An interesting thing amongst my pals. Many of them are serious petrol heads. 5 of these petrol heads have bought ebikes and instead of taking the motorbike for a 300 mile highland loop they are taking the ebike for a 40 mile loop instead. None of them have increased the limits or run illegal bikes either. Must be an overall all saving in greenhouse gases if their typical sunday afternoon ride is now via ebike not petrol bike?
Its not something I have seen discussed before but ebikes seem to be attracting people away from ICE engines for leisure riding
I know loads of motorbike riders who would usually be tearing the place up on MX and Enduro bikes that now ride e-bikes. None of them would have bothered with regular bikes.
huh, that's pretty cool. I met a couple on the TPT a while back now (last summer I think) who were both on e-bikes and had packed enough for n overnight in a B&B and would re-charge their bikes, and were doing a 50 mile round trip just 'because'.
They'd sold their camper to buy his and her's e-bikes. They both cycled in their youth (they were both a bit...'Padded', shall we say?, and had rediscovered their love of cycling through e-bikes. They were having a great time
Interpretations of "petrol head" vary, so I won't say I ever was one. My interest in cars waned in my early 30s, and a couple of years later I discovered mountain biking. If I want a nice day out in the countryside that isn't hiking, it's now MTB for me, currently non-electric. It's probably only a slight reduction in emissions, as if I'm going for a day ride I'll almost always drive somewhere nice to do it.
We were on holiday in near Aboyne last week and most of the other people we saw when out cycling were on ebikes. Ebikes have certainly enabled people who may not cycle regularly to get out and enjoy the countryside.
We did meet one ebiker on a hired bike who ended up walking down a descent as they didn't fancy riding it.
Some very gentle basic riding skills courses might benefit new riders.
Sounds promising, in general - maybe their next "Eureka!" moment will be to realise the their e-bikes could be used for the commute.(in some cases)
In Tarlands at the moment and the number of E bikes is staggering. Even seen kids on them (under the age 10). Mostly transported in lovely big vans. The money around is crazy. Puts my wee overloaded car and basic family bikes to shame.
Must be an overall all saving in greenhouse gases if their typical sunday afternoon ride is now via ebike not petrol bike?
If it Soothes their collective conscience's fine they're all bonafide eco-warriors now they've ridden an E-bike once a week...
Its not something I have seen discussed before but ebikes seem to be attracting people away from ICE engines for leisure riding
It's sort of been covered. Basically people who like speed, but not so keen on pedaling are attracted to eeebs, hardly a shocker is it?
These folk are pootling around back lanes - not speed based at all. Non of them have claimed it for eco points. I just thought it an interesting observation
I wonder what the uptake on ebikes would be if the cycle to work scheme was upped to include them.
I'd love an eeb but can't justify one. Don't need one either.
Met a largish group of E-bikers on top of a hill one night om the edge of the South Wales valleys. Chatting to the lads they were telling us they used to all ride MX bikes all over the hills but got fed up with the agro they were getting every where and the risk of their bikes being crushed. Since riding the Eeebs they said no-one gave them a second look. And with that they took off over the heather in the direction of the summit where no public right of way existed (I was unable to moan having just come that way myself 🙂 ) Personally I would rather see them on E-bikes getting a bit of exercise and not making any ICE noise than roostering up the peat bogs and slag heaps as they have been doing for the past 30 years!
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';">I wonder what the uptake on ebikes would be if the cycle to work scheme was upped to include them.</span>
It has a higher limit now. For my current employer it's 10k, previous employer it was 20k!
🤯
It has a higher limit now.
It’s unlimited now, so if you can convince your employer to let you spend £20k on one, you can.
I have mates who match TJ's profile. An e-bike seems to be a fun enough toy without all the hassle of licences, insurance etc.
I hear this all the time from ppl we meet, riding e-bikes, loads of ex-motorcyclists. One of my regular pals was the first of us to go e-bike, way back when they were mainly only in europe, he has 4 motors cycles in is garage (GSXR 1000 being one, so fairly serious), he's simply not interested in them any more, and says he has more fun on the e-bike.
I gave up m/c in my mid 20's and though I still occasionally think about getting another, the e-bike is more fun without the risk of being knocked off by some idiot (other than myself).
Yup, IME it tends to be more the bigger groups, I guess once one person sells their KTM and gets a Kenevo and discovers trail centers the rest probably pile in?
I can see why, riding a trail center is more instant gratification type-1 fun than a bridleway, and green lanes are the dullest "bridleways". Taking a few months off to ride the TET looks fun, dragging a flooded DRZ out of a rut in Wiltshire whilst the red-socks tut seems less appealing than a few laps of the FoD.
Are we talking e-mtb or e-motorbike like surrons?
Either way I'd love an emtb but, I'm on a health journey at the moment and will benefit more from riding a normal mtb, especially for heart rate intensity on climbs, I had a go on a mates turbo levo SL the other day and it was great fun though.
I would like one eventually but maybe when I've shifted another 4 stone and have storage space for a normal mtb and an emtb so if there is any electric issues with the ebike at-least I've got another bike to ride.
That being said though if I keep up with the journey I'm on I might get to the point after building all that fitness up that I might decide I won't really benefit from one. One thing I did notice is how much planted my mate levo felt compared to my older shape x wing frame enduro, much more stable and less erratic which I liked.
Also a former petrolhead here, had plenty of fast hatch backs and used to like riding trials back in the mid 2000s, miss my gas gas 249 and my ep3 type r.
Are we talking e-mtb or e-motorbike like surrons?
E-mtb's, although occasionally both.
13 years ago my ex wife made me sell the ZX6R as I had managed to get her pregnant again and had promised it would go after child number 1 came along 3 years previously. I had a 2 wheeled hole in my life and having hardly ridden a MTB since my teens decided to fill that void with one and have never looked back. If I had the finances to buy either an E bike or a Motorbike I'd be struggling to make a decision as to which.
If I had the finances to buy either an E bike or a Motorbike I’d be struggling to make a decision as to which
With the roads, the price of fuel, insurance, tax etc... the lack of anywhere 'to go' .... it's honestly a much easier decision than you may think 😀
I have normal bikes, an eMTB and a KTM 690. None particularly new or fancy, the value of all of them together doesn’t add up to the cost of a top spec mtb. I’d say my 2 wheel time goes as below
80% MTB
18% eMTB (basically 50% of my solo rides)
2% motorbike
The KTM is up for sale, after a life changing (but after 400hr of physio, not MTB-stopping luckily) injury I’m evaluating my risk vs reward and the risk on the KTM is something like 100 times that of the push bikes and the fun and social aspect of the push bikes is easily 10x that of the big bike so it’s going. I’ll probably build myself another cafe racer for getting about on but fast bikes just aren’t worth it for me any more, and that’s coming from someone (a very lucky idiot) who in their 20s was hammering a ZX6R about with a vest and shorts on
I can see why, riding a trail center is more instant gratification type-1 fun than a bridleway, and green lanes are the dullest “bridleways”.
Depends on what you ride for. I personally get a bit bored of doing winch and plummet type riding ALL of the time. I tend to prefer a trail ride that has some mint downhills in it too.
I like a good old xc ride sometimes too. Studying an OS map and really feeling like you're exploring an area. It's all good.
I've never been a petrol head. Zero interest in cars, zero interest in motorcycles and standing around talking about them, but, I've always had them. I just like two wheels I think.
I've been doing the trail motorcycle thing recently and i suppose because it's new to me, the mtb has fallen by the wayside a bit, even though I'm lucky enough to have an mtb and an emtb.
It's funny but i don't particularly feel good about doing trail rides on the emtb, as in doing a loop, as i feel lazy, but on the motorcycle it's ok. Though i have to say, the more time that passes where I've not been for a proper mtb ride, the more fat and lazy and unfit I Feel and probably the less inclined to go and do it.
It's difficult to do everything (1st world problems for sure)
I'd have to disagree with the generalisation that green lanes are the most boring bridleways. Since doing the motorcycle thing I've ridden some crazy stuff in some spectacular places. A lot of it would still be very tricky to climb on an mtb, but of course, doing it on a 200kg motorcycle just puts a different angle on it.
It's filled a lot of the gaps for me because for one, i can cover a long distance, and also because I've been riding a lot of really beautiful and interesting places that perhaps i never would on a mtb or emtb because they're too disjointed or isolated as part of a cycle ride. Not on a motorcycle though.
But yeah, a lot of motorcyclists do seem to enjoy the eebs too.
Your average trail centre car park tells you pretty quickly that there's no shortage of petrol heads.