[Closed] All the Ebike haterz... pitchforks at the ready 🙂

Couldn't they have made it a bit more ugly?

Agreed, nowhere near ugly enough

would prefer this..

http://bultacobrinco.com/?lang=en

?Acceleration is when the tears of emotion flow horizontally to your ears.? Yesterday was fast, today is WOW.

Not road legal? How would the rozzas ever catch you??? 😉

http://bultacobrinco.com/?lang=en

That's more like it! Truly gopping

Is that "seat tube" sealed at the bottom? Lovely seat post-swing arm collision there if it isn't & you drop the post for descents

75km/h and single piston brakes, what could go wrong!

Gopping , much prefer this vintage effort looks ideal for runs to the shops.
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Icon eflyer, they make some nice off roaders too.

It does raise the question of why there are not more e-bike's razzing round cities.

It does raise the question of why there are not more e-bike's razzing round cities.

The £5000 part might be something to do with it. Though i do agree as i've only even seen one, which funnily enough was being ridden round the car park of CyB.

It does raise the question of why there are not more e-bike's razzing round cities.

You mean 'normal' electric bikes or these pumped up non road legal jobbies? In holland I think sales of electric bikes are at about 200,000 sales a year out of a about a million bikes sold in total. The dutch are more partial everyone, of all ages and states of health pedalling around in normal clothes and not being sweaty; we are still a bit fixated on gimp suits and day glo for our cycle commuting with a much more limited demographic to buy sit up and beg electric assist city bike in numbers..

I think Holland like Germany have most of the sales for *ebikes* taken up by older people. A lot more older people ride bikes as a leisure activity, rather than a sporting activity, than in the UK.

*Edit or I should say pedelecs as that is what most people are talking about*

on our swiss alps trip last year, we`ve seen quite a lot e-bikes..
not these special ones, just "standard" e-mtbs
and not on the trails,
but in the cities and around remote huts and farms

Starting to see the odd one down here in that there London

Ive only ever seen e-bikes ridden by fatties.

Ive only ever seen e-bikes ridden by fatties.

You mean 'normal' electric bikes or these pumped up non road legal jobbies?

The market for either must be there, lower running costs and simplicity, not needing much fitness etc. Purchase cost will be an issue, but how much is a cheap petrol scooter?

Haaaaa tom +1

Although I did follow an awesome contraption round surrey hills the other day. Looked home made, ridden by a very friendly portly chap. Live and let live..... If it gets people out on bikes great! If they have the money, great! Don't mind e bikes at all. When my knees give up, I will be buying one..... Hopefully the technology will have matured by then so we don't have to live with monstrosities like Im seing in this thread!

Was in Hayfield last weekend and there were 3 young lads all with quality ebike Full susser's outside Rosies Café, non of them were fat(yet)

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I want one of these, for DH and commuting.

Our e-bike at work is ridden by the (usually female) partner who doesn't think that she will be able to manage a full day out on a normal bike with the cycling partner. They have a great time and usually embarrass the cyclist going uphill at a steady 15mph.

If I was a rich man with £5k to burn I'd buy the Bultaco, just for a laugh, doesn't look that bad as a lightweight motorbike, seat arrangement excluded!

75km/h crash is going to sting a bit in lycra 😯

Tom_W1987 - Member

Ive only ever seen e-bikes ridden by fatties.

You spotted me out t'other week then? I had the use of this thing for the evening.....

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That'll be 6 and a half big ones to you sir. I can concur that they are indeed a right old laugh! You absolutely fly up hills. The top speed setting on the flat is bonkers!!! And the amount you can wind up your race whippet mates (Hi Daz) as you hoon past them on the ups, cackling like a maniac, while smoking a gittane/sipping a G&T more than compensates for the constant Brian Potter/invalid carriage remarks.

Theres a full test on them in this months mag (yes... theres a magazine)

😀

Yep they're great fun as, extra weight makes stopping and turning different, bested the KOM up BPW climb by over 2 mins on the one I had for a bit, another Haibike.
Damping a geometry needed a bit of adjustment though

They're pushing them in a big way in Austria, charging points at a lot of the mountain restaurants. I love them, opens up a whole new range of riding in areas where the lifts don't run in summer.

They're not as good as normal bike downhill though really.

Interesting idea for the Alps, as I've ridden a few places when the lifts are shut and its a soab doing all that climbing/pushing but amazing doing the descents around Morzine and Les Arcs when no one else is on them and you have the trail to yourself.

Would mean that the season is a hell of a lot longer as well.

6 and a half grand? Why not just spend a bit more and get an electric KTM moto?

Too heavy to be fun on mtb trails and jumps, too slow to be fun on moto/enduro trails.

Great for fatties to get up hills though, wreck trails and reduce access. Trail centres should ban them for all but disabled customers.

wreck trails

Not in my experience (the standard ones) of the power delivery they're pretty linear, the 75 km/h one might spin a touch though 😯

They should definately be banning the ones with moto style throttles. Over time you will notice trail erosion, if you double a humans power output you are going to increase erosion.

Secondly, trail overcrowding is bad enough without having to try to overtake 400lb whales and their fat kids who are out on a day trip. The day that happens I will lose my shit and move to a country where people are too poor to eat 4000 kcal a day.

Too heavy to be fun on mtb trails and jumps, too slow to be fun on moto/enduro trails.

Erm... sorry to burst your balloon, but thats complete and utter cobblers! On both counts!

Have you ever actually ridden one? Or are you doing the whole backbench Tory MP complaining about TV programmes. "I don't actually have to have seen the programme to know that it is an absolute outrage and should be banned!!!" 😆

Try and get one on a test ride! Seriously..... they're an absolute hoot! 😀

On uphills and rolling terrain they are a hoot, on downhills and jump sections they are heavy and unwieldly.

Looks like half a Mondraker with a lawnmower welded on.

Not for me, but fill your boots if that's your thing.

Tom_W1987 - Member

On uphills and rolling terrain they are a hoot, on downhills and jump sections they are heavy and unwieldly.

So you have ridden one of the expensive good ones then?

Yeah.... true... I only tried it round Calderdale, renowned as it is for its gently undulating, rolling landscape, and not even remotely technically challenging descents.

*adopts Rumpole of the Bailey voice*

Now I must press the defendant for an answer. A simple yes or no will suffice. Have you ridden one of the afore-mentioned contraptions?

Not one of your super expenaive 5 to 6k machines, still those weigh around 50 to 60lb.

I can't see them being much livlier. I stand by my point, if you dont want to pedal put your money where your mouth is and buy a ktm.

I don't get how you know with such certainty how one of these rides, having never ridden one. How does that work then?

For a start, you seem to totally misunderstand what these things actually are. You don't just push a button and they just go. You still have to pedal them. Your pedalling action is then amplified by the motor. To different degrees depending on the setting. It's a really weird feeling to start with, but you soon get used to it, then really start to exploit it!! With a great big beaming grin on your face!!! 😀

On the flat, you turn the motor off, and pedal away. You literally forget it's there. And then on the descents it felt like what it is - a really nicely specced 160mm trail bike .

I the weight issue - The Haibike I rode was nowhere near 50lb. It's about 40, but felt lighter. And it felt anything but unwieldy. But then what would I know? I'll have to defer to someone more qualified to judge, despite having never been on one.

Seriously... Piss -taking aside.... if you can get out on one of these, then do. I was gobsmacked at just how good it was! I don't know what e-bikes you've ridden, but the experience, and your opinions on it, don't bear any resemblance to what I thought.

Had a go on a Rottwild 6 inch travel FS job in Hinterglemm, mega fun. Felt about the weight of an old DH bike, weight carried low.
The lad in the bike shop had been sessoning the Blue line there without using the gondola, loves it.

This will end in trail conflict and can only be bad for trail access.

Shame really as I bets it good fun.

I can totally see the appeal of these in a bike park scenario, or in an area with seasonal lift closures, so far I've solely encountered them being hooned around bridleways and trail centres by fat lads in troy lee kit.

A 40lb bike is still a 40lb bike and I doubt it was that light, did you have scales on your demo ride binners?

Bikes dont feel lighter than they are, thats the biggest horseshit cliche in the industry.

I know how e-bikes work binners, some of them use pedal assist and some use throttles. Will trail centres be staffed well enough to tell the difference? I doubt it and that doesnt change the fact that pedal assist will still increase erosion.

What will happen is that normal mtbers will get overtaken by begginers on uphills and then end up slowing them down on the descents - making trail centre overcrowding even worse - as the speeds of the two different categories will vary considerably. There will be less flow and more conflict.

But yeah I keep forgetting that more technology and money is always good and never ever detrimental to a sport.

I just imagine 3 outfits based in say Ambleside offering stag weekend style trips out on the local right of way network on what may well electric motor bikes in all but name