The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) updated its position on e-mountain bikes last week, indicating that the sport's largest advocacy group will now support e-bike access to certain trails.

In a post on its website, the organization wrote that it would support allowing Class 1 e-bikes onto mountain-biking trails "when the responsible land management agency, in consultation with local mountain bikers, deem such eMTB access is appropriate and will not cause any loss of access to non-motorized bikes." (Class 1 e-bikes are defined as having only pedal assists, which means no throttles, and a maximum assisted speed of 20mph.)

Though couched in caveats, the statement marks a significant shift from IMBA's previous position adopted in 2015, which held that e-bikes were inherently motorized and thus inappropriate for use on non-motorized trails.

RELATED: IMBA Recommits to Wilderness Access Strategy

"Since the eMTB landscape has changed significantly since 2015, IMBA's board of directors and staff determined that an updated statement was warranted," an IMBA spokesperson wrote an email.

Increasing e-bike sales, and some local- and state-managed lands opening to e-bike use, have caused confusion over where people can ride electric mountain bikes. One key question is whether they are closer in practice to conventional mountain bikes or to engine-powered vehicles like motorcycles.

IMBA also carried out two studies—one a report on the environmental impacts of e-bikes, the other a survey of rider attitudes toward e-bikes—that offer some of the first real data on how e-bikes operate in a trail setting. Both studies were prepared for the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association.

RELATED: Why e-Mountain Bikes Are Big in Europe, But Not North America

The environmental impact study found that in the conditions tested, Class 1 e-mountain bikes “were not significantly different” than conventional mountain bikes when it came to soil displacement and tread disturbance. (It did find that e-bikes had more severe impacts in specific situations, such as entering a bermed turn.) The study, though small in scope and size, is the first of its kind.

Yet environmental impacts are only one factor in assessing e-bike access to trails. User conflicts and perceptions play just as large a role, and it seems as though attitudes remain predominantly opposed to the new technology.

In a member survey, IMBA polled more than 4,000 mountain bikers on their experiences with, and perceptions toward, e-bikes. More than a third strongly agreed that e-bikes would increase trail conflicts, and more than half strongly agreed that e-bikes would threaten access for unmotorized riders. Most tellingly, three quarters of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that e-bikes are a form of motorized recreation that do not belong on non-motorized trails.

Less than a quarter of respondents had personally tried riding an e-mountain bike. Among those who did, any trace of consensus breaks down. Almost 90 percent of riders who reported having a negative experience on an e-bike said the bikes didn’t belong on trails, while almost 60 percent who reported having a good experience said they did belong.

Does it count as a workout if you use an e-bike? Watch this video to find out:

Factor in rider age, and another clear split emerges. Riders over 60 were more than twice as likely to have tried an e-bike, and three times as likely to say that e-bikes belong on trails.

These results leave IMBA in a tricky spot, caught between groups of mountain bikers with starkly different attitudes.

RELATED: The Place for E-Bikes

The member survey points at one possible direction IMBA might go. In their list of policy recommendations, the authors discuss the creation of a separate classification for electric mountain bikes, distinct from both motorcycles and traditional human-powered bikes.

That’s possibly a ways off. Both the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, for the time being, consider e-bikes to be motorized vehicles. Any change to that classification will likely take years of study and public comment.

But state and local land managers can move more quickly, and IMBA wants to be prepared. Increasingly, the future it's preparing for looks like it will have a place for e-bikes.

Subscribe to Bicycling for more on the latest trends in bike news and culture.

Joe Lindsey Joe Lindsey is a longtime freelance journalist who writes about sports and outdoors, health and fitness, and science and tech, especially where the three elements in that Venn diagram overlap.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io