Is riding an e-bike on Strava cheating?

Only if you log it as a regular ride. Strava has separate E-Bike and E-Mountain Bike ride types, which keep your times off the leaderboards for unassisted rides. Log it as an e-bike ride and there is nothing to argue about.

Do you get a real workout on an e-MTB?

Yes. In a 2019 Brigham Young University pilot study, experienced riders on pedal-assist e-MTBs averaged about 94 percent of the heart rate they reached on regular mountain bikes over the same loop. The motor only helps while you pedal, so how hard you work depends on the assist mode you choose.

Are e-MTBs allowed on mountain bike trails?

It depends on who manages the land. Many trails on US federal land are non-motorized and treat e-bikes as motorized, while other trail systems allow Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes. Check the rules for each trail system before you ride.

Is an e-MTB a motorbike?

No. A Class 1 e-MTB has no throttle and only assists while you pedal, with the assist cutting out at 20 mph in the US. You still pedal every foot of every climb.

Can you race an e-MTB?

Yes, in e-bike categories. The UCI has held E-MTB world championships since 2019, and enduro racing has its own e-bike class. Racing an e-MTB against unassisted bikes is the one place where it would actually be cheating.

Is riding an e-MTB cheating? An honest answer from someone who rides one

The short answer

Riding an e-MTB is not cheating. Cheating means breaking the rules of a contest, and a Saturday ride is not a contest. It only becomes cheating when you enter a race for unassisted bikes with a motor, or post climbing times to a leaderboard as if your legs did all the work. Everywhere else it is just a different bike.

I ride e-enduro, so I am not neutral. But I have heard "that's cheating" enough times at trailheads to have thought about where the complaint comes from, and some of it is fair.

What would actually count as cheating

Cheating needs rules and a result. Mountain biking has both in exactly two places:

Races. Hiding a motor in a race for regular bikes is cheating, full stop. That is why racing keeps them apart: the UCI has run separate E-MTB world championships since 2019, and enduro racing has its own e-bike category.
Leaderboards. If you upload an e-MTB ride to Strava as a normal mountain bike ride, you take climbing segments away from people who earned them on their own legs. Strava has separate E-Bike and E-Mountain Bike ride types for exactly this. Use them.

Outside those two, there is no result to steal. Nobody wins a group ride. If you finish a climb faster than someone on a regular bike, the only thing you have beaten is your own heart rate.

Do you still get a workout on an e-MTB?

Yes, and more than most people expect. A 2019 pilot study from Brigham Young University put experienced mountain bikers on the same loop on a regular bike and on a pedal-assist e-MTB. On the e-bike their average heart rate was about 94 percent of what it was on the regular bike, and most of their time on both was spent at a vigorous intensity. They were also faster on the e-MTB.

That matches what it feels like. The motor only helps while you pedal, so you still pedal. What changes is what you spend the effort on: instead of one long grind up and one run down, you get three runs down in the same afternoon. You arrive at the top less wrecked, and you ride the descent better for it.

It is fair to say the effort is optional. You can sit in the highest assist mode and barely breathe. But that is a choice, not something the bike forces on you, and plenty of riders spend most climbs in eco.

Where the complaint is fair

Most "cheating" comments are really about something else, and some of those things deserve a straight answer:

Trail access. In the US, many trails on federal land are classed as non-motorized, and an e-bike counts as motorized on them unless the land manager says otherwise. Riding one where it is banned is the one thing that genuinely hurts other riders, because it gives land managers a reason to close trails. Check the rules for every trail system before you ride it.
Speed on shared trails. An e-MTB climbs at a speed people are not used to seeing going uphill. Coming up behind hikers or slower riders at that pace is startling. Slow down, say hello, and pass wide.
Weight and wear. E-MTBs are heavier, and more laps means more tire on the dirt. Skidding a 50 lb bike does more damage than skidding a 30 lb one. Riding wet trails you would not ride on a regular bike is a choice you can just not make.

None of that is about cheating. It is about manners, and manners apply to every bike.

What you get instead of a shortcut

The honest case for an e-MTB is not that it is easier. It is that it changes who gets to ride and how much:

Riders of very different fitness can ride together without anyone waiting at the top for ten minutes.
People coming back from injury, or getting older, keep riding the trails they love instead of giving them up.
You get more time descending, which is the part that builds skill.
After work, one lap becomes three before it gets dark.

How to ride one without being that rider

Log rides as E-Mountain Bike rides. Never take a regular segment.
Check trail rules every time. If e-bikes are not allowed, ride somewhere else.
Drop to a low assist mode when you pass people or ride in a group.
Yield on climbs anyway. Uphill right of way does not stop applying because you are fast.
Do not argue in the car park. Nobody has ever changed their mind there.

The shirt

Since the argument is not going away, I made a shirt about it. The Watts tee has a chart on the back making higher highs and higher lows, and the line ends as a sentence: watts are overrated. It is a light polyester tee you can ride in, from $55.95 with free shipping. It answers the question so you do not have to.