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Man that is incredible.
Do they have trails that go down into the canyon itself? I recall when I was a kid you could ride donkeys down a very steep and primitive trail to the bottom of grand canyon. Always wondered what it would be like to tackle something like that on an ebike, assuming one can even find a way down there. -
I'm pretty sure they don't allow bikes down into the canyon. I've done a lot of exploring in that whole area inside and out of the park. There is awesome stuff on the perimeter of the canyon inside and out of the park that allow some pretty close access, but I think "on-foot" is the only way to get down into the canyon. Bicycles are allowed to be on the paved paths, but even after reading much of the NPS, BLM, and NFS guides on the issue of ebikes, it gets confusing trying to discern between them. It's possible that the cycling depicted in this video might even be illegal in a technical sense but maybe not. Unless there is signage indicating a bicycling ban or a closed to ebike symbol, I'd say one is good-to-go. Pretty much guaranteed that the trails leading into the hikes down into the canyon have signage prohibited bikes of any kind.Originally posted by paxtana View Post
Now, I know from experience there are some awesome dirt roads around the park that allow motorized and MTB access to some of the awesome views of the red rock spires and views into the canyon. I've done them on a street legal dirt motor on occasion. I believe the trail the OP is on is a paved national forest bike/hike trail and not a NPS trail. It is classified as a "non-motorized" trail, but in some cases even that doesn't always mean an ebike is illegal. There is sometimes conflicted info from different .gov agencies as to what "motorized" means...believe it or not. I mention this not to get into some big debate on what "motorized" should or shouldn't be...just laying out some of the info as it exists now.Comment
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Electric bikes have been allowed same places as acoustic bikes in National Parks "officially" for about a year now and there was an order exempting them from being defined as motor vehicles in National Parks about two years ago - the only federal land this applies to is National Parks
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The BLM also classifies them as non-motorized, but here's the rub. There is apparently some kind of flexibility given to counties and other entities. Take Porcupine Rim trail on BLM land outside of Moab, UT. Grand County has deemed ebikes as illegal on major parts of that trail. Somehow their regulation trumps the feds in this case. And the current BLM guidelines on ebikes have carefully written exceptions how local/regional BLM managers can make more strict guidelines as necessary. And all this leaving out the nebulous arguments about the power levels, throttle, etc. Just sticking with what is at any level considered an ebike even within all the required power parameters, it's a rat's nest of confusion.Originally posted by AZguy View Post
E-bikes FAQ | Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov)
E-bike rules for BLM, Forest Service trails both thrill and rile backcountry users (coloradosun.com)
Good luck getting a uniform and consistent handle on this.Comment
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Nearly all BLM regulating is handled at the regional level
BLM does not have a blanket policy to exempt electric bikes from being defined as motorized vehicles. The same time/rule that went into effect a couple of years ago authorized and encouraged local BLM to define them differently and permit them, but did not obligate them to
Out here most of the land is not private land. There is a lot of Federal land (national forests, parks, monuments) and BLM. Somewhere around a fifth of the state is state trust land and there's a ton of res too... National Forest still considers them motorized vehicles but from my experience pretty much doesn't enforce, especially since that rule that came out two years ago. On trust land class 1 and 2 electric bikes and bikes are treated the same you are required to have a permit for any access. And res all I can say is don't get caught there on pretty much anything, asking for trouble...Comment
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AZ, interesting observation on the Indian reservations. I've done a lot of off road dirt motor back country trips in AZ. I've had great results and interaction in the Navaho and 4-corners' tribal lands...actually welcoming to a large degree. The only negative area was the San Carlos and Fort Apache areas. Saw a good many signs and even stink eye encounters on public dirt roads that were strange.Comment
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The touristy areas are a bit different... but backcountry can be very sketchy... I've been chased off at the wrong end of a shotgun and I think that's just because they were too lazy to dig a hole for our bodies... also they can confiscate your property and put it up to tribal law if caught trespassing and you are trespassing if you don't expressly have permission - Apaches will sell you trespass permits, not sure how the Navajos deal with it... San Carlos can be very unfriendly...
I just know where I am out here - it's silly easy to end up on res without knowing it since in the backcountry most of the time there are no signs... I'd go out if on really fast vehicles but I wouldn't think about riding my bike out there... to easy for it to get taken away or worse...
I'm not saying it's always or even mostly unfriendly encounters, but there are far too often very unfriendly encounters... They generally don't take well to outsiders trespassing regardless and as mentioned if you are off a main road you are often going to be considered trespassing... Stick to the main roads, drive the speed limit, and you generally won't have problems...
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I thought I hit the jackpot when I found out that Tucson, AZ had a 136 mile loop around the entire city for biking. Then I found out that the so called "Bike Capitol of the World" banned ebikes from the trail! (Tucson, AZ, ban on ebikes riding the Loop) That's absolutely nuts. The state allows for eBikes but each of the local towns that the trail runs through banned ebike use on this trail. Not to mention Tucson has a huge retired population and banning ebikes blocks hundreds of people from banning this trail.Comment
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PHX metro has hundreds of miles of multi-purpose paths accessible to electric bikes
Can't speak to Tucson - it is a bit of a wacky town... used to go there about every week for work until about 15 years ago and I haven't missed it one bitComment
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