They also contribute to path wear since they allow people who have no business being on the tails due to lack of fitness to use them.
Also holy shit, the potholes from eBike riders more or less burning out from standing or trying to go up slopes they are unable to. Fuck eBike riders on trails.
Sure, occasionally I pull a max-speed segment for hoots, but I don't do it anywhere near anyone who might be scared or injured if I mess up. My trail empties out pretty nicely once you're about 5 miles from "downtown" (of the city along the trail where I enter) so it's easy to find long open stretches to hoon around if you want without endangering anyone but yourself and others on your ride.
I have just under 1000 miles of riding on this particular ebike, and about 2500 miles total, so I'm definitely not an expert rider, but I have _some_ handling skills.
Personally I like the relatively unregulated hardware. I don't need my bike to decide on a safe top speed or power. That's up to me. If I am on the trail around people, I keep it below 15 mph as a rule of thumb. If I'm doing a segment on a road trying to dodge a half-awake car driver, I very much want to be able to pull up to 30 mph fast so I can GTFO from a bad situation.
If you don't like jackwagons riding on the trail, regulate that behavior, not their hardware. Just my 2¢, opinions may vary.
There is simply no reason electric bikes should have the continuous power of two world class pro cyclists in one. It's nice to appeal to people acting sensibly, but of course that doesn't work - not least because the majority of people riding these don't even realize it is not normal to go up 10% grades at 15mph and more
If the story here is we want people to ride that otherwise can't - 250W continuous reliably puts you in the 90th percentile. That is an all out effort for a good half of the population.
Yikes. you wanna rephrase that?
As with eBikes, just about anyone could strap on a SCUBA and visit places they otherwise couldn’t (IMO shouldn’t).
The fact is, some people are unfit. Whether, physically, or simply lack the ability to be a good steward of public resources. This applies to SCUBA, eBikes, Driving and a bunch of other things. I don’t think that’s objectionable.