eBikes seen on a road trip

First stop was Old Town Durango, CO, lots of bikes were being used for transportation, but I didn't see any ebikes on Main Street. I stopped into a mountain bike shop and they were surprisingly positive about ebikes. The person I spoke to referred to them as "the bikes for everybody". I think they sold Specialized pedal assist bikes, he said the high end ebikes had the least pedal assist lag. The pedal bikes for sale were full suspension, thru axle, higher end mountain bikes. Bikes on the street ranged from beater grade to expensive daily ride bikes.

Second stop was Moab UT, nobody was using bikes for transportation, it was too hot. I've been wanting to ride Hell's Revenge on my ebike or motorcycle but didn't have them along and it was my 73rd birthday so I drove HR with a Yamaha Wolverine X2 UTV. Turns out Hell's Revenge would be a challenge on an ebike, range would be a problem for my battery. I stopped at two bike shops, both were very positive about ebikes. The locals ride high end mountain bikes on the slick rock, full suspension, through axles, 29" tires, 1 chain ring, lots of cogs, that sort of bike. If they ride ebikes on the slick rock those are high end factory bikes too.

Next stop was San Diego, there were lots of ebikes in the Pacific Beach area, downtown and the Embarcadero area. They were almost all factory ebikes of mid drive or rear hub motor. I don't remember seeing one front hub motor, which is what I ride. Corners had the usual Bird and Lime e scooters, but also had sit down e scooters and ebikes too. Some using the corner rental ebikes were not pedaling so it appeared these bikes had throttles as well as pedal assist.

Back in Durango again, I talked to a couple transportation bike culture guys, they were riding chrome moly framed, older, pedal only bikes and were proud of no electric motors. Hmmm, ten years from now they'll probably be on ebikes. Age does that.

Last stop was Lake City Colorado. Several ebikes were in use there, all were factory built ebikes with mid drive or rear hub motors. One was a long tail, Dog Man Dan would have had his tail wagging, I know mine was. It was set up to carry cargo and the rider accelerated away smartly to about 20 mph without pedaling. I'd have loved to ride that long tail bike.

One of the hard core mountain bikers explained it this way: "you can ride a lot farther and see more stuff on an ebike". Yep, he's right.

Two big surprises on this trip: acceptance of ebikes is good among sport riders, and no front hub motors were seen.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

From Lake city CO to nearly anywhere, its all uphill. Would love to ride that road to Silverton on a good e bike.

Yeah, once those guys age some, and get 30 pounds heavier, they do want help then. And buy a Harley. or a side by side quad. :lol:

Where I go in the mts a lot, its a perfect place to e bike. The bikers are all under 40, everybody else has an atv.

We saw three or four touring pedal bikes heading for Lake City. They had panniers, rack and handle bar bags and were heading toward the high passes before descending to Lake City. 30 years ago I would have envied them, but now, not so much.

The Alpine Loop to Silverton would be a great ride, especially after school starts and there is less traffic and it's cooler.

We did see a couple tadpole bikes on the side streets.

Best wishes,

Mike S

Years ago, I was at a snow-skiing resort, and someone had a sports magazine from the 1920's. They had it out for anyone to read, and this particular issue had an article about how a few snow-ski resorts had installed lifts, and the controversy.

I hadn't thought about it before, but...how did skiers get to the top? Of course they could hike on the shorter slopes, but what about "Alpine" skiing?

The pictures showed robust young adults with the skis tied to their backpacks, hiking up a mountain. It would take half a day to get one good run, but...the trails were certainly not crowded.

The "controversy" was the claim that if any lifts were installed, anybody could get to the top of the run, and the runs would become crowded by out-of-shape tourists who had no business clogging up "their" ski runs...sound familiar?

De ja veux all over again. Locals vs tourists, purists vs the rest of us. Austin, TX is really like that, in San Antonio nobody cares.

I'm pretty sure some of those ski lifts are being used to take mountain bike riders and their bikes to the top of the runs, during the summer. Telluride and Breckenridge come to mind.

It's pretty interesting that there were so many mid drives and rear hub motors on factory made ebikes and no conversions were seen. Also no front hub motors. We did see a stick ball game on a blocked off street in San Diego. SD has a lot of hills but the ebikes seem to be around the flat beach areas. Hmmm.

That statement is so true.
"you can ride a lot farther and see more stuff on an ebike"


Its just another form of income that the ski resorts require to run.
"ski lifts are being used to take mountain bike riders and their bikes to the top of the runs"
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/reckless-judge-fines-lake-louise-ski-resort-2m-for-cutting-endangered-trees-1.4199859
World famous ski resort Lake Louise was fined $2.1M for cutting down endangered whitebark tree's. The cost per tree was $55K.

Hah hah, the out of shape skiers from Lubbock crowding up the slopes at the lifts is exactly why I used to put the climbing skins on the skis, then ski up the mountain, and ski alone. Laid off a lot in the winter, I couldn't always afford a season pass. So I'd buy a single ticket on the gondola. That got me and my heavy pack to the top one time.

Then I'd sneak into the backcountry, build my igloo, and stay about 3 days. I could climb the part of the mountain I skied about 3 times a day. The run was about twice as steep as anything in the ski area too, so it was double black diamond powder runs. Some times I'd stay longer, and buy one lift ticket on the last day.

Needless to say, only one or two people ever came out with me. I did carry an avalanche beeper, only so they could find my body a bit easier if I screwed up.

Hard to believe I was ever that strong now.