Race organizers against eMTBs

[Peter Hill]

Like others have said if you want to run in the 'women's race don't become a man' ?
Formula E cars are not going to race with F1? there are so many examples of similar categories.
I have an e-bike and would never wish to compete in an analogue downhill race or XC and in any case I would still come last!

 

[Superses]

So what's the problem?

You want to race xc - get fit and race an xc.

You want to race emtb - join an emtb race.

Imagine how frustrating it must be for the good xc racers to be trying to pass a less skilled emtb rider who is only up the front of the fleet due to their bosch. The speed is there from the motor, but the skills aren't. Unpredictable and blocking the race for a podium finish.

You don't expect to race a jet ski in the olympic 100 m freestyle

I agree

 

[Montana St Alum]

It's an XC mountain bike race, of course they don't want E-bikes competing. Is there something about this I'm missing?

 

[Bummers]

It's an XC mountain bike race, of course they don't want E-bikes competing. Is there something about this I'm missing?

The issue isn't that they don't want them competing, that's perfectly reasonable, it's the patronising and condescending excuses for not allowing it. 'lack of skill' etc. Which is nothing to do with the bike, that's the rider.

 

[Endurip]

It’s not surprising in any way, xc is about pedaling, and most of the xc tracks are for many riders ridiculously simple. But the xc riders can pedal like there’s no tomorrow so taking that away from them by using an engine will always make them feel threatened.
I don’t see the point of using an emtb on a xc track but that’s just me.

 

[Jeromep]

So what's the problem?

You want to race xc - get fit and race an xc.

You want to race emtb - join an emtb race.

Imagine how frustrating it must be for the good xc racers to be trying to pass a less skilled emtb rider who is only up the front of the fleet due to their bosch. The speed is there from the motor, but the skills aren't. Unpredictable and blocking the race for a podium finish.

You don't expect to race a jet ski in the olympic 100 m freestyle

Jet ski in a 100m freestyle - I laughed for 5 minutes after ready this line.

 

[jimbob]

The issue isn't that they don't want them competing, that's perfectly reasonable, it's the patronising and condescending excuses for not allowing it. 'lack of skill' etc. Which is nothing to do with the bike, that's the rider.

It doesn't seem particularly patronising to me? All seem like reasonable points (with the exception of assuming there is a correlation of etiquette with XC ability).

 

[Wilbur]

Having been running events for 17yrs; I can totally understand the organisers rationale. XC races, esp short course events typically don’t have a plethora of passing opportunities and emtb will always have a significant uphill speed advantage. The two codes do not mix well in my experience.
We do run a 12Hr XC endurance event where emtb are allowed. It’s run on a 11km course and there are plenty of wide gravel climbs so passing is less of an issue. Having said that we still have complaints about emtbers AND mtbers that are less than considerate in their passing etiquette. We also experienced a bunch of emtbers running chipped bikes doing 50kmph on the flat single track sections which is fairly frightening for anyone doing 25kph.

Emtb and mtb bikes mix much better in enduro events - timed downhill events are more of a level playing field and there’s far less of a speed differential

 

[E-MAD MALC]

Keeping analog and electric riders in separate race categories makes perfect sense to me. Other racing sports do it. Why would you even consider mixing them and share the same podium?

I don't think the main issue here is about rider skillset, fitness, or experience. Security concerns, ethics and fairness of the race are very important. Just don't mix apples and oranges!

Heres a sports
Lemans 24hour
They mix it up big time
Different types of cars Different driver skills
Just to upset you lot

 

[RiderOnTheStorm]

Heres a sports
Lemans 24hour
They mix it up big time
Different types of cars Different driver skills
Just to upset you lot

Hey no worries, we're all entitled to our opinions

In your racing example though, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, all racers drive motorized cars (i.e. single type of vehicles). I don't recall seeing anyone driving non-motorized vehicles, or even other types of motorized vehicles like motorcycles or quads!

I'm just saying that keeping analog and electric bikes in separate categories makes it a fair race for everyone.

 

[CannonFodder]

Well put


And for people putting there should be a race series for emtbs there already is
according to a lot of opinions on this thread its were you will find a lot of unskilled riders competing

ews -e - Search Videos

www.bing.com

Are you saying that only the skilled riders can be allowed to compete, fair enough, I didn't want into your stupid race series anywho

How do I know I'm unskilled, simples, I ride with a guy who I can keep up with on uphill sections and I'm on an eMTB and he isn't. Best not to mention the Downhill sections other than he's a good lad and regularly stops to let me catch up.

Would I be foolish enough to compete, hell no, but I know a LOT of people who are and they're the ones holding up the skilled riders and I can't help feeling they are the ones the OP's letter are aiming at. Perhaps they should consider different classes.

In a normal race the skilled rider will have less trouble passing someone of lesser skill. Add a motor in there and it gets more difficult. Add a hill into the mix and you suddenly have the less skilled rider overhauling the skilled rider that has just used his greater skill to overtake downhill being passed on the uphill, rinse and repeat for added frustration.

How is that ever going to work

 

[hansfrans]

Would you like to rephrase your comment your no better than the article
What makes a pedelec rider less skilled in your opinion ??

But he just wrote „by A less skilled…“, no need to understand it like you did.

The article also makes perfect sense, there is nothing against emtb, it’s just fair reason.
All security concerns aside:
Why should a rider be allowed motor support, if he is not „skilled enough“ to push the pedals all by himself? It’s not a fair comparison uphill. And as the article stated: emtb races exist for riders who cannot or don’t want to push their pedals all by themselves - all good.

 

[Pdoz]

I have an e-bike and would never wish to compete in an analogue downhill race or XC and in any case I would still come last!

In 2018 at the Australian interschools , one of the KIDS asked to ride their merida e160. The committee made a really good call - take the ( external) battery off , and they allowed it to race.

Will Fat Rat get upset if I point out they only placed mid fleet on a bike worth 3 x what most of the other kids were riding?

 

[MountainBoy]

I don't know how much of a common thread this is but I thought I'd drop a post about this. A local race series close to me (been going over 3 decades now) for XC mountain bike racing seem to really hate eMTBs. Now, they may have a perfectly reasonable argument for not wanting eMTBs at their events but this just reads like they just straight up hate eebers. They seem to not trust people not to chip their motors and apparently they have decided that we aren't skilled riders. For a series that has been going for over 3 decades it's a shame they can't keep up with the rest of the world and want to hold eMTB riders to such contempt. I just wanted to gauge some opinion from other eMTB riders about this.

View attachment 116199

I don't see the problem. They organized the race and take all the risk, they can choose what kind of race it is. They probably should have resisted the temptation to explain *why* it's not an eBike race, but that's their prerogative too.

 

[MountainBoy]

In 2018 at the Australian interschools , one of the KIDS asked to ride their merida e160. The committee made a really good call - take the ( external) battery off , and they allowed it to race.

I bet they had a lot of takers for that!

Sarcasm? Who me?
Never!

In any case, it's not really an eBike if there is no electricity...

 

[mtb-steve]

BMBO run mtb orienteering events and have an ebike class. It works well as you choose your own route so we don't generally get in each others way.
The more relevant part is the the fast riders are nearly as fast up hill has people on ebikes, but they are way faster on the flat. This weekend I cleared all 30 controls and got back with 2 minutes to spare (33 miles), the bloke who won got back with 13 minutes to spare, on an analogue bike. Then he went out and rode most of the course again to collect the controls in.

 

[Suns_PSD]

The other real issue, for racing ebikes, is that they are all putting out different power numbers, can be modified, even swapping the rear tire can change the top speed assist, some brands even have special versions of the motor.
Beyond that, they also have different sized battery packs which then effects how much assist a rider can use, for how long. Some even have degraded batteries that put out less than they did when new.
Racing e- bikes in an enduro race seems fine (still problematic as there are pedal sections), but otherwise I don't see how it can be regulated.

 

[Chairman]

Ebikes are about as far removed from xc bikes as is a downhill bike. Quite a different sport really

 

[Zed]

Well I mean they are lycra clad dudes who like pedalling competitions. These are dirt roadies. They probably don't even spend time descending rough trails or like getting airborne. I mean wtf

Of course there's going to be elitists in there... leave them to it...

 

[Miket775]

Just for some context on why this series the OP mentions doesn't have allow emtbs (I'm not involved just raced it in the past on my old bike before moving to emtb)- this is a quote from the organiser from their facebook page when asked about allowing emtbs to race:

"We stopped them competing in our series on safety grounds after 2 e.bike riders collided and resulted in a broken pelvis and in a 2nd incident a rider with a chipped bike turned up and blasted through the pack endangering the youth riders."

The organisers invited people who were moaning about not allowing emtbs on their facebook group to come to their agm at the beginning of the year to discuss options - none of them bothered to turn up and engage with the organisers so nothing was changed.