And yet in Europe, E-bikes are everywhere. All the shops have huge amounts for sale, at an expo at an event most of the bikes on the stands were e-bikes, and this was a XCM event. While this seems to be a huge issue causing angst in the Uk and US, Europe seems to have just got on with it.

And that’s exactly why we are out of the EU

I think they will cause eventually problems, when they start being nuisance (and they will cos people are dicks) landowners won’t be arsed to check individuals/bikes they’ll just blanket ban everyone cos it’s easier..
It could be a spectacular own goal by the bike industry, shift a load of easily derestricted offroad ebikes short term, bikes get banned from loads of public land long term with the reduced bike sales to go with it..
As in loads of things in life the minority who don’t GAF about anything apart from they’re own gratification will **** it up for everyone else who act responsibly, same as the situation with crossers and green laners.

I bought a bike with a battery
Now my Strava times do flatter me
I’ll never be beat
Because I am a cheat
With a KOM in twattery.

Do landowners have the power to downgrade a bridleway to a footpath? I don’t think they do.

People ride plenty of places that aren’t bridle ways or footpaths
I’m not on my high horse against em btw, I don’t think I’m the moral majority and I can’t be arsed to argue anyway, but imo I do think they’ll cause problems long term

I was cycling back along a SUP the other day when a someone came round the corner on a super-moto style motorbike. I’m pretty sure motorbikes should be banned.

Amusingly I’d just passed a couple of coppers walking the same way I was going.

At this point where we’re trying to encourage more open access for bikes on footpaths like in Scotland, the e-bike thing will only provide the bobble-hat brigade and horseriders ammo to be used against us. Similarly, landowners can petition to have rights of way closed/restricted if they can demonstrate a nuisance. The difficulty is enforcement – I can go out every day and see people riding motorbikes at high speed on MOD ranges and AFAIK nothing has been done.

And that’s exactly why we are out of the EU

Yes, eBike usage across the EU was one of main things the exit campaign was based on.

they’ll just blanket ban everyone cos it’s easier..
It could be a spectacular own goal by the bike industry, shift a load of easily derestricted offroad ebikes short term, bikes get banned from loads of public land long term with the reduced bike sales to go with it..

Rather difficult to do when it means changing established access laws for a bridleway. Munrobiker’s right. It’d only be a risk on permissive bridleways, a small percentage.

All the laws that are needed to deal with a derestricted e-bike being used anywhere at all w/o number plates and insurance etc are already in place. You’d be riding an unlicensed and uninsured motorbike. The enforcement might be an issue but I can’t see how a blanket ban on bikes in areas we already have access to would happen as the easy option.

I’ve always argued that ebikes are great, especially if they do actually take off for transportation (I thought they’d be huge for this already to be honest, not sure why take up isn’t greater)

Because using an e-Bike still means riding on UK roads surrounded by heavy traffic doing double the speed you’re doing. People don’t use ebikes for the same reason people don’t use bikes. An ebike might save some work for your legs but the rest of it is just as unpleasant as being on a normal bike.

Places like the Netherlands have high ebike usage because they have decent infrastructure so people who might not otherwise be able to cycle long distances (the elderly and disabled, for example) can get an ebike and keep some mobility and independence because they’ve got safe routes to use the ebike on.

Gonna read this thread properly at lunch!!!

We should be concerned.

Once upon a time no one worried much about the occasional person taking a motorbike along trails and paths. Then in the 70s along came the cheap Japanese 2 stroke trail bikes in their hordes and tore the trails to pieces and making a hell of a racket while doing it.

In just about every country in the western world clampdowns on trail use followed – no distinction was made between slow bikes and full on motocrossers, all got banned.

Misuse of trails by electric motorbikes could have the same end result.

I don’t want to see e-bikes banned, I may be needing one soon, but electric motor trail bikes need to be nipped in the bud because the idiots will gravitate to them and wreck it for everyone (again).

If i had the spare cash id get an ebike today.. My knees don’t like to be hammered for miles on end!

Can’t do that Goldigger, it’s not ‘keeping it real’ apparently.

I appreciate that there will be issues with legality and individuals taking the piss, but by and large, I think the development of e-bikes and electric motorbikes can only be a good thing. Especially in urban areas; just think, no more ridiculously noisy pizza delivery scooters or naughty boys doing burnouts etc. More electric vehicles all round please.

reasonably high “stile” at the start of every tc trail, if you can lift your bike over you can ride it.

reasonably high “stile” at the start of every tc trail, if you can lift your bike over you can ride it.

Nice way to put off anyone with a disability 😕

Not to mention that it wont stop lawbreakers who are seldom without mates to assist with such things.

Don’t change the trails, don’t ban the bikes, enforce the laws and punish the people who take the piss, as ever this isn’t about eBikes, it’s about people and how sadly, some of them are dicks and won’t play nice.

Nice way to put off anyone with a disability
Not to mention that it wont stop lawbreakers who are seldom without mates to assist with such things.

you could put in lockable gates , if there was a need. “lawbreakers” ? is that what they think of themselves ? if so why not just ride a normal motorbike.

There’s a national speed limit of 70mph. Doesn’t put off anyone with a car capable of greater speeds, from breaking that limit though.

“lawbreakers” ? is that what they think of themselves ?

no I mean, specifically the ones deliberately taking de-restricted bikes or actual electric (or petrol) motorbikes places where they are not allowed.

ie: you wont stop the determined with a simple thing like a gate or fence, all you’ll do is make it harder for legitimate users to access the trails there are legally allowed to.

cinnamon_girl – Member
Can’t do that Goldigger, it’s not ‘keeping it real’ apparently

I am keeping it real, when ive got knee replacements I can still get out on a “bike” rather than retire to sitting in front of the TV being an armchair biker!
🙂

Its tough to compare UK with mainland EU, there is so much more space there. I cant see your average chav hooligan splashing out on an ebike when he can use a moped that cost jack shit. I reckon they will fall into line

clodhopper – Member
no more naughty boys doing burnouts etc. More electric vehicles all round please.

Like they couldn’t do that on an electric motorbike?

Legal E bikes on trails designed for MTB’s? No dramas. I’m sure the day will come when I will get one myself.

Electric motorbike as defined by the DVLA being used on trails designed for MTB’s? That’s irresponsible, obnoxious & ****.

Trail centres (I use that specific example as the OP was talking about Bedgebury) weren’t designed for the power & pace of something like that Bronco. It is an accident looking for somewhere to happen. Kind of like taking a high powered car on the public road & blasting about.

You want to go fast on your chosen toy? Do it where it’s appropriate to do so. Be that the track, proper moto cross trails are so far away from anyone else the only one whose going to get hurt is you.

It’s so fekin simple & obvious you’d have to be a total moron to argue otherwise.

Went on a ride with a big group this weekend and one of them had an E-bike

I have regularly been told that e-bike riders ‘still need to pedal, therefore, it’s still cycling’

I’m a fit rider and typically one of the first to the top of the hill. We were in Exmoor – so they’re pretty big hills

What really got on my tits was the fact the the e-bike rider was passing me near the top of a 300 to 400m climb. I’d get there 10 seconds after he arrived and he wasn’t even red-faced – let alone out of breath

This isn’t cycling – and any comparison to the naysayers against the introduction of disc brakes or suspension back in the 90s is bollocks – this is a totally different situation

This new segment is going to open up our cherished and quiet trails to a massive influx of people who were previously too lazy to develop their fitness levels – now, they can buy their fitness for £2.5K to £4K and whizz around with no regard to trail etiquette, causing more trail erosion and annoying the ramblers who will not differentiate them for the non-E-Bike crowd

Rant over…..

Do you know whether the e-bike rider had a bike before this one?

I’m just not convinced that a battery and a small motor is suddenly going to get a whole army of couch potatoes off their arses and into the hills. If it does then I guess that has to be good news, but my guess is that most sales will be to people who cycled anyway and can now go faster uphill.

I’m a fit rider and typically one of the first to the top of the hill. We were in Exmoor – so they’re pretty big hills

What really got on my tits was the fact the the e-bike rider was passing me near the top of a 300 to 400m climb. I’d get there 10 seconds after he arrived and he wasn’t even red-faced – let alone out of breath

Troll?, or just upset that your perceived fitness and experience (swoon) was not recognised thus endangering your social standing in the pissing contest?.

If the first then poor show, if the second then even poorer show.

Why care that the e bike got to the top first?

I might have to buy one of these ebikes knowing it winds some people up that much.

I think this whole e-bike thing is just progression, there will always people who do not get them, think they are called luddites.
I bought one for mrs gummikuh, after breast cancer, the radiation and chemo, really knocked her, she loves to cycle and we used to ride together all the time, this enables her to ride to work and we get out together.
Riding with her is really tough when she wants to put the hammer down, I have to really work to keep up, I look on it as training, she whoops like a child again, that is why they are out there.
I have ridden it a fair few times and can see me getting one when I’m older for my commute as they would allow me to wear my work clothes and not have the hassle of spare clothes and waiting for the shower to be free.

“I might have to buy one of these ebikes knowing it winds some people up that much.”

^Same here. 😀

Actually, I was thinking that a commute of some distance, for example Enfield to Wimbledon (the commute of a friend of hours) takes quite a while via public transport, and often much longer by car. By motorbike, it would be a good bit quicker. By pedal bike, it’s quite some distance for an average person to make every weekday. But an E-bike would be able to use cycle lanes/shortcuts, and not be as much physical effort. I’m sure some people could happily ride that each day, but a lot can’t, and tbh, anything that might help enable folk to travel more independently, is a good thing. Anything that might offer a viable alternative to petrol engines is a good thing. And anything that might challenge peoples’ insistence on using private petrol engined transport is a good thing.

This is why I want to see far more E-bikes being used. The vast majority won’t ever bother going ‘off road’. And if a few do, then will it really cause the harm some sensationalist commentators think it will?

Paging Jeremy Vine, are you receiving, over….

What really got on my tits was the fact the the e-bike rider was passing me near the top of a 300 to 400m climb. I’d get there 10 seconds after he arrived and he wasn’t even red-faced – let alone out of breath

I don’t know why that should piss you off. Does it piss off the slower riders in your group that you’re always mega fit and racing up the hills rather than chillin and spinning up slowly?

However saying that I don’t think it’s good etiquette to race up every hill on an ebike just because you can. When I’ve been out on an ebike (I can’t ride regularly due to health issues without one) I make sure I’m always at, or very near, the back.

“I bought one for mrs gummikuh, after breast cancer, the radiation and chemo, really knocked her, she loves to cycle and we used to ride together all the time, this enables her to ride to work and we get out together.
Riding with her is really tough when she wants to put the hammer down, I have to really work to keep up, I look on it as training, she whoops like a child again, that is why they are out there.”

And that. That’s another reason I want to see more of them. Because it offers freedom and mobility to so many more people. So happy your wife is now able to enjoy the outdoors again, gummikuh. Your story alone is enough to justify their sale and use. 😀

Maybe the ill and infirm should be made to wear an armband marking them out as such when using an ebike…. Worked for the Jews.

Blind people in Germany wear a yellow armband which looks at first glance like a nuclear symbol.

Here in Germany you do see quite a lot of people with ebikes out on the trails. Have seen a few reach places that they wouldn’t have under their own steam and then have difficulty trying to carry their 25kg bike down the mountain over roots and rocks.

I don’t care if i’m first or last up the hill.

What got on my tits is that he wasn’t even out of breath after such a strenuous climb. i.e. the power assist bike was doing 90% of the work

This is not cycling, this is motor biking

By the way – i have no issues at all about e-bikes on the road or for people with health problems. I do have major issues about where the manufacturer driven E-Bike craze will lead the sport of Mountain Biking

Continued rant over

well, everybody is already dressing like wannabe motocrossers…

We need to be careful as there is a chance that we/they (ebikes) will annoy other trail users – we can see some of that in this thread!

BUT they will never replace cycling. They will increase the number and types of people who can enjoy cycling as a hobby. And that’s a good thing in my opinion.

I don’t care if i’m first or last up the hill.

Course you don’t. Absolutely. 100%. I believe you. Really.

Boltonjon; other than to your own ego, what actual harm did this person cause?