Very interesting
But unsure if I would want one

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Ojgux9QZ0[/video]

I think Honda have a similar product that’s been around a while. Oh and it’s £1000 cheaper. And goes much faster.

Not a new idea and I still can’t quite see the appeal for 99% of people

if you’re a DHer you’ll want a DH bike not a 70lb motor assisted pretend mx bike…
If you’re an MXer you’ll want an MX bike with an engine not a Bicycle made up to play at motor bikes…
If you’re a commuter or leisure rider you’ll want more than 2hours run time and won’t need 8-10″ of travel and the weight of that thing to lug about either…

Plus it’s pretty chuffing ugly to boot. Where’s the market for this thing?

Pointless

Plaything for rich unfit fat cats. Wouldn’t want to lift it onto my roofrack.

Not pointless just not a mountainbike.

It’s not more pointless than a CX bike is sitting halfway between a road bike and a XC bike. It’s halfway between a mountainbike and a MX bike.

Think about somewhere like the Peak District. Everyone (apart from motorbikers and 4×4’ers) hates off road motorbikes for the noise and trail erosion. So if they overnight came back on electric bikes, with just enough power to do the job, and stuck to the same legal rights of way, everyone (might) be happier. You’d still have 50hp MX bikes for MX tracks, and mountainbikes for mountainbike tracks, and these would fill the gap inbetween?

We already have electric MX bikes. I don’t see where this fits in.

Where’s the market for this thing?

Don’t worry, they’ll make one.

We already have electric MX bikes

but can you pick one up and lift it over a fence? Presumably it’s a power to weight issue too, this company believes the answer is in less power and weight rather than matching petrol bikes at 150+kg.

Needs 29 inch wheels

the presenter wound me up.

thisisnotaspoon

Not pointless just not a mountainbike.

And that’s what makes it pointless, for mountainbikers at least . If mountain bikes had never been invented this would be great, but they were. A 2k full sus is a fraction of the price, a fraction of the weight, no electrics involved, never needs charged, almost certainly faster downhill and is capable of riding all day long if needs be.

thisisnotaspoon

It’s not more pointless than a CX bike is sitting halfway between a road bike and a XC bike. It’s halfway between a mountainbike and a MX bike.

I disagree, a bicycle with an engine, petrol or electric ceases to be a bicycle, it just becomes a sh*t motorbike. A cx bike is just the job for cx racing or light fast off road riding.

It’s a flawed bicycle, or a flawed motorbike. Anyway you look at it, it’s flawed.

With MX noise issues getting worse and tracks closing down, electric bikes are the future.

I disagree, a bicycle with an engine, petrol or electric ceases to be a bicycle, it just becomes a sh*t motorbike. A cx bike is just the job for cx racing or light fast off road riding.

So if these were popular, and someone came up with a race series for them, they’d cease to be pointless in your eyes? 99% of mountain bikes never get raced, take ‘enduro’ that was a ‘pointless’ niche of bikes between XC and DH?

If i was stood in a shop and wanted a ‘bike’ for doing 100 mile rides, and there was a network of accessible trails (maybe there is in Oz or the USA?) then there’s no reason why would Joey Average pick the XC bike that he would have to spend the next year training on before he could do that ride?

If (big if) conventional off road motorbikes were banned from areas like the Peaks, then these would be very popular.

thisisnotaspoon

If (big if) conventional off road motorbikes were banned from areas like the Peaks, then these would be very popular.

If law makers can ban motor bikes, it wouldn’t be very difficult to ban electrically powered motor bikes. In fact I think it’d be debatable whether they could be allowed anywhere a motorbike would be banned , especially if they aren’t pedal assist.

So if these were popular, and someone came up with a race series for them, they’d cease to be pointless in your eyes?

People race lawn mowers I believe, so no. A race series alone doesn’t validate something. It’s a lot like a segway, or sinclair c5 I think. Just because it exists, doesn’t mean it’s useful or relevant.

It’s a lot like a segway, or sinclair c5 I think. Just because it exists, doesn’t mean it’s useful or relevant.

Ever ridden a Segway? Yes, they are completely useless but are great fun.
.
As for the bike in the OP, I wouldn’t want one. I beleive the original intention was to design a ‘self-uplifting’ DH bike but the weight of the thing would make it too heavy to be fun on the way down again. I’m out.

Think how fast you could go on the flat’s. Would prefer an MTB for the UK though. Don’t really see the point of the DH version. Maybe makes sense in Oz and US. They do appear to go rather quickly though.

Not sure I’d want to ride trails knowing there’s 90lb motor assisted high speed monster’s on the same trail. Interesting point about the MX noise made above. Can see the use there on an MX track.

I do think it’s great for the world that such electric technology is now viable and getting ever better with potential to help the environment.

I don’t think it’s an idea completely without any merit, just poor execution.

It’s just they’ve gone and made a hybrid of two thing that don’t quite work together, the annoying fella with the microphone referred to it as “the Tesla of the bicycle world” but the bicycle is already about as eco-frindly as two wheeled transport gets.

What they really want to aim for is the Tesla of the Motorbike world, that would be a proper revolutionary product, and is achievable IMO…

I would seriously consider some sort of electric motorcycle for my road commute, No need for it to have pedals, perhaps half the suspension travel of those things the OP linked, and still using some extant MTB technologies (6″-20mm bolt through forks and relatively light-weight wheels, 8″-4pot brakes, that sort of thing should deal with UK pot-holed roads) to keep weight down (compared to a proper Motorcycle) and save the cost of developing all new components from scratch…

It would only really need to have a top speed of 50-60mph for ‘A’ road pootling, be easy enough to handle for filtering you’d have to at least double the range of that Aussie effort, 2 hours/50miles isn’t enough..

Something like that would easily knock 10minutes off my commute by car by simply cutting out the jams, I seem to remember someone having a stab such a thing few years ago (in the UK?), I think it used Shivers or Monster T forks, Hope M4s and a big bastard battery pack, not seen much of it since (Anyone remember this / got a link?)…

As a product that would have more appeal and scope than the bastard child of a DH bike and an MX bike…

As a product that would have more appeal and scope than the bastard child of a DH bike and an MX bike…

I dunno, 50cc ‘MX’ bikes seem to be the 16yr olds ‘moped’ of choice.

Would you Believe it?!!?

They’ve only gone and bloody made a thing I could justify owning…

They even have an “MX” model too.

That’s pretty interesting… Expensive, mind, but still.