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On the contrary, I do pretend mine is a motorbike and go BRRRM! BRRRM! BRMMM! while I'm riding on the road wearing leathers and a full face helmet. At 15 mph. Drivers get quite annoyed. Which is a bonus.
I’m getting one of these for my ebike
I can see this all ending in tears and a ban
Same here.
I can't see it being imminent, but if we get any well publicised cases of ebikes* being involved in incidents where other members of the public are seriously injured, I can see it getting more focus. Particularly if we have a right wing / populist party in charge at the time.
(*meaning genuine ebike pedelecs, not electric motorbikes)
Blimey, just seen in the GMBN video about the bikes - there's a "smart" navigation system on the screen on the bike. Import routes and the app tells you an estimate of how much battery power the route will take. Neil D put a 30km ride in and it says it'll use only 52% battery in turbo mode. Turbo! I think my current bike would do 10 miles in turbo! I mean that's not how I ride, but gives a good guide to the range of these bikes. Awesome.
Not entirely the same, but...
I changed some settings on my Levo the other day (not wound right down) and fired it up - the TCU told me I'd got an estimated range of 156 miles 🤣
It won't, I'm lucky if I get 30
Btw, a Garmin connected to the right ebike will give you a live battery range Vs your route countdown and warns you that you need to turn it down or your bike won't make it
It’s all a plan for world domination. When your legs are all withered and useless and you’ve ridden a long way from habitation with nothing more than an electric pump and a bag of haribo, the Chinese will switch off your motors remotely!
Why even pretend they are not motorbikes now?
Personally ride what you like, but we are seeing trails round our way getting wrecked way faster than before because of people being able to do so many laps without getting tired.
Is one person on an ebike doing 5 laps worse than 5 people doing 1 lap?
You are being deliberately disingenuous with that comparison. Multiple ebikers will be easily able to do massively more laps than an equivalent number of riders without motors.
It is pretty clear in my local woods where this has happened as the erosion is getting more and more significant as the number of ebikes increase. Amusingly the more techy trails don't seem to be touched as much though, wonder why?
You are being deliberately disingenuous with that comparison. Multiple ebikers will be easily able to do massively more laps than an equivalent number of riders without motors.
It is pretty clear in my local woods where this has happened as the erosion is getting more and more significant as the number of ebikes increase. Amusingly the more techy trails don't seem to be touched as much though, wonder why?
They're rubbish trails? The techy stuff around here sees just as much traffic from both human and electric powered bikes.
"Massively" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. So should people on ebikes be limited to a set number of laps?
Why even pretend they are not motorbikes now?
Personally ride what you like, but we are seeing trails round our way getting wrecked way faster than before because of people being able to do so many laps without getting tired.
It's obvious that a heavier, more powerful bike, usually with bigger, chunkier tyres, will transmit more force to the ground and therefore cause more erosion. It's simple physics. I'm not anti-ebike per se, but don't claim that they don't cause more wear and tear, even on a single run.
Having watched a few vids now, for the avg rider there is no other bike to look at.
The features to price is so good and it looks ok as well.
23kg weight and removable battery is nuts. The fact you can take the battery out is a major selling point in itself let alone everything else
I wonder if some companies will go bust? Just proves how over charged we have all been in the past for emtbs
Having spoken to a few people who ride Amflows the power is a first ‘gimmick’ but then after a while they don’t use all the power day to day.
Use all the power and they do drain the battery quickly but that’s common sense ?
I don’t think these types of bike attract Surron type people. However at £4K they are going to attract people who get their first emtb.
That could mean lots of trail damage as people use full power and do lots of damage going uphill
Llandegla say they are seeing more and more damage to trails from e-bikes. This can be seen on sections of boardwalk with chicken wire and the wire is completely ruined due to powerful e-bikes , yet they themselves have started selling Amflows!
I help maintain some local steep trails and we're all on ebikes.
What we've noticed is theres more people turning up every few weeks in vans with their ebikes, lapping out the tralis on boost, then presumably going off somewhere else to do the same. This was trickier before, the trails were so steep you'd hardly get any laps in, plus you'd need to get to know them too which is tricky if you're having to ride/push up each time to explore.
I guess if you can do multiple laps easily you get bored more quicky of local stuff than before.
I don't think the overall weight matters much, its only 8kg or so difference, compared to 100kg or whatever for bike+rider.
I think its just the extra use.
On the contrary, I do pretend mine is a motorbike and go BRRRM! BRRRM! BRMMM! while I'm riding on the road wearing leathers and a full face helmet. At 15 mph. Drivers get quite annoyed. Which is a bonus.
Are you even a mountain biker if you don't make MX noises when you ride?
It’s all a plan for world domination. When your legs are all withered and useless and you’ve ridden a long way from habitation with nothing more than an electric pump and a bag of haribo, the Chinese will switch off your motors remotely!
A mate of mine who partakes in ebike made a salient point that they take some of the fun out of riding.
You are constantly just bashing uphill as quickly as possible to get to the next downhill adrenaline hit that it takes the fun out the uphills & pedalling generally.
A mate of mine who partakes in ebike made a salient point that they take some of the fun out of riding.
You are constantly just bashing uphill as quickly as possible to get to the next downhill adrenaline hit that it takes the fun out the uphills & pedalling generally.
Not all of us. I like to find technical climbs to see if I can clean them, which doesn't necessarily meaning going full beans. I also enjoy long boring fireroad climbs now, which again don't have to be at full pelt.
I'd argue a more salient point is fun means different things to different people.
Out of interest, what would you e-ride that you wouldn't attempt on your Hightower?
Techy climbs that are too long and/or steep to get up on the Hightower, I've never had any interest in climbing other than as a way of accessing downhill trails. Since buying the ebike (which is heavy at over 27kg) I regularly do climbs that I'd have avoided or used a longer/easier way up and have actually enjoyed doing so. Having said that, I don't really see the need to jump from my current bikes 750w/ 85nm output to the latest high powered Avinox bikes to hit the market as I think the power of mine is more than enough and I've seen a few reviews so far that imply the Avinox motor performs better/ more efficiently when the power is turned down
A mate of mine who partakes in ebike made a salient point that they take some of the fun out of riding
I wouldn't agree that it's the "fun" taken out.. there's a certain amount of reward that goes with eMTBing. I didn't like the feeling after my first few rides, but once I'd adapted my mindset, there are different aspects of ebiking that are rewarding. And there's definitely fun. Oh no-one ever mentions FUN when it comes to talking about ebikes do they?! lol
Also, ebike threads .. this isn't even an ebike thread! its a STW (p)review of the new Amflow Bikes and goes on to turn into the usual debate about why ride ebikes, what damage they do, why they're fun, why they're not fun.... can't we just have a sticky thread that goes round and round and round discussing the same old stuff..??
A mate of mine who partakes in ebike made a salient point that they take some of the fun out of riding.
You are constantly just bashing uphill as quickly as possible to get to the next downhill adrenaline hit that it takes the fun out the uphills & pedalling generally.
I find statements like this bizarre.
the singular point of a e-bike is to reduce or replace the effort required to propel a bicycle forwards.
within that framework, there is choice on much or how little assistance to utilise.
your mate is the master of how much enjoyment he can get from uphill and pedalling.
I have the (old) Amflow PL and 90% of the time I am in Auto mode, mixed with Eco mode if I am on my own. Trail gets used a little and Turbo even less. I have never found the need to use the Boost mode, I'm actual nervous that I'll injure myself with that power.
I can easily get 30km+ and 1000m+ of climb and use less than 50% of the battery on my average spin.
@Theomen Its post like that the people need more of , just a simple headsup why they are good for what they are , get out have a ride ,enjoy yourself .. nowt else matters .
A mate of mine who partakes in ebike made a salient point that they take some of the fun out of riding.
You are constantly just bashing uphill as quickly as possible to get to the next downhill adrenaline hit that it takes the fun out the uphills & pedalling generally.
I find that 'power hour' culture odd. You can go full beans turbo everywhere, theres no need to get your breath back at the top of a climb as there is on an analogue. If you're squeezing a ride in between family/work/other commitments I kind of get it - you can burn a battery on Sunday morning and get home for lunch. But I like riding all day. Stopping, chatting, taking in the view is all part of pleasure of being out on a bike (which is probably why I've always been happy on a 'half fat' bike, though tempted by a full so that I can keep up with the no-stops crew. I suspect on an Amflow I'd end up having a pootle mode that lasted all day though.
Talking of the Amflows.. Biketart has this on the website now:
This is the most in demand in bike we've ever known, the first few days after launch have been truly off the scale. £3999 for a carbon full-sus with this motor is insane value. We advise you contact us before ordering to get the latest information. As of now we expect new orders will be fulfilled late-summer.
Late summer?! They told me May! Ah well. Few months yet before I'll be destroying mountain biking, the planet and everything as we know it.