RJM

I'm going to Vegas and will purchase and 8 ball of coke and an escort and hopefully die of a massive heart attack in the middle of it all. Seriously though, if our governor and state reps don't completely dismantle the state retirement system, my wife will be able to retire in her mid 50's. After that we will probably get her set up to practice privately while I help and that should more than cover expenses. By that time our house should be paid for and our expenses low...of course you never know with health expenses. We both have 401k accounts that aren't funded like they should be, so we need to work on that, but I think the biggest thing we can do now is just continue living below our income level and not blow money. We understand that we need a better plan and more money, but our goal is to live within our means until retirement and then really live within our means after that. If I could only get her to stop booking expensive vacations....

According to Strava: 3241 total miles which is a hundred or so miles more than last year...and I'm still going. 855 single track mountain bike miles. I'm hoping to get at least 1000 260 hours 20 minutes 95371 feet elevation gain (I'm light on climbing this year.) 228 rides

Dude, according to the strava club, you get those miles in. kudos!

Seems to be. Without a P&R section it has absolutely no value to me. The cycling specific areas are barren wastelands, so I don't get why this forum has anything to do with cycling. Meh, no big loss as most of the people I know are on a facebook group together anyway.

P&R was the only reason I even came to this forum...so, bye.

I disagree. An ebike is a bike that you have to pedal to move. Actually, there is a better argument that all bikes don't belong on that trail system. It was originally just a hiking trail with bikes banned and a few recent incidents where cyclists have collided with hikers kinda shows they can't realistically handle cycling and strava racing anyway. Really, strava is the problem.

I appreciate you calling my 70 year old lady friend lazy. Classy. Btw, she has already clocked over 25 hours of trail work time this year and always shows up for trail work days. Lazy she is not.

No, I don't admit your reality that they are motorbikes. That, I deny wholeheartedly.

No, it isn't plain and simple. They aren't the same as motorbikes the same way they aren't the same as regular bikes. They are entirely different. Pedal assist does not equal motorbike. You can't crank and go without putting effort into the pedals like you can a motorbike.

Strava isn't racing; it isn't real competition (especially with the gps errors I see on trail segments)...if you want to race, pin a number and join a race. Strava already has "ebike ride" as part of their drop down menus when you upload a ride. They recognize people are going to be using these bikes and they have made accommodations for them. If riders are "cheating" on strava, flag the rides. But really, strava is for fun and motivation. If someone cruising trails on ebikes change that for some people I guess that is their problem.

The ebikes I've ridden have carried the weight very well, very low center of gravity, and they handle nicely. That being said, you can bomb down a hill faster on a Trek Stache 29+ or Fuel Ex than the ebikes I've been on. You have to learn to move that weight, which makes it a little slower than a regular full squish. They don't chew up the trail anymore than a regular bike, which chews up the trail much less than a horse. The land access argument is, IMHO, a strawman. Land access rights can be changed, and as the population grows older, they will be changed to favor that group...that group will embrace ebikes because they still want to ride. Ebikes are coming, they will be a part of MTB'ing, and the MTB crowd needs to be inclusive rather than exclusive because they will just wind up losing out. MTB'ers lose land access rights not because of ebikes, but because of excessive speed, riding in conditions that cause erosion, and ticking off hikers not to mention the fact that MTB'ers, especially with strava and this thought that every ride is a race, act like shits on the trails. That isn't going to change because ebikes are around. the whole cheating thing makes me laugh. I know a 70 year old lady who just bought an ebike for trail riding. She isn't cheating anybody.

It's good you are working on that.

I read the article...the guy is using the simplistic argument that motor+bike = motorbike. It's false, and honestly I question his intelligence. Pedal assist is exactly that...pedal assist. You don't get to crank the throttle, sit back and watch the bike go. That isn't how it works. Trail access is simple. They should be classified as a bike, period. The only place this is an issue is here in America, because Americans tend to have this thought process that if you don't do things my way your way is stupid and should be illegal. It's not like these bikes do more trail damage, or get in hiker's ways more than regular bikes. The whole "cheating" thing is dumb. Cheating at what? Cheating at recreation?

They aren't motorcycles because you have to pedal them to go. Really, if you don't dig them, don't ride them...pretty simple. Europe is embracing them like crazy, but Europe seems to be more level headed than us across the pond. The hate that some throw towards these things seems like it comes from some sort of insecurity that others have to be exactly like you and ride exactly like you; I find it weird. Like having a husband and wife shredding trails together, with the more fit person on a regular bike and the less fit on an ebike, is some sort of destruction to the purity of the sport or something. It's another option...that's all. Frankly, I think people with gears are cheating...single speed or death.