# Question around the high end eBike market - where can they be used?



## SteveLCOS (Sep 2, 2020)

First post here. I went thru a pretty good mountain biking phase around 20 years ago when I lived in San Diego, there were lots of great places to ride not far from my home. I am 53 now, and live at 8600 feet in the front range of the Rockies to the west of Colorado Springs and don't ride much anymore - it was too hard (steep!) and other life things meant the bike stayed in the shed. 

After having some fun with some rental ebikes in town (flat, urban riding), I pulled out my old Trek 4500 a few weeks ago and upgraded it with the Bafang mid-drive unit. I have been riding it for a few days now around Colorado Springs, and wow - what a kick in the pants it is! I figured some bike exercise was better than none, and if I can get myself back into better shape, I could see buying a new mtb (non-e) to go hit the single track again. 

I have learned that E-bikes are pretty much excluded from using single track trails from what I understand here in Colorado and elsewhere. They are restricted to paved trails, or dirt roads approved for off road vehicles. I am looking to swap out my tires for more road/urban friendly tires because I can't use it anywhere else.

Which gets me to my question. Where are the makers of these high end, full suspension, carbon fiber, electric mountain bikes selling their bikes? If e-bikes are relegated to basic bike trails, and not allowed on the trails where this stuff is a factor - what gives? Or are these rules just ignored? I'd like to take my 4500 on some cool rides, but everything seems to exclude ebikes - which I can understand, but then I look at this $5k market of ebikes made for that stuff...

Confused!

Steve


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## fos'l (May 27, 2009)

Some states/areas are more amenable to "e" than others. FME riding MTB, there are lots of individuals riding where it's prohibited in my area (socal), and there is very little policing. The trails that are watched are few and well known by the e-MTBer's.


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## RickBullottaPA (Mar 4, 2015)

Here in PA pretty much everywhere.


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## PierreR (May 17, 2012)

I know it varies considerably in Colorado

He is a web site listing bike rules for all states. Its pretty up to date

https://peopleforbikes.org/our-work/e-bikes/policies-and-laws/

This site does have an interactive map with plenty of e bike routes on the front range.


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## PierreR (May 17, 2012)

RickBullottaPA said:


> Here in PA pretty much everywhere.


Except nice paved bike paths that go through State Game Lands.:nono:


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## SteveLCOS (Sep 2, 2020)

PierreR said:


> I know it varies considerably in Colorado
> 
> He is a web site listing bike rules for all states. Its pretty up to date
> 
> ...


Thanks for the link, the map is useful, but man, there is very little within 30 miles of my house. I'll have to plan some trips I guess, or hit up Garden of the Gods (close) and break the rules...


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## rod9301 (Oct 30, 2004)

Break the rules

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## Dirtrider127 (Sep 17, 2010)

rod9301 said:


> Break the rules


Ride it before they pave it


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## rangeriderdave (Aug 29, 2008)

There are ADA rules that say that wheelchairs and other motorized equipment that allow handicapped people access can't be banned from trails . Ebikes qualify .


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## Jack7782 (Jan 1, 2009)

rod9301 said:


> Break the rules
> 
> Sent from my Redmi Note 8 Pro using Tapatalk


And buy a Levo SL and go incognito.


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## Callender (Mar 25, 2014)

Here in Norcal the legality varies from park to park and county to county. But I've yet to hear of anyone getting a ticket. I think rangers have bigger fish to fry.


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## Salespunk (Sep 15, 2005)

Go sit at the local trail heads for 20 minutes and count how many Ebikes you see. Locally they are starting to out number analog bikes.


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## Bills (Jun 13, 2009)

They are not legal here in Ohio, but a guy on a pretty sweet looking Turbo LEGO SL passed me on a climb and I was pretty jealous. It was a nice looking bike and if I had not been looking at them (and the very minimal noise) I would not have known. I’d like to have one, but just holding out to see them start getting legalized a little more. Nobody here would even know let alone enforce it.


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## Suns_PSD (Dec 13, 2013)

SteveLCOS said:


> First post here. I went thru a pretty good mountain biking phase around 20 years ago when I lived in San Diego, there were lots of great places to ride not far from my home. I am 53 now, and live at 8600 feet in the front range of the Rockies to the west of Colorado Springs and don't ride much anymore - it was too hard (steep!) and other life things meant the bike stayed in the shed.
> 
> After having some fun with some rental ebikes in town (flat, urban riding), I pulled out my old Trek 4500 a few weeks ago and upgraded it with the Bafang mid-drive unit. I have been riding it for a few days now around Colorado Springs, and wow - what a kick in the pants it is! I figured some bike exercise was better than none, and if I can get myself back into better shape, I could see buying a new mtb (non-e) to go hit the single track again.
> 
> ...


Stratton area and the trails up there all allow dirt bikes, so you are allowed to ride there. 
Was there 2x just yesterday and dirt bikes are fairly common.

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## Suns_PSD (Dec 13, 2013)

Salespunk said:


> Go sit at the local trail heads for 20 minutes and count how many Ebikes you see. Locally they are starting to out number analog bikes.


I watched closely in CO, out of 100s of MTBs, frankly on trails an e-bike is perfect on due to awful and boring road climbs, only saw 2 e- bikes. One I rode for 5 minutes. 
Back home in Austin, I've seen one, ever.

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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

Nope, flat out wrong. Stratton is CS Parks property. No motos, no ebikes on singletrack. Same with El Paso County parks and CSU property.

OP, if you're up in woodland park, it's all USFS, so you're out of luck unless you're on moto legal trails.

CMSP is good to go though.



Suns_PSD said:


> Stratton area and the trails up there all allow dirt bikes, so you are allowed to ride there.
> Was there 2x just yesterday and dirt bikes are fairly common.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk


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## Suns_PSD (Dec 13, 2013)

Harryman said:


> Nope, flat out wrong. Stratton is CS Parks property. No motos, no ebikes on singletrack. Same with El Paso County parks and CSU property.
> 
> OP, if you're up in woodland park, it's all USFS, so you're out of luck unless you're on moto legal trails.
> 
> CMSP is good to go though.


What about all that stuff as you keep riding up. Captain Jack's?
Sorry for the misinformation on my part.

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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

Suns_PSD said:


> What about all that stuff as you keep riding up. Captain Jack's?
> Sorry for the misinformation on my part.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk


In general, Captain jacks, parts of buckhorn and the trails in Jones park are USFS, and also motorized. There are some non motorized trails that connect to them. Stratton is below gold camp road, Cheyenne canon is also city park.


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## figofspee (Jul 19, 2018)

The USFS has already begun to associate eBikes as a form of bicycling, and not categorizing it as motorized in their planning documents. Take it for what it is, but a forest wide change could be on the near horizon:
"While clearly some activities on the list are not related directly to forests, many are. For the purposes of 
this report, we have eliminated many activities from the list so that the most likely forest-related activities 
are:
1. Bicycling (All recreational bicycling, including BMX, E-bikes, Mountain, On-road)
2. Boating/Fishing
3. Climbing/Hiking/Tent Camping
4. Driving for pleasure (Gas spending only)
5. Geocaching/Orienteering/Rock hounding
6. Hunting/Trapping/Shooting (including Archery)
7. Motorcycling/ATVs (Off-road, On-road)
8. Other Conventional Activities
9. Other Conventional Air and Land activities
10. Photography
11. Running/Jogging/Walking
12. RVing
13. Snow activities (Dog mushing, Skiing, Sleighing, Snowboarding, Snowmobiling"


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## _CJ (May 1, 2014)

OP, if you are up in WP, you have a fair number of trails where your e-bike is legal. The entire 717 system NW of WP, the entire Rampart OHV area north of town on 67, Mueller state park west of town, the Capt'n Jack's/pipeline/rosa system, and of course further west near Buena Vista, Salida, Taylor Park, down south you have the entire Rainbow trail, etc. Take a look at the Cotrex app offered by the state. It will show you all trails in the state, and you can sort by activity, so just select motorcycle.

It's unfortunate that the national forest service and some cities/counties haven't realized that class 1 e-bikes are nearly identical to analog mtbs in speed and impact, but I suspect that'll be changing sooner than later.


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