[Closed] Ebike Hardtail - anyone got experience on them

I'm also Interested to hear opinions on this as well

I rode a rigid ebike for a couple of years. but I was ill at the time.
if you are healthy, riding a mainly flat 10 mile route, you will be as quick I would have thought, riding a normal bike. as a ebike tops out at 15mph.

I may be wrong.

Good point, though what I am really looking for is peoples experience of riding them, do they love em, hate em, so so etc. Web is awash with reviews of fs ebikes, yet see very few on ht ebikes, which is odd as some of these ht ebikes are pretty high spec, so bike makers must think there is a market, but you would not use them in XC racing, so who is using them, what do they think. Are they just the same as an HT but with a motor, or a very different ride.

I've got a Scott e Scale. It's brilliant off road takes a bit of getting used to but it handles pretty well.
I also use it sometimes road commuting, with slicker tyres, and it's fine but I often find myself at or around the 16mph limit with assistance bouncing on and off. I generally either back off or, if I'm feeling good, see how long I can keep the motor off for.

I hired an e-fatbike once. Great fun! Weight doesnt matter and big ole comfy+grippy tyres.

The one I hired on hols was pretty low spec but how much of my experience was spec I'd think not so much. (It also had continental brakes and only 100mm of travel)
My one day experience was overall good ... but much better on uphill rather than down where the weight and lack of travel made it feel scary... and I'd have felt much more confident on my 100mm HT to throw about. (and I'd have just rolled down at full tilt on my trail bike)
I pretty much nursed the battery all day I tried Turbo for about 2 mins... but mainly it was on the lowest or next to lowest assistance but barely made it back and the assistance barrier was really noticable on the way back anyway with long flat sections where the effort to get it past the cut-off wasn't worth the extra 5-10 km/h so i was holding back the unassisted guide...

Alternate view ...I'd not have enjoyed the 60+km and several thousand meters of assents in the 35 degree heat (assuming I could even do it)... without assistance...

I demoed a Levo HT two or three years ago and can't say I loved it. All that weight on an overbuilt alu HT frame just felt jarring to me on techy, rooty stuff, totally different experience to the FS. I think the fork on it was pretty poor, so that will have contributed significantly to my feelings about it.

My wife has one, it’s ok.
Cube reaction, deore brakes, 10spd xt, ive used it with a rack and panniers, it has fox 32 140mm forks.
It’s not really a great mountain bike, if you’re gonna use it like a ‘hardcore hardtail’ it doesn’t really work for that imo.
Used as a heavy duty tourer, yes, it’s much better for that.
I own a cube E stereo, it has the exact same motor, and a similar build otherwise, that’s a very different beast, much more ‘chuckable’
I reckon her bike would be fine with a decent chubby tyre on the rear, the current schwalbe something or other is a budget (oem) one.
All about geometry and tyres i reckon, you need big ones, and some moderately slack geometry.

I have a Vitus eSentier which is a lot of fun. It is great for 90% of the riding I do but probably not
the bike for mega hard stuff although it has surprised me how competent it can be. CRC seemed to have stopped doing them though

Does the 25km/h speed limit means the assistance stops? Surely you can still go faster by pedalling without assistance or is the bike actually limited irrespective?

Does the 25km/h speed limit means the assistance stops? Surely you can still go faster by pedalling without assistance or is the bike actually limited irrespective?

You can if you can be arsed.... but you're doing it with the extra drag of the e-bike so it quickly (for me) on flat or mild uphill became a case of a lot of effort for little gain which psychologically meant I didn't bother.