Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 85 total)
  • E-bike coverage grumble
  • ChipkoAndolan
    Full Member

    I’m not interested in e bikes. I’m not wholly anti e-bikes, I can understand how they might be liberating for people with limited mobility. I am anti e-bike for regular mountain biking, by which I mean for riders with no mobility problems who see an electronically assisted bike as a shortcut to subvert the effort normally required to get up a hill.
    I have two reasons for being anti the ‘lazy’ e-biker:
    1) Electronic assistance means extra torque. Extra torque means extra erosion, and trail erosion is bad
    2) Lazy riders are probably lazy in other aspects of their riding, like maintaining our trails
    I am annoyed that a mag which I subscribe to is increasing e-bike coverage. I originally subscribed to Singletrack because I identified with the riders in the articles and found the reviews relevant to the way I ride. As e-bike coverage increases that relevance decreases, along with my willingness to pay for a subscription.
    The mountain biking industry feels bloated, clutching at innovations to broaden its market. There’s a conflict at hand; many of us ride to experience solitude in the few patches of woodlands and hillsides near our homes, in doing so we’ve fostered an industry to support our riding, but all industries need to expand and ours does that by appealing to more people. More people means more erosion and less solitude.
    This might seem rash, but I’m considering cancelling my subscription in the hope that doing so might stem the flow of e-bike promotion.
    Does anyone else feel the same?

    parkesie
    Free Member

    Yawn

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

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    nickjb
    Free Member

    Does anyone else feel the same?

    Some do, but some don’t. Thats why there’s already been several threads. Too lazy to search? 😈

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    Here we go again 🙂

    somafunk
    Full Member

    kerley
    Free Member

    Looks to me like you are not in line with the changing times (which is fine) so maybe the magazine is not for you anymore.

    No big deal, just read a different magazine

    Del
    Full Member

    Lazy riders are probably lazy in other aspects of their riding, like maintaining our trails

    curious to know what percentage of ‘regular’ riders you think are involved in maintaining ‘our’ trails.

    toons
    Free Member

    you haven’t ridden one then

    ChipkoAndolan
    Full Member

    I take all your points.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    To be fair I feel the same about gnarduro

    warpcow
    Free Member

    jonba
    Free Member

    e-bikers aren’t as bad as people who use uplifts. At least there is some skill in riding up the hill with assist. Trucks/Vans/Buses and the roads to support them also cause far more environmental damage.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    I feel however , he has a very valid point but as I rarely read the mag due to the lack of mudguard reviews I’ll get over it.

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    yah am sure the proliferation of e bikes will mean loads more people out in the woods at night when I do the majority of my mtbing.

    less solitude

    – are you for real? do you just ride trail centres?

    robgclarkson
    Free Member

    I’m with you OP, and I hate the way the magazines have started pushing them (lol!) As if they’re the next big thing… which means they will be, and are, the next big thing… biking is about pushing yourself and achieving feats of physicality, not riding a motor bike ffs

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    E-bike coverage grumble

    Niche, you’re well into darkweb territory there

    philjunior
    Free Member

    less solitude
    – are you for real? do you just ride trail centres?

    Yeah, I thought (s)he might be for real until that bit.

    kenneththecurtain
    Free Member

    . biking for me is about pushing yourself and achieving feats of physicality and I’m not interested in what other people’s motivation to get out on a bike is

    Ftfy.

    dragon
    Free Member

    To be fair I feel the same about gnarduro

    At least that is cycling though. I can’t stand the whole groomed jumps thing, but I do accept it is considered part of mtbing.

    E-bikes are a very grey area, probably deserve their own mag, or at least a supplement.

    LAT
    Full Member

    Wasn’t there a survey on the front page of the site the result of which indicated that people were interested ebike coverage?

    Personally, I’m not interested in ebikes.

    mitsumonkey
    Free Member

    Ebikes = Garlic bread!
    Most of the erosion I’ve seen on trails is the brake bumps caused by people not having the skill to go round corners properly.

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    E-bikes are a very grey area, probably deserve their own mag, or at least a supplement.

    Why?

    ChipkoAndolan
    Full Member

    I don’t generally ride trail centres. I have ridden them, but I mostly ride in national park areas and AONBs. I’ve also ridden in the Hebrides, the Atlas Mountains, the Southern Alps, the Rockies and the Alps.

    I don’t get the point of your argument about solitude in trail centres?

    buckster
    Free Member

    Chipko, chill out. Like full suspension, trail centers, surf-style shorts, taxes and death, its going to happen, peace dude. Enjoy the tranquility and solitude of your hearts trail today, tomorrow you may be hit by a bus

    tjagain
    Full Member

    I have far more issue with the (majority of?) MTBers who ride in a antisocial manner. Strava, riding on wet muddy trails cutting them up, who ride round puddles widening tracks rather than thru them, who ride alongside eroded trails widening the erosion and who don’t follow the code of conduct for outdoor access. ~A special dislike for those who dig trails on public land. A far greater threat.

    samunkim
    Free Member

    You know how MotoX and MTB are different things. Well I just just look at this as another choice. Maybe in a few yers we will see tracks(re-)opening all round the “home counties” for noise-free e-MotoX with no gravity needed.

    Could be really great

    ocrider
    Full Member

    I’m not particularly interested in ebikes either, because I’m not (yet) part of that demographic with large disposable income, health limitations and a desire to keep their lives active for as long as possible. I’m quite sure that I’ll be one of them sometime in the next 25 years, apart from the money bit 🙂 I’ll just turn over the page or scroll on for the time being.
    I have tried one out and have surmised that the torque and wheelspin argument is unsubstantiated nonsense. It’s definitely not on the quad/mx scale of trail damage, even somebody out of the saddle, mashing the pedals is worse.
    I’m worrying more that the second hand market in nice manual drive full sussers is going to suffer in the long-term!

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    I’m considering cancelling my subscription in the hope that doing so might stem the flow of e-bike promotion.

    For real?

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    e-bike or full suspension or hardtails or rigid bikes or single speeds or geared bikes.

    Personally i hate chrome parts; particularly frames (i think early-midschool BMX has scared me) i’d like to read a magazine that’s chrome free.

    Have you ridden one? £10 i know the answer.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    You know how MotoX and MTB are different things. Well I just just look at this as another choice. Maybe in a few yers we will see tracks(re-)opening all round the “home counties” for noise-free e-MotoX with no gravity needed.

    Yep but if they want to abide by law they will be doing 15.5mph and will be pedaling any time they want power.

    Sounds like shit motox to me.

    ocrider
    Full Member

    It’ll be like speed walking, trail_rat. Picture it : instant dsq if a tyre leaves the ground

    munrobiker
    Free Member

    It’s just a bike. Does it matter?

    I’m not interested in 29ers but I’d not flounce away from reading a magazine about it.

    And, as usual, your interpretation of the erosion caused by these ebikes, because you’ve based your position on assumptions rather than facts or experience, is wrong. They cause less erosion because the application of power is more linear than a normal bike. The power is also pretty low.

    nealglover
    Free Member

    This might seem rash, but I’m considering cancelling my subscription ….

    It doesn’t seem rash at all. If you don’t enjoy the mag, don’t subscribe, that’s common sense.

    …. in the hope that doing so might stem the flow of e-bike promotion

    That, however, is just deluded.

    Read it, or don’t read it. But please realise that nobody apart from you gives a shit either way 😆

    yourguitarhero
    Free Member

    Singletrack readers are old and getting older and cannae hack the mountain biking any more so need off-road mobility scooters. Plus men 50+ have lots of cash to spend. Adverts. Business. Print Media changes blah blah blah

    MrAgreeable
    Full Member

    I’m considering cancelling my subscription in the hope that doing so might stem the flow of e-bike promotion.

    I’ve got the latest issue in front of me. There’s one (subtle) e-bike advert just inside the front cover (the bit that I usually flick straight past)… and literally no mention of e-bikes for the subsequent 113 pages. None at all.

    There’s an article about hand built steel frames, loads of riding in big landscapes on natural trails, heck, even a fatbike article (controversial), but aside from that one advert, it’s basically like electrically assisted mountain bikes don’t exist.

    Are you quite sure we’re talking about the same magazine?

    taxi25
    Free Member

    For what it’s worth I largely agree with you Op. But Singletrack is a business, and there’s a large thread detailing how they might have to shut up shop 🙁 like it or not there seems to be an interest in ebikes. Perhaps that interest is what’s needed to keep them in print.

    MrAgreeable
    Full Member

    It’s also worth pointing out (again) that e-bikes have been a mature technology for three or four years now. If anything, you could argue that they’re deliberately underrepresented in the mountain bike media. It’s a bit like if magazines refused to acknowledge the existence of full suspension, or disc brakes.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Chipko Andolan – Member

    2) Lazy riders are probably lazy in other aspects of their riding, like maintaining our trails

    I’ll field this one… Practically nobody does any meaningful trail work. People like reading about trailbuilding and maintenance and they like that someone does it, we had 500 facebook views and a load of Likes last week but nobody turns up. 10 people at the last session and 8 of those have been doing it for years.

    And that’s OK- it’s voluntary, we do it because we want to. But the proportion of mountain bikers that do trailwork rounds to 0%, regardless of what bike they ride. And it’s been that way since before e-mtbs were even a thing.

    ChipkoAndolan
    Full Member

    For real?

    Yes, I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. It’s not a decision I take lightly, I really like the mag but e-bikes are such a cop out (excluding limited mobility).
    Trail centres are what they are, and I’ve indulged in chairlifts in resorts, but e-bikes seem like a cheats way to the wilderness and likely to impact those areas that have thus far evaded uplift services and chairlifts.

    I’ve got the latest issue in front of me.

    there’s a large thread detailing how they might have to shut up shop

    Thanks guys, pleased we’ve finally got to reasoned discussion.
    It sounds like the mag is still what I subscribed for, and I have literally emailed just now to postpone my cancellation. I have unliked the FB page though. Maybe I’ll hold off for a bit longer. When I see e-bike articles I’ll know I’m an old fart and it’s time to retreat 😉
    For now I’ll stick to night rides in the local woods and looking forward to my son getting old enough to come out with me of a weekend and maintain some trails!

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 85 total)

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