Full disclosure: I have an e-bike. In fact, I currently have a couple of e-bikes in my garage. Due to working in the bike industry, I have ridden many of them.
And, full disclosure: I love e-bikes. But I also love their acoustic counterparts, and spend a significant amount of time on trail and enduro bikes.
And downhill bikes. I love downhill bikes, but now I’m getting into bike park and chairlift territory, which dilutes the argument.
(Photos/Max Rhulen Photography)
Or does it?
Very few stand at the base of a chair lift, telling those aboard to “earn their turns!” Seldom do we see social media posts about bike park users who “aren’t real mountain bikers” because they refuse to pedal up.
But perhaps that is because the downhill rider, the chairlift/shuttle user, isn’t at your trailhead. An e-bike, however, might be. I might be at your trailhead. On my e-bike. But before you assume that I must be lazy and not a real mountain biker because of a bit of pedal assistance, hear me out.
There are a lot of reasons I ride e-bikes, and none of them have to do with not being able to pedal up a hill.
E-Bikes Prioritize More Descending
I would be lying if I didn’t say that a big reason I ride e-bikes is to maximize the number of laps back down the hill. While I’m not opposed to climbing, and even enjoy a good challenge once in a while, the main reason I ride is for the descent.
Simply put, I want to be faster on the way down. I want my skills and abilities to grow exponentially more on the downs than on the way up. In fact, I don’t really care at all to improve my climbing skills.
For me, climbing is a means to an end.
At one of my local trail systems, I usually have the time and energy for two laps on my trail bike. The climb is nearly four miles, and ascends 1,200 feet over that distance. There are one or two punchy sections, but, for the most part, the trail generally meanders up the hill.
There is also a good amount of rocky tech mixed in, which can be fun at first but becomes a drag, especially on my second lap.
When I’m really on it, I’ve made it to my descent in 45 minutes. When I pushed hard like that, my second climb was significantly slower, if it happened at all. On average, with a few short breaks here and there, I’d say the climb takes me about an hour.
On my e-bike, that climb takes roughly 30 minutes. And what is maybe two laps on my trail bike is extended to four or five on my e-bike. I am also less fatigued on each descent, though the e-bike’s added weight is noticeable.
But, bottom line, on an e-bike, I’m able to at least double the amount of descending I would normally do on my trail bike. This is the fun part for me. It is why I ride, and the area I want to improve.
I want to ride faster and push harder. I want to be more comfortable in the steeps, on rock rolls, on techy descents, and on fast, flowy sections. I want to corner better and faster, and just be more confident.
This sort of progress comes from lap upon lap of descending. This sort of progress is what I’ve gained from riding an e-bike.
Time Constraints
Look closely, this is an e-bike. Be careful and don’t let them sneak by. Okay, go ahead and shame me now.
Another reason I ride e-bikes quite a bit is that I can squeeze in a full ride in significantly less time. This is especially true during the winter.
The winter season ushers in the shortest days of the year. I live in the Pacific Northwest, not too far from the 45th parallel (halfway between the equator and the North Pole), and dusk can set at 4:30 in the afternoon.
This means absolutely no after-work rides, unless you’re strapping on lights. The sun isn’t rising as early either, which may eliminate the possibility of a morning ride.
In fact, quite a few of my friends will hang up their bikes for the season, waiting for warmer, longer days. If I did that, I would go crazy. If I don’t get out for a ride every two or three days, I start to get cranky and feel like my head is filling up with too many things.
Bikes level me. They let my world pause and allow me to take a breath.
My wife would also go crazy. Now, she doesn’t mountain bike, but having to put up with me after I haven’t pedaled for a week is enough to do it. These are the times when she will politely take over whatever I am doing and say, “Hey, I feel like you need to go for a ride.”
Without an e-bike, I would likely be quite a mess this time of year. My normal time to ride is early in the morning. Most of the year, this isn’t an issue, as I can be climbing while the sun is coming up around 6:30 AM, or even earlier.
During the winter, that gets bumped back at least an hour. That is an hour taken away from the window of time I have to ride. Thinking again of the trail system I mentioned earlier, the four-mile, 1,200-foot climb will likely take me an hour. A nearly two-mile descending trail will have me back at the bottom in less than ten minutes.
Being conservative, that is an hour and ten minutes of bike time. With the drive to and from the trailhead, and the time needed to clean up and change, that leaves me very little time. If I have something at 9:00 AM, a winter morning ride is likely out of the question. However, if I jump on my e-bike, bike time is more than cut in half, and I can easily get out for a lap–potentially two.
Also on the subject of winter riding, ebikes make it easier to dress for winter laps. You’re not working quite as hard on the climbs, so you don’t need to dress to be able to vent a ton of heat before bundling up for the descent. Instead, you can dress warmer for the whole rides with fewer layers which makes for faster preparation and cleanup.
I’m also a dad. I envy those who seem to climb on their bike on a Friday evening, finally dismounting Monday morning. But with two kids, my days of riding all day are over. Or they are at least very few and far between and require significant planning.
The reality is, for as much riding as I like to do, and as many rides as I need to do for this line of work (I try to ride at least four days a week), a few of those rides need to be on an e-bike. I don’t want to miss dinners together or Saturday afternoons at the park or Sunday morning breakfast because I’m constantly gone riding.
I don’t want my kids to start referring to me as “Travis” and shaking my hand rather than hugging me because Dad is just gone too much riding his bike. With a little pedal assist, I can do a few laps and still get to the dance recital or play performance.
E-bike Exploration
Make no mistake, I absolutely consider all the e-bikes I get to ride as another fun bike option for me to choose from. To use an already overused analogy, it is another steed in the stable. There are many reasons, some of which I’ve mentioned, that I might choose an e-bike over a trail or enduro bike, with “it’s a fun bike” certainly being one of those reasons.
However, I also see e-bikes as an incredibly impactful tool, and I use them as such. And, if I had to choose one reason to have an e-bike, this would probably be it.
About a year ago, I was able to explore a new-to-me trail system about an hour away from my sister’s. We were on a little family vacation, and I always try to bring a bike. It was my first time on these trails, and while I did a bit of research and looked at trail maps, I still had no idea which trails to prioritize. Fortunately, I brought my e-bike for that first trip there, and I was able to ride them all.
I always try to take an e-bike for my first time at a trailhead. This allows me to explore the system and weed out some of the trails by taking a lap on the e-bike first. If I don’t like the descent, I haven’t wasted an hour of climbing and a ridiculous amount of effort. In my opinion, there is nothing more disheartening than putting in a ton of effort, having a mediocre experience, and finding out the real gem is the next trail over.
Often, after first exploring all the trails on my e-bike, I’ll return with an enduro or trail bike. And that is exactly what I did with this trail system near my sister’s house. On our next visit, I opted to pedal under my own power, but knew the trails I wanted to hit.
Thanks, e-bikes!
Again, this is especially handy given my job. I often get opportunities to visit and write about trail systems that are pretty far from home. If I have the choice, I opt for an e-bike every time.
When visiting these places, I may only have one or two days (if I’m lucky) to ride the trail system. That is hardly enough time to experience all the trails and get a good feel for them. But on an e-bike, I can typically ride all* (I mean, it depends on how many miles we’re talking about) the trails, likely with multiple laps on a few standouts.
Okay, Time for my Rant…
These are my pretty calm, pretty respectful, and pretty understandable reasons why my e-bike usage doesn’t make me lazy. Likely, they don’t piss many people off.
But this might.
I’m tired of the “hardcore” mountain bikers. The “earn your turns” mountain bikers. Let me explain.
Often, in my experience, on the topic of e-bikes, there will be a slew of these types of mountain bikers who like to comment about how they “don’t need a motor,” or this is a “cheater bike.” Comments such as these are often accompanied by frustrations about e-bikes at their local trailhead (where ebikes are legal).
In many cases (especially in local social media groups), these trailheads are mentioned by name.
In some cases, I have ridden at these trailheads. And, I have to say, for as “hardcore” as these anti-e-bike mountain bikers are, they are riding some pretty vanilla trails. I look no further than frustrations about the most popular trailhead in my hometown.
There isn’t a trail above green that leaves that trailhead. Yet, so many “hardcore” mountain bikers complain about the e-bikers there.
And that isn’t to say that I even think e-bikes should be riding there. Much of the frustration stems from rental shops sending customers (tourists) to that trailhead after renting a bike. I don’t ride my e-bike there. In fact, I don’t ride any bike there.
I also don’t have a problem with riding green trails. You don’t have to exclusively ride black and double blacks to be a “good” mountain biker. Beginner trails are there for a reason – to help introduce people to the sport, and provide a mellow option for those who want it. As long as everyone is following the rules of the trail, it shouldn’t matter to you what the other riders are using.
You do you and ride what you like. But, if you want to view yourself as superior and a more “hardcore” mountain biker than someone just because they’re using a bit of pedal assist, maybe you should first take your hardcore self to some more difficult trails first.
