Originally Posted by
Mobile 155
I think is is also telling that some that are in absolute opposition to any E bikes are highly unlikely to be riding single track in our national forests.
But in truth does it really matter what others think? All that matters is what the consumer thinks and is willing to spend money on.
We we should be looking at market trends and asking ourselves why are E bikes gaining market share and why are traditional bikes staying pretty stagnate? I don’t have the answer but I suspect it is new riders driving the changes. Take a look at the market forecast.
https://cyclingindustry.news/global-...ow-60-by-2025/
I think the notion is that bicycles are inherently self regulating. Because it is human powered, there is a limited amount of tomfoolery you can do with it, and to get to the level where tomfoolery is possible, you have to earn it through greater conditioning. With that earning comes more experience, and hopefully, judgement. The average person can't pedal nearly the speed on a bicycle as they can with an e-bike.
I haven't seen e-bikes as a problem in my world, but I do understand why some object to hard-fought for infrastructure designed for human power being dedicated to motorized vehicles.
The growing e-bike market is no mystery to me. I think it is mostly new riders too. From what I see on a daily basis, it is mostly younger millenialish riders who want speed without all the work of pedaling. It's not people who cannot pedal ... it is people who don't want to. That's OK ... as I said earlier, cycling means different things to different people.
As I said, have no dog in this fight, so I really don't care what is good for the industry or not. I care what is good for bicycling.