This rant might not be reasonable and include too many feelings, mainly because I love this sport and I’m just afraid that this change will affect the sport negatively.

First of all I’m not talking about the 60 year old that wants to ride with his son or someone with an injury. I think is great that e-bikes have made the sport more assessable for these people.

That being said, when I see riders on e-bikes it’s just average riders that would have no challenge in riding a normal bike, they would just be a little slower. I think it’s just cheating and it shifts the pace of average riders into total chaos. Now we have riders with bad stamina suddenly riding as fast as someone who prioritises his time to train more and I think that is simply unfair. I know I sound whiny, but I hate how you can just buy yourself into better shape.

Now it has been proven that e-bikes don’t destroy trails more than normal bikes and it’s much more about how aggressive the rider is. But we’re forgetting the fact that people on e-bikes will end up riding the same trail more than they would on normal bikes.

Last but not least I simply don’t see the point of an e-bike. I have never felt like my day was ruined because i could only ride a trail 3 times instead of 5. I don’t have a problem with riding slower or having to wait for a friend (how can you be so stressed out in the woods?). If I want to ride faster, I just train for a few weeks and that’s it.

I think that the popularity of e-bikes is a symptom of our times, where we want to get everything immediately and don’t have the patience and discipline to wait. But I must say, riding down a mountain you peddled up yourself feels infinitely better than riding a trail 10 times, assisted by a lift or motor.