Electric Mountain Bike Trail Access and Adoption
Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast
Singletracks.com
4.7 • 574 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2020
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There are few topics in the world of mountain biking more controversial than electric mountain bikes. While one side believes anything with a motor goes against the spirit of the sport and could have a devastating effect on trail access, the other side argues the new tech helps disabled riders and makes mountain biking even more fun.
So who is right? Like most issues, the truth lies somewhere in between the extreme views on either side, and none of us know for certain how this will all shake out in the future. This is a debate that’s been going on for several years, yet today we’re starting to see how some of the early predictions of the impact e-bikes might have are coming true in terms of trail access and riders’ health.
In this episode I’ll share two recent stories about e-bike trail access and a study that looks at the health benefits of riding an electric mountain bike, and how riders’ perceptions change (or don’t change) after riding one. You can read all three of these articles, written by Matt Miller, on Singletracks.com, listed below.
* Secretary of Interior Allows E-bike Access Across BLM Land, National Parks
* We Asked Four Major Trail Organizations for their Thoughts on eMTB Trail Access
* Study Suggests eMTBs Offer Nearly Same Workout as Non-motorized MTBs, Attitudes Towards eMTBs Change After Riding
--Keep up with the latest in mountain biking at Singletracks.com and on Instagram @singletracks
Transcript
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| 0:38.8 | if you won yourself a hat. Happy trails. Hey everybody, welcome to the single tracks podcast. |
| 0:46.7 | My name is Jeff, and today I'm going to be talking about electric mountain bikes. You know, |
| 0:52.1 | there are a few topics in the world of mountain biking more controversial than electric mountain bikes. You know, there are few topics in the world of mountain biking more |
| 0:55.0 | controversial than electric mountain bikes. While one side believes anything with the motor goes |
| 1:00.5 | against the spirit of the sport and could have a devastating effect on trail access, |
| 1:04.4 | the other side argues that this new technology helps disabled riders and can make mountain |
| 1:09.8 | biking even more fun. |
| 1:12.0 | So, who's right? |
| 1:13.8 | Like most issues, the truth lies somewhere in between the extreme views on either side, |
| 1:19.0 | and none of us know for certain how this will all shake out in the future. |
| 1:22.4 | This is a debate that's been going on for several years, |
| 1:24.9 | and today we're just starting to see how some of the early predictions of the e-bike impact are coming true in terms of trail access and rider's health. |
| 1:35.6 | In 2018, we asked our readers for their thoughts on electric mountain bikes, and we were surprised to find that the biggest supporters were not just those 55 and older, |
| 1:45.6 | but also those younger than 18 years old. |
| 1:49.3 | Perhaps less surprising is that those who have actually tried an electric bike tend to be much more |
| 1:54.8 | supportive for access to non-motorized trails. |
... |
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