I'm currently looking at getting the new Tern Orox. I'm in my early '50s and live in the Pacific Northwest. Most of my 20s and early '30s I practically lived on my bike. In my 40s it was mostly pedaling my kid around, but life took away most of my adventure riding. Now that my teenager is getting ready to graduate from high school, I'm eyeing backpacking trips on a bike and ran across your channel. My thought on e-bikes is that they can level the playing field for everyone and get more people into cycling that wouldn't otherwise try it. For myself the orox is a beast, but after test writing it it was so fun to ride and more agile than I expected. And carry enough weight to even include a solar panel if I wanted to charge in a remote spot for a day or two while camping. It seems to me there just needs to be smart regulations. Like all technology there's good and bad, but as battery technology gets better I can see e-bikes becoming rather mainstream. At least I hope so, I think it's good for people to be a little bit closer than nature and less cars on the road would be nice.
Thanks for the video Dylan! Class 1 EMTB's are super popular and common in the Santa Cruz, CA area where much of the fun is riding the many downhills trails. They are generally doing more laps in a given ride simply because they can climb back up at least twice as fast as analog bikes, which could lead to more wear and tear, but I'm not really seeing that as the case. Many of the non EMTB riders choose to shuttle where applicable which has it's own drawbacks to the environment. I'm an "older guy" and still prefer to pedal without assistance, but could see maybe going to EMTB someday (maybe when I'm 70) ;)
I’m a bit of a late starter on the MTB front. I am a bit out of shape and at 55 yo, an eMTB provides the assistance that I need. I will admit that the price of the bike was a hurdle. I did, however, take a Ninja MTB class on the basics. When asked why I was taking the class, I stated that I wanted to learn so that I could prevent injury to myself and to others. If others took that approach, the trails would be much safer.
2015 imba study definitely needs an update - eMTB (class 1) are so much more refined now I'd wager that 0 difference can be measured other than normal wear from people riding at least twice as long as they normally would. In a year I've put on almost 1000 miles on my eMTB and close to 700 miles on my greenway ebike in addition to my regular bikes. As a volunteer trail builder for over 20 years, I can't see how any extra wear on trails could be caused by eMTB - again other than people simply riding more. Current models and software seem to limit slip to the point it could be argued that a regular bike may actually result in more wear and I've seen plenty of non-ebikes bombing out of control downhill with no etiquette since they "earned" that downhill. I've even seen emtb riders more willing to yield when they shouldn't have to just because it is easy to re-start uphill. ymmv.
Well done objective look at e-biking. You touch on nearly all of the benefits and challenges that need to be considered. I'm an older bike rider who has been at it for nearly 30 years. In the past I've ridden thousands of miles on traditional road and MTB bikes. Now that I have age related health issues, I've migrated to e-biking. It has allowed me to continue to be out there on the roads and trails. I do have to admit, for me e-biking is much more fun, especially when ridding up a long and steep hill or into strong headwind.
I agree that no matter what you're doing when sharing a path or trail, etiquette is most important. One question, do they make "training wheels" for ebikes? 😂 Nice video Dylan.
Most people need more aerobic level exercise and an e-MTB is a fantastic tool for that. Around where I live climbs are steep and can be very technical. Unless you're an advanced rider with fitness to match it's impossible to stay in "Zone 2" for a quality aerobic workout. An e-bike would really open up the route options. Otherwise you're stuck on the few flat options for zone 2 rides or every ride ends up being a hard ride. Every ride being hard leads to overuse issues and you aren't building as much fitness as you could potentially be with more aerobic only workouts mixed in with the intense days.
@@TheEnduranceStudio I actually don't have one but I probably would if I had the money and space. Would be great for aerobic training as I mentioned and keep my enduro bike for the downhill training sessions with intervals on the climb back up to stay in shape for racing. I do ride with a few people who use e-bikes. Their etiquette is to stay at the back of the group so they don't stretch things out and break up the group on climbs.
I generally don’t advocate for more regulation, but my feeling is signage is not going to cut it. The culture has to change. One way is taking bicycling more seriously, registering every bike and requiring a permit to operate (road and written test) with it made clear that the rider or parents have liability. People will balk at first, claiming rights infringement, etc; but why should a bike be any different from a car, motorcycle or moped?
I thought about regulation but there just isn't enough funding to support something plus its not really the same thing. The big difference between a car, motorcycle, and moped is they can all go over a certain speed which is why a license/regular is required. Bicycles can't go over this speed - until class 4 ebikes which I think should require a license since they go over 28 mph. Signage obviously doesn't cut it since I see giant hordes of eMTB's blowing right past all the signs in Sedona. Imposing fines would work for people that are riding eMTB in areas that are clearly signed 'no e-bikes' but this would require some organization and regulation but it may be a revenue generator.
Looking for a video that tells more about the respect rules for trail rides. I don’t wanna be that rider… Let’s be honest any of us that got our ML checked rules of the road incase we came across a patch. Just trying to find the same lines of respect for the ones there before me
thanks for the feedback. I think its variable in different states and counties but generally speaking when people are out using their shared public lands there seems to be a common understanding and level or respect that should be followed. Generally speaking, its respectful to follow this yielding order: Vehicles -> eMTB -> Mountain Bikes -> Runners -> Hikers -> Horses. For some reason, the majority of side by sides and eMTB's think they're excluded from the shared trail respect guidelines. I think i'm gonna start stopping eMTB's that are illegally on trails and ask them why they think its ok and do a mini-interview. Also I've had great success running a Timber Bell on my MTB in high traffic areas - runners, hikers and horses thank me all the time for using it.
😂 same thought process could be used for normal bikes…this is foolish thinking. A class 1 ebike is amazing for assisting you and in no way correlates to a motor vehicle that needs to be registered and insured.
