Originally Posted by
NeilGunton
It's really simple... bicycles aren't supposed to have motors.
I have laid out the argument about the slippery slope here several times, and nobody has refuted it.
JMHO, of course. No doubt this discussion will continue to froth until it is shut down, and that will be the same story with any e-bike discussion on the "bicycle touring" forum, because many people are offended at the idea of bringing motors into this sacrosanct space as if it doesn't matter and we should all just accept it. A lot of people ride a bicycle as a statement against motorized travel, and touring by bicycle for many is an explicit rejection of doing it by other means (like car, motorcycle etc).
I guess the real question is who said bicycles aren't supposed to have motors? Is it a law or something or just what a private citizen believes is true for them. If so, another citizen is free to feel differently. Who's
right?
I thought the slippery slope argument was refuted when it was shown that you have an e bike article on your own site, that discusses how to convert a conventional bike and your site has not faltered as a result. Seems compelling.
And, should an international touring forum's (not really a sacrosanct space) content be determined by the biases of people who want to make statements against motorized travel, explicitly reject it (seems political) and, if so, how do you square the circle of discussing taking a train or ferry as part of it?
See, the problem with drawing arbitrary lines in the sand is that it is immediately pointed out how people cross them all the time because those lines don't really exist or people think what they are doing is the exception to the rule.