E-Bikes on the trails

[dkel]

@hozn 121740 wrote:

We’ll leave that for another thread and try to enjoy the remaining summer

No we won’t! We’ll argue about it ad nauseam until everyone forgets about it, then we’ll bring it up again a couple months from now and start all over! It’s a forum tradition!

[lordofthemark]

@DismalScientist 121743 wrote:

Yea… Parents with newborn twins should be forced to sell one of them.

No wait… They should wait until they start talking and sell the one that babbles the most.:rolleyes:

The folks who are here today are going to wonder why I am humming a theme from Borodin’s String quartet No 2.

[runbike]

@jabberwocky 121735 wrote:

Strava on e-bikes:
https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/21577916-Uploading-E-bike-motor-assisted-or-non-conventional-bike-data-to-Strava-Guidelines

I had no idea that “E-Bike Ride” was one of the categories you could select on Strava. This is honestly huge for those of us (like myself) who ride e-bikes but also want to have some log of their data. Yes you could always go the private activity route but that removes the fun/social aspect that I always enjoy (flybys anyone?). This is a game changer.

Now I guess I have a lot of past entries to go and fix…

[83b]

@run/bike 121746 wrote:

I had no idea that “E-Bike Ride” was one of the categories you could select on Strava.

I think this must be somewhat new. I definitely looked into an option to flag my ebike commutes the year before last. Last winter, due to mechanical issues, I was on my cross bike for most of the FS period.

On ebikes and FS more generally, I agree that people racking up big miles on assisted rides would be lame and contrary to the spirit of the game. But I don’t know that anyone would do that. Last winter I did all my recreational riding indoors (because I’m soft and worthy of ridicule). So only my commutes/errands (which are what I’d use the ebike for) were recorded and I was toward the very bottom of the total distance standings.

[consularrider]

@lordofthemark 121745 wrote:

The folks who are here today are going to wonder why I am humming a theme from Borodin’s String quartet No 2.

No I won’t.

[lordofthemark]

@consularrider 121749 wrote:

No I won’t.

Here as in actually near where I am sitting. But you made the connection?

[jabberwocky]

@run/bike 121746 wrote:

I had no idea that “E-Bike Ride” was one of the categories you could select on Strava. This is honestly huge for those of us (like myself) who ride e-bikes but also want to have some log of their data.

@83(b) 121748 wrote:

I think this must be somewhat new. I definitely looked into an option to flag my ebike commutes the year before last.

Its definitely a fairly new option. When we last had this discussion a year or two ago I looked at the same page and it simply said basically “rides done on e-bikes shouldn’t be uploaded, and if they are flagged we will delete them”. Cool of them to give the option.

[dplasters]

Well I’m a pansy and was no where near the tops in miles during FS this winter, but I tended to interpret the big mileage folks as ranking the amazing ability to punish yourself by spending inordinate amounts of time outside in terrible weather.

Certainly speed is a factor, but if you’re willing to spend that kind of time outside when its 28 degrees I’m not really judging how you’re propelling your two wheels.

For those that have been through FS multiple times – is your speed effected more by:
Road/Trail Conditions
Wind
Cold air (in that cold, dry air is denser than warm humid air and thus provides more resistance)

Personal feeling is that Road/Trail Conditions make riding hard dangerous and so top speeds come down out of caution.

As far as e-bikes go, just like normal cyclists if you ride courteously, I don’t’ really care. I have a silly fear that one day we will be menaced by e-bike hoodlums doing 35mph on MUPs but I’m pretty sure that is unfounded.

[dasgeh]

Reading the original post was like deja vu all over again. I seriously think we’ve had exactly the same OP a number of times…

But, why not replay the record.

E-bikes are good for you because the single most effective thing for increasing safety of people on bikes is more people on bikes. People on e-bikes look just like people on other bikes, and they have the same effect: make drivers see and look for us. The e-assist means that more people can / will bike more often – more butts on bikes = good for you. Some will tell you that there are “legitimate” reasons to have an ebike – mine allowed me to bike straight through two pregnancies, and to haul kids and gear around even the hilliest parts of Arlington. But whether the reasons for using an ebike are “legitimate” in the court of you or not, butts on e-bikes are still butts on bikes, which makes riding safer for you.

And oh, the scare tactic of OHMYGODDONTTHEYGOFASTANDRUNMEDOWN. No. They generally don’t. Most adhere to the federal regulation that says the motor can’t help get you over 20mph, and honestly, most motors aren’t strong enough to get the heavy bike + rider (and often + load) to get to 20mph on the flats. My family owns 2 ebikes, and at least 4 other bikes that easily go faster than the ebikes. People can ride like dicks on many different kinds of bikes, and people can ride fast on many different types of bikes. It makes a lot of sense to focus on rider behavior. It makes little sense to focus on the bike under the butt of someone being an ass.

In fact, I think riding an ebike makes me a more courteous rider. Because it’s easier for me to regain momentum, I’m less possessive of the momentum I’ve gained. I’m more likely to stop where I’m supposed to stop but can get away with slowing. I’m more likely to slow way down to avoid having to squeeze into a space that would be tight (e.g. passing someone right before the trail widens).

There are legal arguments for why they are allowed on trails, but they are technical, not completely airtight, and don’t really matter here. They are allowed in the challenges, which is as it should be, because those games are designed to get more butts on bikes, because getting more butts on bikes is the single most effective thing that makes biking safer. For everyone. Even you.

[DismalScientist]

Well, if the challenges are just designed to get people on bikes, why do they stress distance so much?

[peterw_diy]

@DismalScientist 121758 wrote:

Well, if the challenges are just designed to get people on bikes, why do they stress distance so much?

Are you trolling or do you really not understand why the important thing here for safety is bicycle miles ridden within view of people driving autos?

[rcannon100]

I dont want to be a part of this discussion because I am a grumpy jaded old man with a foster pit bull who just sat down on my chest.

I will add only one thought because it drives me nuts

There is NO important thing to Freezing Saddles. Freezing Saddles was NOT about advocacy. It was NOT about getting people on bikes. It was not advancing any cause or had any mission. It was not designed to do anything.

Freezing Saddles was a bunch of roughly-resembling friends who wanted to goof off together through horrible winter months. We devised a game. We insulted each other. We had classes on how to patch condoms. We drank. And we suffered through the horror that is winter.

THAT IS IT! That is all. There was absolutely positively no advocacy involved.

If you want FS to be about bike advocacy or whatever…. good for you. You must achieve a consensus of the participants… and most importantly…. you must have volunteers dedicated to that purpose. If you want to recruit noobs – good for you. Volunteer to deal with the noobs when they have registration problems (which they always do and they are always idiotic and they always think that whoever is doing registration should put up with the idiocy because, after all, this is an organized advocacy function…..)

The problem with people who think that the challenge was about some form of advocacy is that they create hassles for those volunteering to organize a bunch of friends who want to goof off together.

[dkel]

@dkel 121744 wrote:

No we won’t! We’ll argue about it ad nauseam until everyone forgets about it, then we’ll bring it up again a couple months from now and start all over! It’s a forum tradition!

See? Told ya.

[vern]

@dplasters 121753 wrote:

For those that have been through FS multiple times – is your speed effected more by:
Road/Trail Conditions
Wind
Cold air (in that cold, dry air is denser than warm humid air and thus provides more resistance)

Cold air reduces the efficiency of the average person’s respiratory system by about 10%, which makes everything more difficult.

[peterw_diy]

@rcannon100 121760 wrote:

There is NO important thing to Freezing Saddles. Freezing Saddles was NOT about advocacy. It was NOT about getting people on bikes.

See, now THAT is a lawyer’s disclaimer that sounds credible.

But I thought dasgeh was talking about various challenges, e.g. the NBC, whose acceptance of ebikes so irked Dismal they-oughta-make-everyone-ride-sewups-and-forge-their-own-chains Scientist. And NBC definitely is trying to get as many to ride as far as they can.

Unlike that salty winter BAFS mess.

[Author]

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