How do you know the trails I ride on don’t allow ebikes and light electric vehicles (Onewheel falls into this category)?
You don’t, and the trails I ride on allow them. In Boulder County, that’s not the case. I ride in other counties. But thanks for the lecture, dad.
Regardless, it makes zero logical sense to ban a 2 horsepower, silent, electric motor vehicle that is lighter and slower than a mountain bike, but allow mountain bikes. It’s hippie logic: horsepower produced by human legs augmented by fancy mechanical gears and chains is “natural” enough to allow, but if it’s powered by something else, ban it before the heathens desecrate the sacred space.
Thankfully, most of Colorado is people stoked about what they are doing, instead of pissed about what others are doing. You fall into the latter category. Boulder is your kind of place. Meanwhile, I’ll be somewhere else menacing the public safety with a 25 pound vehicle with a top speed of 18 mph.
Your One Wheel can't be classified as a Class 1 bike because it isn't pedal assist. So at best it would be a Class 2. Across the state of CO, Class 2 bikes aren't allowed on MTB trails. All E-Bikes are not allowed on National Forest MTB trails. So unless you are riding private land or 4x4 trails, you are taking a motorized vehicle on non-motorized trails.
Your disrespect for public land deserves to be called out.
It’s not an ebike, it’s a light electric vehicle. Also, you don’t know what you are talking about with the laws of Colorado. The mtb trails fall under multiple different jurisdictions. I frequently ride on mtb trails in a National Wildlife Refuge that has a pilot program for LEVs. Jefferson County governs mtb trails differently than Boulder County.
Please explain to me how I’m “disrespecting” public lands? A Onewheel is as quiet as a mountain bike. It’s slower. It’s tire distributes weight on a bigger surface are and doesn’t ruin the trail with ruts. I don’t deserve to be called out, you just like rules and lording them over others. Go tell someone else what to do, Karen. Unless you obey the speed limit to the letter everywhere you go, you have no leg to stand on. After all, if I go 57 in a 55, I’m “disrespecting public roads” in your logic.
E-Bikes on National Wildlife Refuges must have 2 or 3 wheels, pedals, and less than 1 HP [0]. You're OneWheel doesn't meet any of that criteria (you claim 2HP in another comment, but it's really besides the point). I wasn't able to find any reference to "light electric vehicles" in the actual ruling [1].
I'm aware that Boulder has different rules than most of CO. JeffCO allows Class 1 bikes on MTB trails [2]. A OneWheel isn't a Class 1 because it isn't pedal assist.
You disrespect public lands by violating the rules that govern them. There are legal ways to skateboard on MTB trails, but they don't include a motor. Earn your turns, or stick to paved surfaces.
I’ve owned mountain boards in the past. You go far faster and pose a bigger danger, since you have to hit long downhills for it to be remotely fun. Without the smoothness of regenerative braking, stopping is far more difficult. You essentially have to brake and power slide simultaneously. It’s very destructive to the trail. But since we are all lemmings who follow rules blindly, sure, I’ll switch to that and create more negative externalities than I was when I rode an unholy, evil, dirty filthy MOTOR, and desecrated the holy shrine of the chain and sprocket with the dark one’s tainted electrons.
Or... I’m going to enjoy Colorado and the fact that most people don’t have a need to be hall monitor busybodies, and keep doing my thing.
I’ll be stoked on what I’m into, and leave it to others to be pissed about what others are doing.
You want to ride non-motorized trails, but you aren't willing to put in the effort to get good with a mountain board. Instead you are adding a motor and riding it on non-motorized trails. There are plenty of dirt bike trails in CO that you could instead ride on legally, but you choose not to.
You're just selfish and disrespectful of public lands.
I primarily ride on trails on county open space that explicitly permit light electric vehicles. I also ride in a national wildlife refuge where the rangers have voluntarily signed on to a pilot program for ebikes/levs.
That being said, in places that don’t allow them, the rangers shrug, say “cool, glad it’s slow and doesn’t disturb wildlife” and go on about their business. I had a ranger near Leadville trying mine, and he later bought one. Boulder County is a stark exception. They were one of the first places in USA to ban mountain bikes from their trails in the 80s. An organized, well funded lobby pushed for that to change and got the ban removed. Unfortunately, there is a small minority of citizens who gleefully will call the police if they see you on a mountain bike trail with an LEV. They won’t say anything to you, they’ll dime you out as soon as you get out of sight. Boulder rangers will give you a court summons. I was on a trail in the summer when a fire had made a smoky haze. The trail was deserted, due to the poor air quality. A member of a super expensive ashram saw me and my son from a balcony, and called the rangers. I went to court. The judge thought it was absurd, openly stated that the motorized vehicle ban was enacted in the 80s to bar gas powered ATVs and dirt bikes, and fined me 100 bucks. She said it was the same fine a mountain biker gets if they go on a hiker only trail.
The Karen in this thread is one of these people who don’t like sharing trails. It’s not about the motors, it’s about their belief that motors will bring the_wrong_kind_of_people. The kind of people who weren’t wearing masks outdoors on windswept, sparsely populated trails last summer like they were (glad they finally caught up with rest of us and science and stopped shaming people who understood how aerosols work).
FYA Boulder has a few trails explicitly designated for ebikes, so they are slowly evolving.
E-Bikes are classified as motorized vehicles in the context of the National Forest.
> E-bikes are not allowed on trails designated for non-motorized use. Non-motorized trails include trails like hiker, horse, or mountain bike trails. E-bikes, like other motorized transportation, also are not allowed to travel cross-country off trail. There are no exceptions.
You don’t, and the trails I ride on allow them. In Boulder County, that’s not the case. I ride in other counties. But thanks for the lecture, dad.
Regardless, it makes zero logical sense to ban a 2 horsepower, silent, electric motor vehicle that is lighter and slower than a mountain bike, but allow mountain bikes. It’s hippie logic: horsepower produced by human legs augmented by fancy mechanical gears and chains is “natural” enough to allow, but if it’s powered by something else, ban it before the heathens desecrate the sacred space.
Thankfully, most of Colorado is people stoked about what they are doing, instead of pissed about what others are doing. You fall into the latter category. Boulder is your kind of place. Meanwhile, I’ll be somewhere else menacing the public safety with a 25 pound vehicle with a top speed of 18 mph.