Coming to the Wasatch soon. Plan in motion. It will be lame for trails like the Wasatch Crest that is mostly traditionally one way by culture. When the eebs are legal you will have to contend with climbing eebers while bombing. Yay

 

Interesting that Porcupine Rim remains analog only and they're sending e-bikes down Raptor Route. Glad to see that I can drag my less-fit friends on Moab trips and they'll be able to keep up or I can rent an e-bike when I'm exhausted after 3-4 days of riding.

 

Glad to see that I can drag my less-fit friends on Moab trips and they'll be able to keep up

This. 95% of the eebers I see are overweight, unfit, and/or newbs with those conditions.

How can an old man like me yell at the clouds when the clouds are old too, like most of the eebers I see?

 

@Nat - I knew you would love this!

 

Oh I do!

 

Looks like fun. I'm in for a day of e-biking during the next trip to Moab. We've been going to Moab annually since '05, sometimes twice a year. We've always shared the trails with Jeepers and MX'ers and then razors. E-biking seems like a no-brainer.

OT. I'm always impressed with what those Jeeps can clear. Just amazing.

 

Okay, real talk for a second. As much as I support e-bike use I question the wisdom of allowing them on Portal. The extra weight and overrun add risk. Hopefully they’ll add a warning sign at the beginning. When I visit with my e-bike I could see myself riding out from Gold Bar rim on the Jeep trail instead.

 

I didnt think of overrun but I dont think like an eeber (I just madeup the term eeber today)

Skipping Portal is blasphemy!

 

Meh..Portal. I rode that once. Once is enough.

 

Will be interesting to see if search and rescue missions increase.

 

In general, more trail users means more S&R. And we all know, Grand County is the #1 county in the U.S. for S&R.

 

 

There's another way to get around ebike park rules. Just get one of those e-hiker thingies and ride your normal bike on the trail. Probably way cheaper than an ebike!

 

lol

 

Quality of life has been deteriorating with population. Red arrow added to graph for eebers. In Utah, 93% of the growth is in one giant blob along the Wasatch Front. 3 million people in an 80 mile long mass of urban sprawl.

I understand this is an issue everywhere, but damn. Eebers just add even more people on the trails.

 

The downfall of human civilization has been accelerated by the advent of e-bikes.

 

I just hope my broken hand heals in time to ride my eeb in Moab before its ruined by eebs.

 

You say this like Moab hasn't already been ruined...

 

Are emtb's the "enemy within" ?

I understand having an opinion but isn't this level of hate for anything exhausting to you guys? This level of stress and anxiety might be an even better workout for your heart than your mtb?

 

I understand having an opinion but isn't this level of hate for anything exhausting to you guys? This level of stress and anxiety might be an even better workout for your heart than your mtb?

I kind of enjoy watching them writhe in pain. “Oh my god I saw an e-bike, 😨😩😭😵”

I’m on a road trip right now and I spent a few days in Bellingham last weekend. I’d estimate that at least half of the riders were on e-bikes. The rest were just dying on their way up for probably their only run of the day, LOL. Yesterday in Darrington I only saw one other human and he too was on an e-bike.

 

Oh man, do I have a story about a group of kids wearing basketball shorts and sleevless t-shirts, rental stickers on their helmets, on the shuttle up to Geyser Pass on a day in late October with a winter storm warning for the afternoon. Some say those kids have never been found...

I assume Boy Scouts. They always seem to get into trouble.

When my friend was working Grand Co. SAR, they got a call for a Backroads group that got lost and needed rescuing. Backroads. There's some "professional" guiding right there!

We have about 18 billion people here in the 80 mile Puget Sound region.

Haven't we told you a trillion times to stop exaggerating?

Hey now! I've only been to the Moab E.R. twice in 20 years.😂 Those are pretty good stats when you consider that's over 25+ rides down porc rim.

Not once, but TWICE? That's impressive. I'd have the discharge reports framed above my bike!

 

Not once, but TWICE? That's impressive. I'd have the discharge reports framed above my bike!

Thankfully I was wearing armor/pads. Just hematomas. Ended up missing the last day of riding on each occurrence. First time was my fault, I was going too fast for conditions. The second time (when Pipedream wasn't really all the way open yet) I rode over a boulder that rotated and threw me 10' down off trail. Lucky I'm husky and have plenty of natural padding.

 

I'm all for ebikes on trails like Portal and Hangover after all.

 

Even when I was riding mainly analog, no thank you. You can have it all you want.

 

As cool as this change is, I’m actually not suddenly stoked to go back to Moab just because I can ride my eeb on more trails.

I don’t need my eeb for Moab trails. The climbs are not that hard on a regular bike.😜

Portal is best done by pushing up from the bottom for half an hour to the overlook and turning around there. That’s easier on a regular bike. The cliff part is worth riding once, but who cares after that.

The climb up to Ahab is quick and easy. Maybe the assist would make it seem more like a downhill trail.😉

I would maybe ride the whole Porcupine loop on my E if it was allowed instead of shuttling it — but I’m not going to waste my vacation time pedaling a regular bike up that road.

🤷🏻‍♂️

 

As cool as this change is, I’m actually not suddenly stoked to go back to Moab just because I can ride my eeb on more trails

There's a chance I'd actually ride mag 7 and enjoy it this time on an eeb. Maybe use it to towhee my kids up to the raptor route(except for eagle eye I guess?) probably shuttle the rest anhway

 

Ha! The math kind of checks out:
View attachment 2163228

Don't the internet nerds mark the beginning of the downfall of society when Harambe the gorilla was killed in 2016?

Or when the Hadron collider got fried by a weasel also in 2016?

D!cks out for Harambe! (remember that saying?)

I just hope my broken hand heals in time to ride my eeb in Moab before its ruined by eebs.

Noah was summoned. I feel proud. I love me some MRP stuff

This is the same reason I've previously expressed concerns about allowing them in Sedona. I mean, I'm fine with e-mtbs but there are going to be a lot of people who get in over their heads that couldn't previously do so if you take out the ridiculous effort it takes to get to some of these places. Even then, there's NFW I'm riding an e-mtb on Hangover for instance, I don't care if it is allowed or not.

Am I sick in the head that this wouldnt bother me?

jk

uh erm...

 

The only victim here will be uphill Strava Leaderboard times...

 

Funny thing when riders become suddenly concerned with other rider's well-being when an e-bike is involved. Such empathetic and caring souls you all have!

 

That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just as concerned for people that don't have the skills on non e-mtbs. I just don't think that they'll be able to make it to the spots to do some of this stuff or have the fitness to do so without the assistance. In the end though, eh, whatever. I have never once been annoyed or bothered by someone riding an e-mtb and I don't think less of them for doing so. If you can ride stuff like this and know it, cool. In my limited experience on full power e-mtbs I don't think I would be comfortable with my skill level riding those places. I've never been on Portal but it seems similar enough for a few hundred feet that I'd feel the same way. I see super talented riders at Hawes doing crazy stuff on e-mtbs and I wouldn't have any qualms about them doing it, they can ride anything.

My POV was that, in an extremely heavy tourist situation/location, that it may not work out for a small number of people that wouldn't normally get themselves into these spots. I'll make it even easier, there are couple of small spots on Mescal (blue trail) in Sedona that I would be nervous on an e-mtb because of weight and consequence of missing. Maybe that's just me but what I see normally is that people that likely don't have the tech skills walk those small spots because it takes a ton of effort. Remove the effort without adding skill will surely result in some small number of bad things. I won't lose sleep over it though. They'd probably hurt themselves in some other way anyway.

 

Truth, I have almost never seen what you're describing tbh. I'm sure there's people who visit who can't hack the climbing for multiple laps and suffer/walk as there are anywhere though. Just found the way you put it across as funny.


I ride an analog bike there for lots of laps but I'm coming to sea level from living in Colorado (I'm moving there come spring so been spending a lot of time out there) and that makes me feel superhuman for a few weeks

 

Who knows how many people were visiting from elsewhere? I and the group I linked up with were all from out of town.

The last time I was there I rode a regular trail bike. If I’d brought my regular bike this trip I wouldn’t have been able to ride as many trails as I did. I don’t see how that’s in any way a bad thing (but I love that a lot of you guys think so). 😝

 

Re: Portal

I gave it some more thought. Portal already has a high level of risk even before e-bikes. There have been more than one fatality and I’m glad they haven’t closed it off to biking altogether. Therefore, I’d hope they don’t forbid e-bikes on it even if someone falls to their death. I’m certain that there are riders skilled enough to ride it on whatever type of bike they want.

 

Re: Portal

I gave it some more thought. Portal already has high risk even before e-bikes. There has been more than one fatality and I’m glad they haven’t closed it off to biking altogether. Therefore, I’d hope they don’t forbid e-bikes on it even if someone falls to their death. I’m certain that there are riders skilled enough to ride it on whatever type of bike they want.

I think they should never shut down a trail even if people die. It was their choice. They knew the risk.

Some guy died at Deer Valley a couple years ago and they rerouted the trail in a mundane way. It used to be a high speed super tall bank (like 20 feet high) into a steeeep decreasing radius turn with a giant pine tree at the crux of the decreasing apex. It was one of my favorite turns

 

I saw some 70 something guys coming down Templeton and I swear the E-bikes had Pikes on them. They were exhausted and terrified.

Ha! Kind of like when they released the levo sl with a fox 34. Really guys? Just to shave a tiny bit of weight on a bike with a motor??

Therefore, I’d hope they don’t forbid e-bikes on it even if someone falls to their death.

Oh man, if an eeb goes over the edge as well and wily coyote's the ground at the bottom, there's a pretty good chance there will be a battery fire as the cherry on top and all the ebike haters will have a field day with that one. I hope it never happens.

There will always be barneys in any sport, and some people just seem to have zero common sense when it comes to risk. Ebike or no ebike.

 

Why not! They should open the trails to all types of motor-cycles!!!!! I spotted a kid zipping away on the trail at China Camp (Bay Area) with something like this a week ago. Its only a matter of time anyway ...

 

Why not! They should open the trails to all types of motor-cycles!!!!! I spotted a kid zipping away on the trail at China Camp (Bay Area) with something like this a week ago. Its only a matter of time anyway ...
View attachment 2163353

Yeah, imagine if motorcycles start riding in Moab…

Edit: excuse me, “motor-cycles” to emphasize that there is a motor.

 

From chatgpt. Imagine a mindful gathering, observing infinite natural grandeur; tread only paths, observe all closures, honor the habitat; enjoy nature, always thinking inclusion over neglect, and laws. Protect animals, respect keepers; or nothing meaningful yields. Explore by imagining, kindly engaging, daring under responsible intent, never gaming safeguards; heed updates, treasure delicate outdoors, wisely, neighbor.

 

I guess they'll be keeping stats on how many times S&R, medivac, etc. get sent out pre and post rule change. Curious if there will be a difference that's more than just proportional to the increase in traffic or not.

 

Ah no. In my town one non profit group locally offered a first aid/red cross class and the BLM was the title sponsor. I'm fairly oblivious to things, but later occurred to me that they literally expect we the public to be prepared to be the first responders. Few things I cannot tolerate is blood, and whiny people that are also bleeding. Hard pass.

 

Why not! They should open the trails to all types of motor-cycles!!!!! I spotted a kid zipping away on the trail at China Camp (Bay Area) with something like this a week ago. Its only a matter of time anyway ...
View attachment 2163353

Ive seen Surron poachers too. Quite a few times

Yeah, imagine if motorcycles start riding in Moab…

Edit: excuse me, “motor-cycles” to emphasize that there is a motor.

eebs do have motors. You know this!

And you also know dirt bikes are not allowed on MTB trails, but MTBs are allowed on moto trails.

But I still love you.

What trail was that on? I ride there a lot and don't remember anyone dying there or any bad re-routes. Just curious...

Are you a local too?

The trail was Undertow. Probably about 2/3 of the way down. First they cut the giant pine tree down that the guy hit (it was definitely right in the way if you went a little wide at the decreasing radius turn, and it was a fast section of trail), then they rerouted the trail, and finally totally rerouted the lower section when they built Regulator, which is a sick fast flow jump line btw for those who dont know.

I cant find any articles about it. It was prob around 2022. But I did find the article below about a death I hadnt heard of in 2016 on Thieves Forest. Sad. I love riding Thieves

Mountain biker dies in Deer Valley wreck - Park Record

An Arizona man died Sunday in a mountain-biking wreck at Deer Valley Resort, authorities said, a rare fatality in a sport in which people typically cut and bruise themselves or, more seriously, break a bone if they crash.According to the Park City Police Department, Tommy K. Crawford, from...

www.parkrecord.com

 

And you also know dirt bikes are not allowed on MTB trails, but MTBs are allowed on moto trails.

Was slick rock a moto trail or MTB trail first? I remember riding it with my dad when I was about 10, so mtbs on there at least in 1990. At the time I thought it was a trail made for mountain bikers and I don't remember seeing any motos on it, but I don't know the history.