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I get yelled at a lot when I ride my eBike on our trails. They are explicitly allowed, and I don't ride like a jackwagon. Some people just love to hate. A few o

by aftbit 3y ago

I get yelled at a lot when I ride my eBike on our trails. They are explicitly allowed, and I don't ride like a jackwagon. Some people just love to hate. A few of my friends ride OneWheels and various other eSkate devices. They get even more hate. There's one fellow we call "not allowed", who loves to shout "NOT ALLOWED" and try to clothesline my buddies as we pass him. Luckily so far they've been faster than him but one of these days he's going to seriously hurt someone, probably himself.

voakbasda 3y ago
Isn’t that “attempted assault”? If he makes contact, it sure as hell would be an assault. Might point that out to him next time you see him. Or not, if you want to see him get arrested.
- c22 3y ago
  I think it's just actual assault. Not sure what an attempted assault would look like.
  - hospadar 3y ago
    Yeah definitely just actual assault, contact or injury are not required to make it assault[1]. If you actually make harmful contact it's _also_ battery (hence 'assault and battery'). [1]https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tekla 3y ago
People hate especially since eBike riders fuck with stats on trails on platforms like Strava. 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.
- floren 3y ago
  Also, the "ebikes" that are just electric motorcycles with a couple fig-leaf pedals attached...
- Lio 3y ago
  I've never ridden an eBike as they don't really appeal to me but I kind of think that everyone has a right to be on the trails regardless of fitness.
  - stefan_ 3y ago
    It's a nice idea but not really appropriate to have people jet up trails at 1000W for minutes while having none of the handling skills to go with it. Stuff is designed for human abilities, keep the motorcycles out of it. If the things were limited to something sane like 250W, sure, but with the wild-west in the US it's hopeless.
    - aftbit 3y ago
      This was the "don't ride like a jackwagon" part. My bike has a solid kW output, at least when the battery is full, but I don't zip down the trail at 26 mph all the time. 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.
cruffle_duffle 3y ago
The best way to get people on board with more bike infrastructure is encouraging ebikes and escooters. In my city, 50% of the bike lane traffic downtown is Lime Scooters--people who would never own or commute with their own bicycle. Suddenly these people have opinions on bike infrastructure and will be more likely to vote and support improvements. In short, if you want your cities bike infrastructure to get better... encourage the city to embrace point-to-point scooter/bike rentals.

by aftbit 3y ago

voakbasda 3y ago

Isn’t that “attempted assault”? If he makes contact, it sure as hell would be an assault. Might point that out to him next time you see him. Or not, if you want to see him get arrested.

c22 3y ago
I think it's just actual assault. Not sure what an attempted assault would look like.
- hospadar 3y ago
  Yeah definitely just actual assault, contact or injury are not required to make it assault[1]. If you actually make harmful contact it's _also_ battery (hence 'assault and battery'). [1]https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

tekla 3y ago

People hate especially since eBike riders fuck with stats on trails on platforms like Strava. 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.

floren 3y ago
Also, the "ebikes" that are just electric motorcycles with a couple fig-leaf pedals attached...
Lio 3y ago
I've never ridden an eBike as they don't really appeal to me but I kind of think that everyone has a right to be on the trails regardless of fitness.
- stefan_ 3y ago
  It's a nice idea but not really appropriate to have people jet up trails at 1000W for minutes while having none of the handling skills to go with it. Stuff is designed for human abilities, keep the motorcycles out of it. If the things were limited to something sane like 250W, sure, but with the wild-west in the US it's hopeless.
  - aftbit 3y ago
    This was the "don't ride like a jackwagon" part. My bike has a solid kW output, at least when the battery is full, but I don't zip down the trail at 26 mph all the time. 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.

cruffle_duffle 3y ago

The best way to get people on board with more bike infrastructure is encouraging ebikes and escooters. In my city, 50% of the bike lane traffic downtown is Lime Scooters--people who would never own or commute with their own bicycle. Suddenly these people have opinions on bike infrastructure and will be more likely to vote and support improvements. In short, if you want your cities bike infrastructure to get better... encourage the city to embrace point-to-point scooter/bike rentals.