I did a mountain bike race earlier this year – on a regular full-suspension bike – and I found myself around an eBike entrant for a few minutes. It wasn’t good. I normally deal with issues and move on, but I have become increasingly aware of other similar friction-filled race – and trail-riding – situations from fellow riders, so figured this is a good time to address it.
By Sean Badenhorst
Let me start by saying that I embrace eBikes. I spent around one year, from mid-2022 to mid-2023 recovering from fractured vertebra and some kind of asthma issue and an eBike made it possible for me to steadily return to full strength. That eBike literally saved me! I wrote about it here.
I have watched eBike design and technology improve over the past decade and I regularly test-ride eBikes as a member of the TREAD Media bike test team, so am very much in touch with them. eBikes have also boosted the South African cycling market at a time when it really needed it, so I appreciate the importance of this category from that perspective too.
Back to my experience at this race. It was muddy with a high volume of singletrack. About 45 minutes into the race, we took a left turn up a steep, rocky slope. Some riders were pushing, some were having a go at pedalling all the way up. There were probably 12 of us in a group on that tricky incline for about a minute.
I rode most of the way up, but had to dismount because a couple of riders ahead of me were pushing and I couldn’t see an obvious way around them with my heart rate around 90% of its max. Everyone seemed to accept this natural rhythm and just set about moving forward quietly. Most of us pushing the top third.
“Coming through! Move over!” Came a loud shout. Actually, more of a command. I looked back to see who this skilled, strong rider was rapidly making it all the way up only to see it was a middle-aged guy on an eBike squirrelling his way up the right-hand side (the climb itself allowed for 2-3 riders to be beside one another).
Everyone was in high heart-rate mode and likely also frustrated at the lack of traction for both tyres and shoes as the wet rocks were a little slippery. eBike dude closed in quite fast on some guys who simply didn’t have any time to move aside. He yelled again that he needed space.
There was some muttering and a couple of guys shouted back that he can’t just make demands like that from the saddle of his full-power eBike. He barked something back at them and so did his buddy, who wasn’t on an eBike but was a strong, fit rider.
Swearing and name-calling followed from the eBike dude and his mate. Met by a similar response from some of the riders pushing their bikes up the slope. By this time, I was up that slope and mounting my bike to prepare to tackle the next climb, which was singletrack, became steep at the top with a few widely spaced rocks, but was definitely more rideable.
I found myself behind eBike dude and his buddy and I just focused on getting up this next incline. Once up, there was a gap of about 40-50 metres or so to eBike dude. His mate must have had to portage a bit because he joined behind me. And then we began to descend. It was a visible, predictable singletrack descent and I was rapidly closing the gap to eBike dude because he was braking and I wasn’t…
Then we reached a section of low profile, jagged rocks and eBike dude started to brake harder and unclip from his one pedal!
“Don’t you dare!” I shouted. “You don’t pass us on the climb with your eBike and then slow us down on the descent because you lack the skill to ride over a few rocks! Rather just move over if you can’t ride stuff!”
It must have come across as a firm command because he kept his foot on the pedal, still uncleated and fumbled his way shakily over the first part of the rocks, making no attempt to move over. I saw a gap on his right and shot by him, irritated, but pleased to not have him slowing me down.
Another climb followed, this one long and super muddy. After a couple of minutes eBike dude and his mate moved ahead of me again, but we were on different sides of the soggy jeep track so there was no verbal confrontation, but the damage was done.
In that same race, other eBike riders calmly caught me and waited quietly for a chance to pass and thanked me when I moved aside. All very civil and positive interactions. Why did that one guy have to be such a knob? But it isn’t just that one guy, is it? Many fellow riders I speak to have a negative eBiker encounter to tell from either a race or a ride.
I’m happy to share races and trails with eBikers, but they need to show respect to riders on acoustic bikes. The dynamics of riding an eBike are different to an acoustic bike. That is a fact that will never change. eBike riders are often the ‘newcomers’ to mountain biking and have the power. They need to accommodate acoustic bike riders both in action and words. And most eBikers that I have encountered are very good at doing this. But there are some that just assume some kind of superiority and get aggressively vocal in the process.
This is not the spirit of mountain biking. Be better.
Image: AI’s best effort at creating an image from this prompt: ‘Angry mountain biker climbing wet, rocky incline’
