{"id":17971,"date":"2014-08-16T14:11:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T18:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=17971"},"modified":"2014-08-16T17:10:39","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T21:10:39","slug":"human-power-or-gtfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2014\/08\/16\/human-power-or-gtfo\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Power or GTFO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few years back on the regular Stony Creek\u00a0Wednesday Night Group Ride someone with a rather curious bike joined us. It very customized hard tail fitted with an electric\u00a0hub\u00a0motor and battery pack and the owner was proudly showing it off, explaining how he built it and uses it because he doesn’t like riding up hills. Many of the\u00a0group gave him a hard time about it being motorized,\u00a0but he headed out with us anyway. During the ride I was behind him a few times and saw him spinning his rear wheel up climbs while he wasn’t pedaling and mentioned to him how that’s not cool.<\/p>\n

Mountain bike trails are built for human power, and ever since that day I’d hoped to run into him again and advise him to stay off of the trails on his motorbike. Since that group ride I’d see him a couple time per year, sometimes\u00a0on trails\u2020 and others when returning to the parking lot, but was never able to successfully engage him in a conversation… until yesterday.<\/p>\n

When getting ready to ride\u00a0Stony Creek on Friday evening\u00a0I\u00a0noticed the vehicle above pull into the parking lot, holding what looked to be an updated version of the electric motorbike that\u00a0I remembered being shown a few years back. It was the same guy\u2021. When he headed into the bathroom I took a\u00a0moment to get clear pictures of his bike and license plate and then waited for him to come out.<\/p>\n

At first he seemed a little proud that someone had noticed his\u00a0bike, but the conversation quickly took an different\u00a0tone when I\u00a0asked “that’s an\u00a0electric motorbike, isn’t it?” and then\u00a0stated\u00a0that they aren’t permitted on the mountain bike trails, which are designed for human power use only. The bike owner protested, claiming that he’s “done it for years” and “no one has complained”. He tried to claim that it’s\u00a0just “electric assist”, but backed off on the last claim when I\u00a0pointed\u00a0there is no torque sensor and\u00a0has a\u00a0throttle on the handlebar. Other protestations he tried to use were that it’s “quiet”, that he “still gets passed”, he uses it as a “carrot”, and that he pedals “most of the time”.<\/p>\n

He kept getting ready for his ride while myself and another guy kept\u00a0him engaged with questions about his motorbike, and he seemed to be hurrying to get out on the trails, almost braggingly claiming that he hasn’t been caught yet. Phone in hand, park office number in the dialer (which he noticed\u00a0me dialing), I eventually pointedly told him that if he set out on the trails\u00a0I’d be calling the park police and waiting for him. It was only after this that he began angrily packing up, calling me a “fucker” for “ruining his ride”. Then I watched him leave, waiting to be sure he didn’t head to one of the other mountain bike trail parking lots.<\/p>\n

I hope that this encounter and others reminding him of the same makes him rethink riding\u00a0his electric motorbike on trails. It was clear that he knew it wasn’t permitted, but\u00a0he was ready to head out anyway. Only the threat of being caught by an authority figure with the capability to penalize him seemed to be an effective deterrent.<\/p>\n

Bicycle companies are starting to sell electric motorbikes, frequently branding them as simple assisted bicycles, diminishing the fact they are still motor vehicles. While they are currently\u00a0costly items, as prices come down it’s inevitable that we’ll see more and more of these on our trails.\u00a0I sincerely hope that everyone who cares about human-power-only designated trails — cyclists, hikers, runners, and walkers alike — will do what’s needed to\u00a0keep these\u00a0motorbikes away.\u00a0In\u00a0this\u00a0post I present reasons why their presence is a problem and offer suggestions for what\u00a0to do when you encounter someone with\u00a0an electric motorbike at mountain bike trails.<\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\u2020 Encounters include: Him almost hitting me and forcing me off the trail on some of the humps at\u00a0Clinton River Park Trails<\/a>, just seconds before I met Phil<\/a>\u00a0(for the first time) to whom he’d done the same. Seeing him riding out onto The Overlook at Pontiac Lake<\/a>\u00a0on a hot summer day — the top of a climb and just after one of the hardest climbs in the park — without pedaling and looking fresh and unsweaty. In the parking lot at Pontiac Lake where he rolled up to his car without pedaling and seemed to get in his car and drive away quickly when he saw me eyeing him from across the lot. I’ve heard numerous stories of him from others\u00a0who have also seen him rolling around, not pedaling, under motor power only.<\/p>\n

\u2021 Dark grey Jeep Laredo 4×4, Michigan license plate DCU 3622 (photo<\/a>), with a black\u00a01UP USA<\/a> bicycle rack. Owner is a trim \/ thin Asian guy, medium complexion and short dark hair, about 5’6″, with prescription regular and riding glasses.<\/p>\n

His electric motorbike\u00a0is a heavily modified black\u00a0Motobecane Fantom Elite DS<\/a>\u00a0with white Fox fork and black rear Fox shock. Custom carbon fiber battery holder inside the front triangle, power regulator (the block on the underside of the downtube), and hub motor are the most notable features. Throttle can be seen near the right grip. (High res photo.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This\u00a0is legally defined as either a moped or motorcycle as per the Michigan Vehicle Code Act 300 of 1949, section 257.3b<\/a>. (I feel the differentiation would be whether or not it can exceed 30 MPH on a level surface. The motor is roughly 350W [owner said “something like that” when I asked if it was 350W], which on a flat\/level surface in an aero position may be able to reach 30 MPH.\u00a0Having a hub motor the\u00a0operator does not need to shift gears to make it work.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years back on the regular Stony Creek\u00a0Wednesday Night Group Ride someone with a rather curious bike joined us. It very customized hard tail…<\/p>\n

Continue readingHuman Power or GTFO<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,29,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","category-outdoors","category-politics","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17971"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17983,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17971\/revisions\/17983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}