The Cogburn: Fat-bikes, E-bikes, and Fair Chase Part 2

I am going to start this blog entry with the request; If you know of an actual case where an e-bike operator has been charged with a fish and game violation or hunting/fishing related trespass violation, please contact me via the “Comments” section below. After researching for several weeks, I have only been able to locate only one case where an e-bike users were charged with using their electric-assist bicycles to pursue and take wildlife, and that was on the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers website several years ago. I’ve found a few cases where e-bikes were used to access closed areas, and one case in California where poachers used e- bikes to transport their illegally taken game. However, it appears from my research that the often-stated belief that e- bikes would be used to run down wildlife, often couched with words like “could,” “might be,” “possibly,” and “potentially,” are based on supposition and misunderstanding. To be clear, I firmly believe that anyone who uses any “motorized” vehicle, whether it’s an ATV/UTV, pickup truck, SUV, or an e-bike to violate Fair Chase laws and ethics should be prosecuted for that violation. I just cannot find any records of it happening with e-bikes despite numerous Google and Yahoo searches.

QBP Photo

The introduction of the Cogburn in 2013 produced a number of articles in publications as diverse as “Petersons Wheels Afield,” “Off Grid,” “Outside,” and even “Bicycling,” that spoke glowingly about how hunting, and by default, fishing, in the backcountry could be enhanced by accessing the area on silent, low impact, fat-tired mountain bikes. They were even touted as being the perfect “bug-out” vehicle capable of carrying a weapon, such as a compound bow or rifle on their specially designed scabbard rack. None of the articles, and I still have a file with most, if not all of them, mention chasing down wildlife with the bicycle. Granted, a pedal powered bicycle is not going to keep up with a fleeing deer, elk, or antelope, but using pedal power, the hunter or angler was (and is) able to go farther, faster, deeper and do it quieter and with less impact. Fat-bikes are even capable of riding over snow and sand when their tire pressure is dropped to 5 to 8 psi. Truly, they are a human powered All-Terrain-Vehicle.

The demise of the Cogburn model marked the end of a human powered bicycle designed specifically
for sportspeople. Of course, you can use pretty much any bike for whatever purpose you want. My very first experience at bikefishing was on my Bianchi Volpe touring bike, accessing various stocked trout lakes in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area in central Minnesota. The next time, on the Chippewas National Forest, I used my patrol mountain bike. Since 2014, my ride has been the Cogburn. It’s fun, it gets me to where I’m going faster, and carries a lot of stuff. As I’ve said previously, my next bicycle purchase will probably be an e-bike, but in the immortal words of Aragorn in the “Lord of the Rings,” “it is not this day.”

I have posted the question with which I started this blog post on several different bikefishing and hunting Facebook groups. It will be interesting to see what kind of response, if any, I get back in return. If it happens, you’ll read about it here.

Keep the rubber side down!