The main reason is that we have a serious concern about the existence of trails. The truth is that we employ 5 to 6 professional trailbuilders each year to maintain the trails (usually 10 months of the year) and with this team we are able to stay afloat financially and not go crazy with the amount of work. The problem is that e-bikes add a lot of this work for us.
We've been building trails for over a decade. We've built and maintained them mostly on our own. We build and maintain trails mostly with money we have to earn first. It's still very difficult to fund the whole project. Every year is difficult.
Why does more use of e-bikes mean more maintenance? An e-bike will go on the trail more times in a day than a regular bike. Each pass of any bike has an impact on the trails. It may be a tenth of a millimeter of trail surface, but it will show up in a high number of passes. With an e-bike, we have one person riding the trails three times in a day instead of once. This means that it puts up to three times the load on the trails.
On a climb, the e-bike has a different turning radius, so it rides out and damages trail edges and steeper spots by raking. These are all multi-costs to us that no one will pay for – or make anyone pay for. You can't charge for an e-bike, just like you can't charge for a regular bike. It's all voluntary. In addition, we currently have a bark beetle calamity, and the "dried out" trail suffers much more in the new glades, making maintenance more expensive.
Another inconvenience is that on the climb some e-bikers "push" other cyclists in front of them, or shout at them to move over. This could cause normal bikers to stop coming and stop contributing to the trails.
We have always resisted any shuttling and our policy from the beginning of trail building has been that everyone has to earn it. Trails have cost us a chunk of our lives. They were created at a time and with a philosophy. Time moves on, but our philosophy hasn't changed. Those who come to work on a voluntary days know how much work it is to build and maintain a trail. We simply built trails for off-road cyclists who have a sporting spirit and a love for the outdoors.
We don't want to change our philosophy, we don't want e-bikers driving normal bikers off the trails, we can't waste money on excessive maintenance. This is not a ban, but rather a plea to respect our rules to ensure the sustainability of the trails. We will hope to be respected. You can't charge a battery with us and you can't rent an electric bike with us. No one will be standing at the trail with a baton checking IDs, but we just hope for fairness from people. It has worked for us so far. We tolerate e-bikes for seniors over 55, people recovering from an injury, and those with health limitations.
At the same time, we want to ask non-e-bikers not to take up that imaginary baton either and subject others to a hearing before an impromptu review board.
It is really not because we envy anyone's e-bikes (our partner would certainly be happy to provide them).
We will do trails until we can do it well. Otherwise, we won't do it. Thus, we might not be able to build more trails due to increasing maintenance, and in the worst case, we might close it down altogether.
We think that as trail authors we also have the right to set the rules. There are plenty of other places to ride e-bike. There is no reason to do everything everywhere. We're not banning anyone from riding the e-bike, we're just asking that you don't ride it in our area. Help us develop the trails the same way we have been and keep them as they are now.
Thank you for respecting.