On public trails throughout Central Oregon, attitudes toward e-bikes are a little different than on city streets.

Phil Meglasson, who spearheaded Bend’s mountain biking scene in the ’80s, rides an electric mountain bike. His namesake trail, Phil’s Trail, is one of the most popular mountain biking trails in the Pacific Northwest, and e-mountain bikes aren’t allowed on it.

Meglasson, 83, expects rules to change sooner rather than later on U.S. Forest Service trails where all e-bikes are banned from non-motorized trails.

It’s a familiar scenario for Meglasson.

“When we first started riding mountain bikes back in the ’80s, we were banned from just about every trail,” he said.

Meglasson, like many other e-mountain bike riders, rides an e-mountain bike that features a pedal-assistance up to 20 mph speeds.

It’s helped him keep doing the thing he loves.

“As you get older, it gets tougher and tougher,” he said. “With an e-bike, you can continue to ride as you used to.”

Meglasson and Bill Lynch, the board president for the Central Oregon Trail Alliance, a nonprofit volunteer organization that works with land managers to maintain public trails, both say they aren’t seeing many of the problems on trails that others are seeing on the streets.

“We don’t hear about trail conflicts,” Lynch said. “We don’t hear about people being rushed to the ER.”

It’s not uncommon to be passed by e-bikes on public trails, Lynch said, but it’s a completely different environment. Speeds are slower on mountain bike trails, balance on those trails is key and e-mountain bikes are usually built with specs that can handle rough terrain.

Individual forest districts are able to make their own rules per Forest Service directives.

The Deschutes National Forest, which has yet to change it’s restrictions, recently commissioned a local organization, the Deschutes Trails Coalition, to take the community’s temperature on where e-bikes fit on trails.

Many people weren’t too worried about pedal-assisted e-bikes, which is what Meglasson rides, said Jana Johnson, the coalition’s coordinator.

However, safety and degradation to ecosystems and wildlife were highlighted concerns. The most favorable outcome, if rules on forest trails change, was to allow only peddle-assisted e-bikes with a maximum speed of 20 mph on a select number of trails to assess the level of interest from the community, according to a report of the coalition’s findings.

Erich Ryll, a member of Bend eMT Bike Access, advocates for rules changes on the forest trails surrounding Bend.

Ryll, 73, developed shortness of breath in 2020, which prevented him from his longtime hobby, mountain biking. He began carting his bike up hills on a regular basis. That prompted him to buy a pedal-assist e-mountain bike.

Soon after, hills became a nonissue, and Ryll was back to doing what he loved.

He finds it outrageous that Meglasson can’t ride on the trail he helped build, let alone a trail that’s named after him.

“To me, that’s an extraordinary irony that I simply do not understand,” he said.

It’s seniors like Meglasson who compel Ryll to champion quick and effective rule changes on trails. They can’t wait five more years to have access to trails, he said.

The physical and mental enrichment he gets from e-mountain biking is priceless, especially as he ages.

“I’m not just going to sit on my fanny,” Ryll said. “I need to exercise.”

To continue the conversation about e-bikes in Central Oregon, The Bulletin is partnering with the City Club of Central Oregon to host a discussion forum on the topic.

Bulletin Reporter Anna Kaminski will moderate the panel, which will include Rep. Emerson Levy, who is leading the charge to update state e-bike law; Bill Lynch, the board president for public trails nonprofit Central Oregon Trail Alliance; and Brian Potwin, executive director for transportation nonprofit Commute Options.

The forum will take place in person at the RiverHouse on the Deschutes in Bend at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 16, and a recording will be available online after the fact. More information and registration details are available online at cityclubco.org.