mccthug

Right! That's what I'm saying. People take for granted that their bodies are healthy and uninjured, even if they may not currently have a lot of fitness. People should be more like you and be more willing to push themselves especially when they have no excuses like having lost an arm or leg.

@MantisToboggan: First of all, this is just my opinion. I feel that people shouldn't allow machinery to make them lazy. There is a reason we have among the worst life expectancy rates among developed nations. Because we promote things like sports equipment that reduce the amount of exercise required to participate. All that is required is practice, not a motor. The motor and battery are going to end up in a landfill someday, be responsible and don't take a largely emissions free sport and make it more polluting. There are a lot of people out there that will fall victim to the marketing of e-bikes. They might give in and even enjoy the hell out of it. But in the end they will have missed out on the opportunity to gain the fitness and health that comes from putting in the hard work, rather than putting it off. This is just my opinion. If you have your health, then you should not take it for granted and shape your body into something that serves your interests rather than buying an e-bike to sidestep that part of the progression. I'm not directing this towards people who genuinely need assistance.

Mountain biking is a rewarding yet expensive privilege that relatively few people in the wide world are able to enjoy. It seems to me that if we engage in the privilege of riding mountain bikes, we should be willing to work hard and embrace the challenges that come along with it, such as climbing and developing strength and endurance. When you remove the hard work from the sport, it really makes me question whether you should participate it it at all. If you must resort to a motor its like taking your privilege one step further and saying, "I deserve this sport and all the pleasure that comes along with it, yet none of the work to get there". It's the type of thing that gets really embarrassing if you imagine yourself explaining it to someone in a third world country. "before e-bikes all we had to get up hills were lightweight modern mountain bikes that cost $3-5k. Thankfully we now have e-bikes to save us from our great misery and they only cost $5-7k". Unless you are disabled, please do not cause us the societal embarrassment of being a people that are so lazy that they must purchase their way up a hill that no one is forcing them to go up anyway.