Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
I would say they are pretty boutique. They don't even have an e bike. I'd bet they're bottom 15% of units moved by brands not invited to MADE.
Not worth it. Not on a bicycle. Maybe on a cargo/commuter bike, for pleasure mountain bikes the problems are far greater than the benefits it would bring.
The 8-hour training actually makes perfect sense if you think about it. If you’re going to force a 12-year-old to commute electrically assisted/throttled in a 6-inch painted gutter next to 5,000lb distracted SUVs going 50mph, they probably need Stroad-warrior level tactical training.
Why build a protected bike path for $1M when you can just blame the kids for not having a Ebike Safety Certificate while they dodge F-150s?
You are not wrong.
If People For Bikes spent 1/4 as much advocating for safe routes to school as they did lobbying for Ebike access in skeptical communities, the shrinking American bicycle market might be expanding. Instead we seem laser focused on selling stuff to the same 10% of the population over and over again, each time with an extra battery or two.
Exactly... So, I would guess that the costs of setting up something here doesn't justify the benefits to the company.. Yes, I wouldn't mind a Madonna and a Yella if a DH bike was in the cards for me...
My point is even at that size they could likely make it worth their while expanding here as they are popular. Or at least that is my hypothesis and I want to hear what people familiar with distribution think.
This 1000%. I'm sure a lot of you know this, but a crucial piece of information is that "People for Bikes" is only "people" in the Mitt Romney sense of the word. It's a lobbying organization for bike companies, which explains a lot of the ebike legislation that has been passed in many states.
The other old grumpy people will get this reference, which is what that moniker for an industry lobbying group always makes me think of.
Earlier this year I went to People For Bikes’ Bicycle Leadership Conference. I’m not a PFB member, I don’t feel like a shill for them, but I have an in person experience which seems relevant to this:
I learned that they feel that e-motos pose an urgent threat to existing routes to schools, etc. They’re still supporting new routes, but are focused on supporting existing routes - because there’s a risk that reaction to reckless e-moto users could jeopardize all bicycle access to bike paths. Undoing PFB’s previous efforts.
PFB seemed eager to have e-motos regulated as motorcycles, and the motorcycle industry equivalent of PFB who were in attendance seemed eager to own that segment and to require (sell) insurance and DOT helmets.
A senator in attendance said there are federal, state and local bills under consideration already, apparently with bipartisan support.
All wanted e-motos to be seen as something other than a bicycle. They’re appealing to the Associated Press to encourage the term e-moto for anything that doesn’t comply 100% with class 1,2,3. And they’re working toward clarified federal definitions of the classes.
I’m sure PFB have much better info available on their website. I don’t have a dog in the fight so I might not have ingested every detail.
Edit: Recently, a few parents have been sued for reckless endangerment of their kids for allowing them e-motos. I’m not sure if it’s related, but I suspect that it might be.
Yt Canada back in action
Post a reply to: The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread