[Closed] First negative encounter with the "ebike mob"

Jean Claude Van Dam will sort them out for your.

Well if they muck about too much perhaps they will be banned from trail centers.

Can't see them being banned, the hire shop was doing a fair trade in rentals today, wonder if they account for the biggest percentage of hires nowadays?

The lower the barrier to entry the more people. The more people the more ****. ****s are emboldened by seeing other ****s. The results. ****ageddon.

I read somewhere that the average demographic for bikes in the UK was a middle-aged couple who were not 'cyclists'. I found this in the week when using the Monsal trail to get back to the car from a ride . The afore mentioned middle age couple were pushing there bikes up the small rise onto the Bakewell end of the trail and then  overtook me. Not a big achievement but they then seemed to struggle to keep this pace . I couldn't be bothered to overtake them and just followed until I got to where my car was. Afterwards I was puzzled by their behaviour. Why use an ebike on a flat cycle trail but push it on the only bit where power would have been of some use?

I had my tyre buzzed a few weeks ago by someone on an ebike after I had the audacity to overtake him on my road bike. He then overtook me when the road started to rise slightly and deliberately cut me up in the process. I was doing 35-40kmh and he must have been doing 5-10kmh more. I presume he must have chipped his bike but it seems to be the norm round these parts with younger people.

I borrowed an e-bike and was nice to everyone I met.

The bike isn’t the problem.

As above its not the bike its the rider, some people will be dicks whatever they are doing

Non e bike riders can be ****s too, had a few sarky comments from them, just smile and carry on enjoying my ride, the friendly ones i chat to and have a laugh with

I'm always careful coming up behind people on my e-bike and will hang back waiting to be heard, wait for a clear place to pass or give a friendly excuse me

Just like not all Audi or BMW drivers are speeding, non indicating, tailgating ****ers, some of us obey the the rules, some are just ****s

When I get an ebike I’m going to put a loud exhaust on it so people know I’m coming.

Sounds like you just meet some eejits rather than being caused by the type of bike they were on...

I was on my ebike the other day plodding up a long road hill in eco, road guy came past me, we said hello and off he went up the hill and continued to pull away from me.

cocks will be cocks no matter what they ride.

The bike isn’t the problem

Of course it isn't but if it's easier for people to do then more idiots will do it. See drving a car.

You did well to throw a right bollocking into him wrightyson, only language these types understand.

Horse has bolted as far as trail centres go, I am afraid - ebike leper colonies up and down the land. It's probably a good thing that we cede them this territory in the bigger picture, keeps them contained. It's a shame for family riding, though - trail centres are great for younger riders to learn the ropes.

I can't remember the last time I rode a trail centre as they tend to be nobhead magnets anyway, but we went to Gisburn last weekend. Full of e-bikes. On the singletrack climbs, I was constantly pulling off the trail as I had someone on an ebike sat on my back wheel.

They're just different forms of transport to a normal bike, capable of a totally different pace (especially on the climbs) so throw them all in together like that and there's bound to be issues. I think you're just best surrendering the trail centres to them (they're welcome to them). I doubt you'll bump into many of them out on the moors

I wish people would stop with the 'there are idiots in every group thing', sometimes people just want to vent. Honestly, you could come on here after being beaten half to death by Hells Angels and you'd be told, 'oh well, it's not all Hells Angels that are lawless, violent thugs there are idiots in every outlaw bike chapter. And hey, have you never ridden on a footpath or assaulted an innocent passer-by just because you could?'

I think e-bikers are probably worse to be  honest and I totally sympathise with the OP.  Can people not just allow him to be cross?

ps: I was overtaken uphill by an old couple on small wheeled eb-ikes a while back. They were amusingly apologetic. Not all e-bikers are idiots...

If someone is quicker than me, I let them through. Maybe not if it's a real tough tech section and I can't really pull over without ruining my climb/descent. Possibly a bit rude to buzz your wheel. An excuse me would have been far more polite.

Same thing happened to me 3 weeks ago at Cannock. One chap had the audacity to shout ‘Mooove’ at me just I was entering a technical section. Cannock is getting progressively worse for this kind of thing.

I haven’t been back since....shame really

Cannock is shit at the best of times, arseholes on any sort of bike isn't going to improve it.

I do my best to be courteous when I'm catching people up and I'll tell them not to stop just for me. Some still do though so they get a cheery "Thanks". I'm spending far less time on the marked trails these days so tend not see too many people outside my riding group but we always have a chat when we do see them. There is virtually none of the anti-eBike sentiment in the real world that we see on the forums, perhaps the fun-bike hating keyboard warriors don't actually ride.

The lower the barrier to entry the more people

Silent motorbike that is allowed in the countryside and you can pretend it is healthy.

they have a place but idiots be idiots. Much like hover boards and micro scooters the excitement will drop off

I also have nothing against e bikes.

I would say this though, e bikes amplify a riders abilities to a degree and they can also amplify negative behaviour of the rider if he/she is a bell end.

e bikes amplify a riders pedal power

FTFY.

The technology is enabling access to trails without requiring any qualifying skills. Usually a cyclist would have to ride a bike to get fit, gradually allowing them to build up awareness and technique along with fitness.

An ebike allows someone to bypass all that and just get out there, removing all entry criteria and allowing the rider a delusion of fitness.

Trick is to ride early at trail centres and avoid the ebikers as they waddle to thier full english breakfast.  Or ride more technically challenging natural stuff which doesn't seem to appeal to most of the ebike community.

The trick is to get there late to avoid all the Lycra clad, wheels never leave the ground, roadies pretending to be mountain bikers so you don’t get held up on the descents.

Know who I hate? The people community. When are they all going to take responsibility for the thing that one of them did that one time?

I don't want to confuse you further, but getting there early means you don't have to worry about those who might be slower on the downs (because you got there early, so it's generally empty).

Anyone else wondering why the Op gave the ebiker a tablet? Typo or an ipad?

We (me and lad) ride all the local stuf, which is as technical as it gets,, but as above, trail centres are handy proving and training grounds and tend to be a little bit more forgiving for the newbies as it's all a bit more groomed. I've had a bit of banter with lads at cannock before who are desperate to get past on the ups/flats and then precede to hold you up on anything remotely gravity assisted. But today was next level with the ebikes, almost seemed like Strava must have been on fire! Went to llandegella for the first time in must be two years the other week and it didn't seem that bad at all.

Anyone else wondering why the Op gave the ebiker a tablet?

Never heard that saying before? As in have this? Take this?

Much like hover boards and micro scooters the excitement will drop off

Nope, can't see it tbh.

Went to whinlatter last weekend and got passed on the climbs by a group of guys in shirts and board shorts on hired ebikes. Every descent they were stopped in the middle of the trail on anything remotely technical.

Think hire of ebikes is getting people way in over their heads as ganic said.

I think we should just start blanking e bike riders 😀 and also politely....ahem....ask them to build their own ****ing trails when they use our cheeky ones.

There's a guy in the place who's got a bittersweet face and he goes by the name of Ebeneezer Goode.

Can't say I see too many of them up here in Scotland.

However I was staggered by how many I saw in Finale Ligure a couple of weeks ago. Up at the Nato base they pretty much outnumbered normal bikes. I can kind of see the point when its a 4,000ft climb and it'd 40 degrees. Hopefully in the cooler months they revert back to non assisted pedalling

An ebike allows someone to bypass all that and just get out there

Which is kind of the point of them. They are also keeping the cycle industry afloat so expect to see a lot more of them

Singletrack loves the money they will bring in so expect to see lots more of them.

Oh the irony.... mountain bikers, who for years have been winding up walkers over cheeky trails, complaining of being wound up by cheeky ebikers. What goes around.... etc.

Oh the irony…. mountain bikers, who for years have been winding up walkers over cheeky trails, complaining of being wound up by cheeky ebikers. What goes around…. etc.

Sounds like you'd be better off posting on walkmagic.

I think they're brilliant, they make soooo much sense for the enduro type riding that lots of us do, slogging up boring as f fire roads all day to get to the good stuff. A few of my mates have them, bloody quick riders as well, they're out biking all the time on them, getting in more than double the descend time on each ride, and for me, thats what it's all about.

I've no plans to get one in the near future, but I definitely will at some point. One mate has a focus esam,  nearly 7k worth, it's bloody rapid down as well.

Trail centres have always had balloons stopping in the middle of the trail, the  fact they're on ebikes is neither here nor there.

I had a great chat with a couple of lads that had made it out to Calderdale from Blackpool on their e-bikes, they seemed to having a great time, as was I. TBH Cannock is probably the nearest trail centre to the largest population in England being where it is, so it's always got a large subset of "Idiots who will be idiots regardless of what they're doing" to select from.

There'll be more ebikers coming, so may as well either like it or lump it.

My 2p - I see lots of e-bikers, my riding mate likes to  give them some stick for whatever reason but they don’t bother me. They’ve always sat in the usual spectrum of personalities I’ve met at trail centres.

However I’ve visited Cannock about 4 times from memory and suffered complete and utter Nuggets every time. Still a small minority, but a very vocal one! I don’t know why, but It seems to attract arsehole riders like no other place on Earth.

Tire buzzing is unacceptable on any bike by anyone.

Should have ejust cut his battery leads with your gransfors bruks.

Just ordered a new battery for my ebike 🙂

I’ve visited Cannock about 4 times from memory and suffered complete and utter Nuggets every time

very much this, Swinley is the worst for it, followed by Cannock, then Llandegla

Binners post resonates with me, being riding a using Gisburn since the mid 1990's and thrilled to see it's development I to a great trail centre, mainly riders are brilliant - met a young fella pushing three bikes to the cafe from the crags after two riders he did not know got injured we have him a hand - then you get the other extreme of bad tempered ignorant arses who are Strava chasing or just trying to be something fantastic in their world and negatively impacting on others - e.g five male riders who surrounded my eldest daughter attempting to stay with her on a climb to slow her down and chat her up, and then got abusive when she asked them to leave her alone through to seeing riders fly past little uns and scaring the life out of them, however the most ignorant arses are the ebikes who charge around so aggressively  it is unreal, I have been forced off single-track climbs by ebikes charging through, told to shift as they have right of way and generally have to deal with idiot behaviour.

But they are now moving to the fells and one off road climb seems to attract a couple of riders who love to power up and zip along and be oblivious to any other users, it is the move from undeerstanding how fragile our access is to this self entitlement of I will do what I want, when and how that worries and angers me the most.

Have folks genuinely had their tyres buzzed? You know actual contact? Or is it just someone sat on their wheel?

If you’re sat on my wheel & want to pass just ask.

But buzzing a strangers tyre is the height of F-whittery & you do it to me & you won’t do it again! You & your bike will get launched off the trail!

First rule of life: Don’t be a dick.

Genuinely tyre buzzed on more than one occasion on singletrack climbs

I ride my bike off road twice a week year round and have still yet to meet one. That may explain why I still have a relaxed, live and let live, attitude to them. But threads like this are a concern. Are they really a majority in some areas ?

Of course twunts will be twunts, but up to now I've always been able to drop them on the first climb and enjoy my day.

I guess it depends on where you ride? I live near Hebden and it's a honey spot for MTB, and they're definitely becoming more popular. it's rare I don't see at least one or two a ride (although regular mountain bikes still outnumber them by an order of magnitude)

I've seen a few ebikes on my local trails, they have tended to be ridden by older guy's and they have always seemed 'alright'. Cool story, I know, but I'm not seeing why there is so much gnashing of teeth over them. Some of us will ride bikes, some will ride ebikes, and there will always be dicks out there.

Living nearish to the OP, I went to Cannock once, about 15 year's ago. It was alright, but I'm pretty lucky and have better from my door. And this thread certainly is not selling it to me, which seems a shame as I guess a lot of the work done down there is by volunteers and all round decent eggs, who are pretty committed to the place.

As I said previously we're not weekend warrior types and preferably ride the local stuff. But with the nephew who is 13 and just finding his feet cannock is ideal, if we were to take him to say black rocks (local spot) he would spend more time pushing than riding which is enough to put anyone off. I was speaking to my lad who is also 13 who was further up the trail whos been riding trail centres since he was 8 and he said he had seen them literally charging up behind us and wondered what they were trying to achieve.

Loads appearing in Bristol - not a problem with most, but whilst there have always been an aggressive, selfish bunch of MTBers, they either appear in greater percentages on ebikes or they are just that much faster that they catch me on trails where a normal bike might not have, thus appearing more numerous than they actually are.  This is especially apparent when I’m riding with DaffyJnr as our average speed rarely exceeds 7mph.

Can anyone with an ebike confirm how much faster their average speed is on a typical ride when compared to a normal bike?

Ebike convert here, doesn't seem to be too much of an issue on the South Downs as it's not that busy.

I'd be furious if someone on any sort of bike buzzed my back tyre though. I barely ever ride trail centres but cant deny mtb has attracted a new breed of nobhead in the last few years and they seem to congregate at trail centres so I can well imagine ebikes would compound the issue.

The them and us attitude attitude to ebikes is stupid though, in many cases they are us. I know I am.

This has happened before EBikes nothing to with the bikes just dickheads who happen to be on bikes.

They've started being banned from state parks in the US.

Can anyone with an ebike confirm how much faster their average speed is on a typical ride when compared to a normal bike?

Thing is, as with a normal bike, it depends. I did a ride yesterday with a mate (him on a normal bike and me ebike) and we averaged about 8k/h and at no point where I was tearing off and waiting for him. On the other hand I've done rides where I average 18 k/h and I don't use it on max power either. At my fittest I'd have averaged 14-15. Now, I just wouldn't be able to do the ride so it's a lot faster in that sense 😀

On climbs they're at least twice as fast depending on what mode you're in and how much effort you put in. If you ride them at trail centres you need to go with the expectation you will be held up and unless there's  a safe passing spot then sit at a decent distance back and deal with it

Trail centres are pretty well suited to ebikes even if that wasnt the intention.  People that ride ebikes are likely to be a combination of time poor, unfit, inexperienced and maybe abit high on the BMI scale.  Trail centres have cafes, are easy to navigate, not especially challenging technically and often have "escape" options.  Ideal for your ebikerists.

Can anyone with an ebike confirm how much faster their average speed is on a typical ride when compared to a normal bike?

I borrowed a kenevo for a week. On similar loops with a lot of climbing my average was jumping from 8-9mph to 14+. On a 55lb DH bike. I think the levo would have been even faster.

As I said previously we’re not weekend warrior types and preferably ride the local stuff.

Sorry bud, I wasn't being sniffy. I spend a big chunk of time riding around the monsall/tiss trails with our youngest. I think taking her around shining cliff or up to Edale would put her off for life! I also get for a 13yo, Cannock would be more fun. I was badly trying to say I think it's a shame when some folk are putting in a lot of hard work to make the most out of those trails and dicks are ruining for people.

Nice generalisation there @ganic In the group I ride with there is only one fat bloke (me) and only one unfit bloke (me) and I'm broken anyway. The rest (about 10 across two groups) are the sort of people you don't expect to see on eBikes. They all have several other bikes and a couple are more than a bit handy. We hardly ever ride Trail Centre marked trails either, unless it's to get somewhere quickly, it's as much off-piste as we can manage, so 20ish miles and 3k+ ft of climbing in a couple of hours.

I don’t think the issue is the bike, or Cannock is just the idiots it attracts, I’ve given up on Cannock on a weekend, luckily I get a midweek day off, this week 2, so I will get the train to cannock and have a blast round when no one else is about, much more friendly and fun.

Although would love a go on a trek fuel ex electric version they look great fun!

I met a couple of lads last week who rode from kingussie to tomintoul in a day on their ebike off-road.

I met them in tomintoul and again at the foot of culerdoch . I wished I had an ebike... The wind was horrendous. They were heading for braemar that day.

Followed by braemar to Blair atholl to catch their train.

They were polite courteous and generally nice chaps.

Does that help redress the concerns slightly.

Can anyone with an ebike confirm how much faster their average speed is on a typical ride when compared to a normal bike?

I generally average around 6-8mph on a normal bike and 10-12mph on the Kenevo

This has happened before EBikes nothing to with the bikes just dickheads who happen to be on bikes.

No-one is arguing otherwise. Some are saying that ebikes allow dickheads access to new places. It's an argument with some merit.

Have folks genuinely had their tyres buzzed? You know actual contact? Or is it just someone sat on their wheel?

Not much tyre buzzing but it the sound of desperate braking that worries me. It makes me wonder of the bike behind me is under control and whether the rider will ancipate it when I slow up to pull up to the side of the trail.

And now I get it on the climbs too. Did I notice breaking bumps appearing on the upper and lower climbs at Cannock?

Mmmm...

Will anyone be handing out some in the Tweed Valley this afternoon?

How close do I have to buzz tyres to qualify? Contact or non-contact?

Own them with some bombers?

Own them with bumming. That'll stop them.

I ride an ebike, sometimes, but it doesn’t make me quick, it just lets me go at almost normal speed.

i’ve never buzzed a strangers tyre, i think it’s incredibly rude, and if anyone does it to me i will assume there’s something wrong with my bike and stop instantly.

Obviously, if I’m with my mates then tyre buzzing is totally normal then eh

Can anyone with an ebike confirm how much faster their average speed is on a typical ride when compared to a normal bike?

Daffy difference in average for me so far around Llandegla 8.5mph average on my self propelled bike, and 10.9mph average on the assisted bike.

Took me 11 mins longer to get the Red/Black Split on the self propelled bike today.

My average on a normal bike was 7.8 mph and on my ebike it’s 9.3 mph

However i,m 58 and tend to ride in ECO mode most of the time unless a hilll is big enough to warrant trail mode.

Still it keeps me out riding and I ride it exactly the way I rode my MTB.

For me it just means I can get some assistance on the big technical high peak climbs, and it does not affect my back injury and I can ride when I want rather then being in pain.

Never done a trail centre to much natural riding where I live.

I've met two e-bikers out in the wilds of Pitch Hill now. First one was derestricted but the bloke was nice enough. I challenged him to a race up a steep climb and beat him on my xc bike.

Second was on the road climb up Holmbury and I once again instigated a race. Held him off for a while by staying over 15mph but then I blew up and he cruised past.

Not sure how I feel about them as a concept but I enjoy using them for motorpacing when out training.

If someone buzzed my back wheel they'd be challenged to a race also. I'd turn myself inside out trying to beat them

Not sure how I feel about them as a concept but I enjoy using them for motorpacing when out training.

Yep, got my best Strava time on a 3 mile mostly uphill segment (gravel)  Passed them on flat and used them to pace me on climbs if they passed me.  That is the only one I have encountered which doesn't surprise me as I see very few people when riding around the forest at 08:00.

There’s a lot more to Cannock than the Dog & Monkey. Try heading to the quieter parts. I’d never choose to ride the Dog or Monkey at a weekend unless it’s very early or late. The car park gymkana puts me off for a start. Some lovely riding up the chase if you go sniff it out.

People that ride ebikes are likely to be a combination of time poor, unfit, inexperienced and maybe abit high on the BMI scale.

Horseshit.

😆

and maybe abit high on the BMI scale.

Obviously all of us on stw are lean riding God's, but I have to say the above seems to equate to a hell of a lot of mtb'ers I see out and about.

Had to check my bmi there to determine if it was true or not after a day riding around on my ebike....

What shocked me most was not that it's 24 but that 24 on the chart is underweight.....those charts have defiantly had a feel good fudge factor applied.

I'm also intrigued by various people's assertions that they've been "buzzed" by people behind  them on single track trails.

Do you really truthfully genuinely mean that they made contact with your back tyre and made a buzzing noise? Or that they were somewhat close behind you on the trail?

If the former then please please #$/^ them firmly in the face and #//#t them to death with a rock

I'm finding it difficult to believe that people could be such dicks.

Do you really truthfully genuinely mean that they made contact with your back tyre and made a buzzing noise? Or that they were somewhat close behind you on the trail?

My mate is worse. He’s considerably quicker than me downhill and if he catches me, sits a couple of yards behind, making cutting remarks about my line choice.