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I still ride my normal bike a lot on my own. Last night me and my ride pal went out on our normal bikes for the first time in 2 years. Certainly lost fitness but the best thing about the ride was the top of the climb catch your breath chat.
On the ebikes we ride more exciting stuff and go further but we don't chat, we zoom round..
As we only ever catch up to ride bikes the chatting bit is really important.
I have an e-cargo bike for shuttling kids/groceries etc about and I'm absolutely sold on pedal assist for getting around town. I think if I did more hard MTBing I'd think about an ebike for that but I ride mostly road/gravel and the effort is part of the deal for me.
To be clear, I think ebikes are brilliant for lots of applications, even the ones I don't use them for. I think it's wonderful to have the privilege of choosing ones own level of suffering.
xc rides on the south downs are a bit pointless on the eeb so i have normal bikes for that.
the more fun places (where you would usually push up) i use the eeb.
i normally ride the fun places more but thats because they are fun not because of the eeb.
Had my e-bike for 18 months now. My MTB didn't get touched for 12 months, but I've since started using it more, e-bikes are brilliant if I'm honest I find them more fun to ride, but, MTBs are better for descending, after 12 months of ebike it felt razor sharp, light, more agile, more throwable everything...
It's not even the extra effort of getting it back up that bothers, be it's just so bloody slow doing it. I'm happy I have both.
Yes. E-bike is an addition rather than replacing any particular bike. It has its place but I still ride my dropbar MTB and trail FSer more often than the ebike. It's only my 'normal' big travel enduro bike that gets ridden less than the e-bike, but I can't blame that on the e-bike.
E-bike's perfect for my use: more trails in a short/fixed time window between dropping off and collecting the kids from sports clubs etc. I can get over twice the riding done compared to a normal bike. What's not to like?
Different tool for different jobs.
Big days out, Wales, Scotand Surrey Hills, anything that's basically 'winch and plummet' - 150/160 mm travel Eeb.
Local loops of flattish singletrack and bridleways, Swinley, Woburn etc with the kids - Steel Hardtail. I hardly ever ride the E-MTB locally.
I'd say each gets roughly the same amount of action these days.
If I lived somewhere with lots of vertical and gnar rideable from my door I'd probably be much more Eeb-reliant.
Yes but I sold my full-sus pretty quickly after getting an e-full-sus, so just had a hardtail. And then replaced that with a singlespeed hardtail which I prefer because it never feels like you're slowly crawling up a hill wishing you had a motor speeding things up, you just pedal hard enough or get off and push.
an e-cargo bike for shuttling kids/groceries etc about and I'm absolutely sold on pedal assist for getting around town.
I have an eBullitt with a motor.
It's brilliant. It replaces a car (in my case it doesn't as I used to cycle everywhere through town anyways and would use my Bob Yak trailer). It serves a purpose.
Motors on MTBs I see as daft and defeatist.
I probably ride 3-5 x each week. 1-2 hard rides on "normal" bikes then a moderate ride on "normal" bike (gravel & road). I use an eeb (f/s mtb) for relaxed fun & days away mtb. I also prefer the eeb if I commute (which is mostly off road). I decided not every ride needs to be hard and for me eeb is a good way of enjoying bikes without digging myself into a hole (I'm getting older and recovery is definitely something I need to think about). I have sold my Tallboy as it was getting no use but kept a rigid mtb for winter fitness.