Dom
I'm not showing you round again if you swing your dick in my direction.😂
😂😂😂
2nd point, so you can upgrade to an e-bike later?
Not so much that (but that is a thing too). More that a company needs to order say 5000 units of a medium frame base model hardtail. If/when the non ebike need is sufficiently small it might make financial sense for the manufacturer to make them all motor compatible rather than setup two production runs. Then add an insert into the motor cavity for a conventional BB.
So does my preference for bike accessed alpine touring (ideally in scotland or the lakes) validate my dislike for electric motorbikes?
I got the climbing references in your post but it still didn't make a lot of sense.
You are allowed to dislike e bikes, but you shouldn't look down on others for liking them because it's still a constructive activity and doesn't really affect anyone else. The environmental impact is still pretty low.
Unlike jetskis which make so much noise that they piss everyone off along miles of coast. Or motorbikes which are big heavy and much faster. And noisy and smelly.
@tjagain:
Elitist shite
Balls. I'm not elitist at all - but between myself and my girlfriend we've been crashed into THREE times by inexperienced ebikers in the past few years. My g/f picked up a nasty gash for her troubles. And there've been near misses.
We've never been crashed into by anyone else.
So I stand by it. It's safer for people to work their way up to things. Ebikes remove that requirement and are therefore dangerous.
And people are seeing it - increased trail aggro. You can't just dismiss the argument.
between myself and my girlfriend we’ve been crashed into THREE times by inexperienced ebikers in the past few years
I'm an experienced biker and I once crashed into someone. I hurt them too. It's because I was fit enough to be going much too fast. It was up a short hill too.
So I stand by it. It’s safer for people to work their way up to things. Ebikes remove that requirement
I don't see how being unfit up hill stops you careering down hill too fast. This was certainly my default downhill state when I started out.
I thought it was pretty simple but here it is more simply.
I disagree. eMTBs (as in, eBikes for leisure rather than to replace an ICE journey) are not constructive. I similarly disagree that 'more people out on two wheels = better', when the people you are adding, as @chevychase has experienced, are often unsympathetic to either the environment or other people (if they were, they would be on a bike not a motorbike). They massively increase wear and erosion to the small amount of poorly protected natural open spaces we have in the country, and the environmental cost of charging and lithium mining and disposal has an unanswered moral component. The benefit they offer? Immediate gratification without effort. This is the point about climbing ethics that I think you didn't understand - there is a moral principle that you don't cheat your way to the top or demand that the outdoors be sanitised so that you aren't challenged - bolted where you could place gear - you train and practice so that you have the capacity.
eBikes are Jetskis mate - you just happen to like these ones.
Immediate gratification without effort.
Who says you need to earn gratification? That is the attitude that makes you look like a snob.
I might watch TV tonight. What do I need to do first to deserve it?
I like riding up hills by the way. I'm going for a run later, because I want to be fit. But I don't think everyone else needs to think the way I do.
As for the rest of your comments - CE.baxl with a complete study of benefits against costs of e-MTBs. Your anecdotes aren't enough.
there is a moral principle that you don’t cheat your way to the top
Climbing is full of snobs also. True, you don't cheat your way to the top and claim you climbed the route. But e-MTBers aren't doing this, they're not cheating. They aren't playing the same game as you, and they know it. But you apparently don't.
Climbing is about doing set challenges. Everyone knows what grade they can climb and people talk about it. You're rated as a climber based on this. There is no equivalent of this in MTBing, except maybe Strava but that is nothing like climbing.
The benefit they offer? Immediate gratification without effort.
I genuinely fail to comprehend why folks get their knickers in a twist about how other people have fun. It's never not going to be weird to me.
Every time someone calls eBikes motorbikes I just think “Jeffery Steadman”, have a little giggle and get on with enjoying my life.
Fortunately you are in a small minded minority and your sweeping generalisation of ebike riders is bullshit, and you know it. Nothing is being sanitised and there are no climbing ethics in the way you get to the top, as you say. You can redline and blow out your arse climbing an ebike, just as you would on a normal bike. Except you will be climbing steeper more technical trails which you would be probably pushing up. If it’s not for you fine. But don’t wrap it up in a load sanctimonious bull shit.
