community about the same thing ever since the first Levo was sold. In the decade(?) since, there hasn’t been widespread erosion or destruction outside of normal use in my areas, compared to the abandoned moto trails of the 70s and 80s. There’s one popular area that shares trails with motos and allows ebikes (Post Canyon) where the moto trails are way more rutted out than the bike trails. Though, I still see kids riding the MTB trails on pit bikes occasionally.
Part of that might be credited to smarter trail building than previously. The USFS doesn’t allow motorized vehicles in any of its areas, but the BLM does. I know a lot of trail builders use ebikes to haul their gear into remote areas, so even those crotchety bastards recognize the usefulness.
Thousands of words about why this 1500W motor is going to DISRUPT the ebike industry and not a single one about the laws and regulatory environment currently around the riding and selling of ebikes. A 1500W motor would make that bicycle legally a motorcycle here, requiring a motorcycle endorsement, registration, and insurance. Not that that would prevent some dumbasses from riding them on the river trail and elsewhere.
Pardon my ignorance, but legislatively things seem relatively consistent and stable in the EU, and the anecdotes about the US are all over the place. Where’s ‘here’ and how much of the U.S. agrees on that standard?
I haven’t been riding trails long enough to guess at the changes over time, but I have wondered if trail design has changed significantly with bike design changes in wheel size, suspension, etc. I would think people would want the kinds of features that make the new bikes more fun. How much does that impact rideability on old bikes in the big picture? Could the e-assist thing have that kind of impact on trail design too?
most of the trails you have ever ridden are the result of people organizing to demand access and then working their asses off to cut and maintain the trails. they work with relevant agencies to learn best practices to mitigate erosion and limit impact.
also new trails do get designed differentially now but it’s not like anyone has gone back and recut the stuff that I was riding in the early 90’s. most of the old trails were there before anyone decided to try to ride a bike down them.
Forest Service just started allowing Class-1 (pedal assist only to 20mph, no throttle) e-bikes on certain popular trails in Bend, and with spring just hitting things are about to get a tiny bit spicy.
Because of ofc a bunch of e-motorcycle ruts have already appeared, tearing up berms and trails and the stuff around here gets torn up and sandy real quick.
No one is enforcing “class 1 only” rules. And the e-moto kids don’t care, they just see it as an excuse to get on the trails. We already had issues in the previous years. I’d love for it to truly be class-1 only, allow folks who want the assist to use it.
But I think it should have stayed a hard “human-powered only”, that’s easier to community police and enforce norms around in a way that will actually have impact.
I was a hard hell no when they first hit but then started thinking some day I’m gonna be too old and broken to be able to do it on my own and maybe i’ll have a little more time to spend puttering around in the dirt and it would be nice to have that option
The human power only rule limits access for people on adaptive bikes. There is a big organization in Bend that supports adaptive sports like skiing and MTB. I’m not surprised they were able to lobby for more access.
Trails got more straight, less between-two-trees meandering (bikes got longer and slacker). In terms of riding style: probably less natural and more bermy “flow” because “kids these days” just want bike park jump trails or something.
That’s the purpose-built stuff. There’s also a bunch of riding to be done on trails that were trails for decades, but that’s not in the scope of the question.
How ebikes affect this? I dunno. One thing I can think of is a change in two-way or one-way uphill trails? Maybe what was once switchbacks becomes more of a straight line. I’ve kind of seen that already.
Yeah I didn’t want to type a ton out, but of course I would advocate for adaptive bikes being OK (including having a throttle). They were already running the trails an no one has a problem with that. Or really anyone with a handicap placard being OK to ride whatever kind of ebike they want. Similar exceptions already exist example National Parks OK motorized wheelchairs and other devices anywhere foot travel is allowed.
The hard core trail builders in my hood are mostly on ebikes. But they are old. The young ones, yeah, Id be surprised if they were into trail building.
Met a buddy on my commute yesterday. Hes 73 at least, we used to race a lot together. He said he bought a superlightweight (half power) ebike and it just pisses him off. He said dont bother, or just get a proper grunty one.
I’ve read that as well. That may turn out to be how I feel as well. I dunno, I am thinking of one specific use-case and that is to do 2 runs down the hill behind town instead of 1. I don’t want to get spoiled by it or have my riding adjust to some quasi-moto (ha) style.
