MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Summer 2019

76 This episode taught me everything I need to know about e-bikes. And everything you need to know about the debate surrounding them. I even laughed the first time I crashed an e-bike. I was going pro-peloton road bike speeds on the flat, easy singletrack of Loree Forest, misjudged a corner and fired into the woods with a ferocity that I can only compare to double ejecting while ripping corduroy. I rag-dolled to a stop in a bed of sphagnum and lay there, cackling nervously like a madman. Which brings us to the debate: E-bikes are dangerous. E-bikes are cheating. E-bikes will tear up trails. E-bikes will bring out hackers who have no business in Three Stage/ the Don Valley/the North Shore/in Moab, etc. The counter argument I want to make when I hear any of these points being made is to shout “BOOOOORING” at the top of my lungs. But as I am an adult, an avid cyclist and a semi- professional communicator, I have a more productive counterpoint: any bike can enable someone to go for a ride with you. An e-bike on the other hand can turn friends you don’t ride with into friends you ride with. You know the difference.