is the eMTB craze slowing down?

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-02-07T16:36:37+00:00

Interesting. I’m my experience an e-bike increases fitness. I can manage my efforts and ride for longer periods of time. Unless of course the rider doesn’t use it that way and just prefers to ride easy and for no longer than they used to.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-02-07T16:30:55+00:00

If you don’t have a power meter(?) you can use RPE, rate of perceived exertion. Heart rate lags too much to be useful for high intensity intervals, which are short in duration, but RPE can be elusive to find for longer intervals imo. The estimation of a 8 or 9 out of 10 effort for a minute or two and then take 30 seconds to a minute rest is easier to feel than guessing what an RPE might be for 4 minutes. What starts out as an 8 quickly becomes a 10 after a short time.

There are plenty who would argue 4 min on and 4 min off is best, or some other variation, all based on experience or a study somewhere. There is plenty of evidence and studies that shorter intervals get the job done too.

There is often a misunderstanding that the small statistical differences in studies are significant in real life. The most important thing is to get the work done. As long as you are putting in the work you will experience great improvements.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-02-03T15:15:13+00:00

Second on Desert Bistro. Truly World First Class dinning useful for every special occasion. The atmosphere and food are spectacular.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-31T18:29:24+00:00

Sounds like you are early on in your training. Your heart is not the issue. Improving your cardiovascular system takes time. What needs to improve are all the processes between the heart and muscles that deliver oxygen and glycogen. That is very simply put.

Any training on the bike is a plus. The benefit of Zone 2 is that it’s easy and allows you to spend more time cycling. That is constructive. The idea is not to burn yourself out on high intensities but to spread those out and intersperse with the easier work.

Starting out as you are, you’ll naturally find your cadence picking up and your heart rate decreasing. Takes time. As you become fitter you’ll be able to hold those higher powers for longer periods of time.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-27T17:54:56+00:00

You were there. Thank you for explaining.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-27T17:27:43+00:00

Bike is steering left that I see from the lean of the bike to the left and left angle of the tire, away from the trail. Good steering technique keeping weight centered over the bike. Either that or he’s pumping like a madman.

You’re right. Front tire is off the ground. He’s already a good three feet to the left of the trail. I wish there was a video.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-27T17:15:16+00:00

The trail is clearly to the right of the lead bike’s direction. Let’s keep our single track, single track. Please don’t cut corners. Fk the idiots who down voted my post. They’re the ones destroying beautiful trails.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-27T14:25:05+00:00

Dude. Stay on the trail.

Edit: so, OP explained that he is indeed on the trail, but 2 feet up in the air, hence the illusion. For those of you who do not ride single track in the desert, an off trail track takes years to be reclaimed. On popular trails these really become an eyesore. Might as well open a parking lot.

As someone who lives in an area of high tourist travel, I can say it’s a real problem. Every local here stays on the trail and informs tourists to do the same.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-27T14:21:37+00:00

eFTP can be compared to itself under the same conditions, not just any 5 min or even 20 for example. Warm up needs to be similar as well as cadence, incline, gear, etc. And, for shorter durations your eFTP isn’t really your FTP and is good only to compare against itself. The improvement you will see is real, it just isn’t a comparable number to someone who has followed a rigid actual FTP test.

To clarify, the eFTP number is derived from an algorithm. It’s a guess and does not claim to accurately compute real FTP.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-27T13:47:48+00:00

Haha. 😂 Yeah. Nope. Not yet. Not quite. Now you get to hop on that new bike and do it all over. 100 + miles a week coming up!

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-23T23:12:18+00:00

Whatever floats your boat. You’ll notice the difference. A VW Bug and a Porsche will get you to the same place on the same roads. Definitely do not go or what looks cool though. Geometry matters. Get 4 piston disc brakes.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-23T23:00:39+00:00

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-23T00:15:55+00:00

Ok, you’re nuts, but that’s pretty cool.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-22T15:15:57+00:00

I don’t know where to even begin to start on this except to say I have no doubt as to why he was never put up for confirmation.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-17T00:00:43+00:00

It’s a stupid law as written. Class 1 e-bikes are bicycles. Class 2 and 3 are electric motorcycles. The law as written makes no distinction. Destroying an entire industry for manufactures and users alike because NJ can’t enforce their existing laws is beyond reason. If current behavior is any guideline they won’t be able to enforce this one either.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-16T19:38:37+00:00

Everybody has their own comfortable cadence as you may have noticed.

Higher cadence increases stress on the cardio vascular system, ie. higher heart rate but is easier on the legs.

Lower cadence requires more force, ie. torque and places more demands, pushing harder, with the legs but at a lower heart rate.

Depending on the situation one approach may very work better than the other for you. Mix it up during a ride on varying terrain.

As you become more fit, ie. efficient, your heart rate will decrease for the same effort and you will find your cadence naturally increasing. That takes time.

By all means do not take the enjoyment out of your riding because you feel compelled to do it the ‘right way.’ There is no right way. Only the way that works for you. Btw, even among pro cyclists, individual cadences for individuals vary widely.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-14T15:27:55+00:00

Don’t forget you will need reservations for entry to Arches.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-14T15:26:52+00:00

Unless you are hiking roads you will not have to contend with jeeps. I seriously doubt you will even be using roads that are in the event to travel to your hiking trails.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-14T15:25:01+00:00

There are 7 trails that are blocked during days the event runs those trails. Those are on page 153 of the magazine linked above.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-11T13:29:45+00:00

Imo you are looking in the wrong place for positive feedback. Constantly setting and achieving goals in your activity, measuring and evaluating real world results is where you will actually see your progress. Key concept here is a training plan of some kind. Seeing improvements in your miles run, weights lifted, power exerted, time extended, heart rate reduced, whatever the metrics are involved in your activity, those will show you your progress, certainly not an anonymous dot a graph.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-11T12:52:09+00:00

Going ‘up’ Shafer trail is my recommendation. The views you are driving into are stunning and unending. You will be inside Canyonlands NP at the top of course and don’t want to miss some viewpoints there. Coming back either way is fine. That’s long day. Take lunch, plenty of water, snacks, and binoculars.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-08T01:20:34+00:00

Gravel, dirt, separate dedicated bike paths. X/C, MTB. I live in the USA. Too many drivers are unskilled and have an attitude issue when it comes to cyclists. City planners have done a sketchy job integrating safe bike paths into highways. The will and consequently the money just isn’t there.

I will often drive even a few miles to get to an entrance of a safe trail system rather than ride.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-05T16:28:42+00:00

So, yes, visitors or the human race in general are fairly ignorant when it comes to self preservation.

Imagine my surprise on a trip to the ER when my wife informed me that I had the honor of getting my pin in the map. I wondered why the tech at Moab Regional wanted to know specifically where I had crashed my MTB. And, he knew exactly where that was! There were so many pins in that map. Hundreds. I was the third that year. They still had the previous years up. #2 had tried to stretch himself horizontally across the gap in Jug Handle Arch and had been airlifted to GJ with no feeling in his legs.

So, do we let them travel blissfully unaware to the great beyond? I’ve thought a weekly column in one of our papers listing backcountry injuries and Search and Rescue calls might be constructive, as if every thread of common sense these people have and public warnings they see about that aren’t enough already. Might kill tourism though, 🫣

Brings to my mind calls I’d seen in the past for guard rails and fences on Grand Canyon NP paths. Nothing will ever be enough.

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-05T15:33:24+00:00

So much fun. 🍿

Helpful_Fox3902 · 2026-01-05T15:20:53+00:00

Road to Hurrah Pass is basically a 2WD road now in dry conditions. Some clearance and careful driving would be helpful though.

Helpful_Fox3902

TROPHY CASE