I'd have thought that ruling one out "for all time" is the more cult-ish behaviour.
How is it cult-ish?
This is a survey of all STW members.
I barely ride anymore - I might roll the bike out a couple of times a year. And I have no interest in dropping several £k on an e-bike.
As I get older I enjoy walking a lot more than cycling.
It's not really a proper survey if you only put the choices you are looking for.
I'd have thought that ruling one out "for all time" is the more cult-ish behaviour.
I mean, it wasn't really a serious post, I probably should have added a winking emoji or something. I just think that having 2 options for e bikes and one against seems to be a bias. I'm not saying I'll never have one, I'm 50 in a couple of months and well out of shape so would probably benefit from one, but they're just not on my radar at the moment and won't be for a number of years yet.
Why have the option of "no, but maybe in 12 months"? It just seems like the general industry pushing people that way. Go on, you know you want to....
As much as I love my e bike it never gives me that post ride glow.
That how I'd describe a full fat ebike.
Yes, although it's not in my possession yet.
I've gone for No.
I don't see me owning one any time soon - I have a bad back and live in an upstairs flat. The cost, inability for me to repair most of the bike's systems and relatively low range also count against the idea for me
I also don't want the faff of charging yet another device
I will admit, I find them fun to use (a couple of mates have them) but not for me ultimately
This is a survey of all STW members.
True - so it won’t be representative of real life.
As much as I love my e bike it never gives me that post ride glow.
Then put more effort in!
Yes I use a road bike for fitness, but I also work hard on the emtb 35 miles, 5,000ft climbing in 2hrs and I’m knackered
I love some of the remarks above about not needing one, or actually they are the devils work. Fine live in a deluded world. IMO they offer big benefit for any age group unless your idea of mtb fun is riding across a flat field
But then the poll in sponsored by an insurance company so god know what they want the info for, I bet it will only be good for their pockets though...
Yellow Jersey are sponsoring all our polls. This is not a YJ survey. I decided it was a bit of info we should all know about. That's all there is to it. Sometimes a question is just a question born from curiosity, asked by a bloke in a room while he's eating a sausage sandwich.
@Mark - I saw Benjis post on Facebook asking for ideas on which non-ebikes might be worth testing. Is it a general feeling that development has stalled in the non-e marketplace but continues for ebikes?
We're still seeing components being incrementally "improved" even if some of the claimed advantages are dubious but is it all about batteries and motors now? If so then I can see why ebikes would appeal to folk who are always after the next big thing.
26” MTB.. not cultish or wedded, just a brilliant bike, I don’t have a garage full of options.
The landscape and how you pedal through it is just a bit harder.. It’s still a big wheeler compared to all the bmx I rode in 70’s/80’s!
No ebikes for me at present, but could see one replacing the car when I retire (save me shopping in a sweaty mess) and emtb once I'm beaten into submission by the Chiltern hills - for now I still enjoy the challenge of getting up them with just leg power.
Sometimes a question is just a question born from curiosity, asked by a bloke in a room while he's eating a sausage sandwich.
Red sauce, brown sauce or no sauce at all?
"We're still seeing components being incrementally "improved" even if some of the claimed advantages are dubious but is it all about batteries and motors now?"
Ignoring ebikes, we've seen suspension systems generally converge to similar kinematics, geometry progress and converge on similar dimensions and angles, and wheels enlarge and/or mullet - so it does feel that there aren't a lot of places normal MTBs can progress significantly. But do they need to keep changing? Electric guitars are mostly the same as they were in the '60s and they don't even wear out!
But do they need to keep changing?
I don't think they do, but then I'm not trying to create/sell content.
@ads378
red sauce always. I’m not a savage.
Next poll will definitely be red sauce brown sauce.
sponsored by BIG Sauce.
GT E-Pantera Dash Unisex,bought this summer for £1299.00.Think it's going to become very useful as the the years roll on.
Yes but another cargo bike. It gets used a lot for school run & shopping duties. Once the kids are older I'll downsize to a more compact ebike for city riding, but that won't be for a few more years.
I don't own or particularly want to own an emtb, but I have occasionally hired one on holiday or at bigger trail centres.
I like the idea of hiring a particular genre of bike when I know I won't ride them enough to warrant the cost/faff of owning one myself. e-mtb fits into that category for me.
Mine is an "e gravel" commuter that I pretty much only use for getting to work and going to town. I won't take it on proper rides as I don't want to break it.
Would like an e MTB but can't justify it to my self.
I'm not anti-ebike, but I have absolutely zero interest in them
Same. I wouldn't rule one out due to age, illness or injury, if it enabled me to keep riding, and I think they're brilliant for transporting cargo and kids. But for my use case, there's no gap I need an ebike to fill.
I'd have thought that ruling one out "for all time" is the more cult-ish behaviour.
Ignoring the obvious typo 😉 ... agreed. A few years ago, I was in the "never" camp. Then things happened.
Thing is, i have zero interest in reading about them too. I've got one and that's it. People say, I'm thinking of getting an ebike, what would you recommend? I have no idea, for one thing the market is saturated! I'm happy with mine and don't really need to read about others. Certainly can't put a price per mile on it. Not having a bike, now that would cost a hell of a lot.
Don't own one but will have to give in one day due to health and long covid slowing eroding my motivation and fitness.
Next poll will definitely be red sauce brown sauce.
sponsored by BIG Sauce.
I do both - at the same time
Found a great deal on GT eGrade Bolt for ~£1250 soon after we got back and it was a gamechanger for getting me to places I used to ride to before long covid began just after Queen Liz died. Now wondering whether to get the ~200Wh Mahle X35 battery entender to boost the internal 248Wh, to make fairly hilly 4hr+ rides possible with good assistance on uphills.
When I posted this, I was looking at the battery entender on Amazon for ~£490, but found it on Ribble last night for £450... Trigger pulled!
Four years ago, I had no interest in ebikes, but back then I was a moderately fit cyclist putting out my best aerobic power numbers since getting into cycling with number machines in '18. Then covid turned into long covid and I spent '23 and '24 being limited to ~30mins of exercise a day, paying for it badly with Post Exercise Malaise when I tried to do the odd multi-hour ride even at a much slower pace.
Someone on here said an ebike was a game changer for them under similar long covid circumstances and while bargains under a budget I was prepared to pay didn't seem to come around often, in hindsight I wish I'd got one before Easter '25.
"Thing is, i have zero interest in reading about them too. I've got one and that's it. People say, I'm thinking of getting an ebike, what would you recommend? I have no idea, for one thing the market is saturated! I'm happy with mine and don't really need to read about others. Certainly can't put a price per mile on it. Not having a bike, now that would cost a hell of a lot."
I pretty much agree with this - I wouldn't say I have zero interest but I certainly don't have loads of interest. My ebike cost what seemed like a lot at the time, it gets used a lot (I commute on it most days - I'm sitting here in knee pads with muddy legs and damp feet) but "upgrading" it would cost so much, especially as I suspect its slightly dated geometry makes it better where I usually ride.
Another Long COVID-er here. I got a nice sensible hybrid ebike with mudguards and a rack in Sep 2022. If it wasn't for that, i wouldn't be doing any cycling at all.
I long for the day that i can flog it and have promised myself a sexy Fairlight Secan, if that day ever comes.
But in the meantime, it's the ebike or nowt.
i have a cube hardtail. I got it because mt local trails are far enough away that i could rarely be arsed riding out to them. Unfortunately I still haven't been arsed often and its now mainly a utility bike and even then i don't use it a lot.
OH has a city e-bike that I borrow sometimes and I'd use it more if it were my size. Great for popping into town over hills in civvies.
I've had good days riding great e-MTBs but it's like a track day or other 'experience' activity to me - fun, but it just isn't as rewarding as riding a regular bike. I can say that now as I'm lucky to have good health, after fairly recent events I know too well how fast that can change. I'm not in the 'never!' camp. I'm just appreciating the beautiful simplicity of pedalling through a landscape under my own power for as long as I can because it's life-affirming in a way that few other things can match. I also see a subjective, sort of values-based appeal in a simple bike, something that e-bikes don't have, and that also biases what I own and ride. 'FWIW' etc .. Hair shirt singlespeeder type mentality perhaps 😀
I'm fortunate enough to have a good few bikes of different types, including ebikes. I enjoy riding them all in equal measures tbh (the enjoyment), but the ebikes do get ridden the most
Not a hater, there may be one at some stage in my future but (hopefully) well beyond the 12 months in the OP so I answered "no". One of the things I love most about bikes, is their elegant mechanical simplicity. The fact that muscle power is very efficiently converted into forward motion. I ride motorbikes too and absolutely love it, but in a totally different way. I don't feel the need to ride something which (to me) blurs the lines between the two a little. I'm not making the argument that pedal assist e-bikes are motorbikes btw, just that the addition of any kind of motor removes some of the essence of what "bicycle" really means to me. Whilst I'm still able to, I get a bit of a masochistic kick from dragging my body up hills and over whatever ground I ride, knowing the motive power to achieve that came from me alone. I'm in my early 60s. Where I can see me getting one, is when it will allow me to ride trails with my grownup kids for a few years longer than I would have been able to do otherwise. I'm not quite there yet.
I borrowed one when I was struggling with long Covid and it was the only thing I could ride.
It served a purpose, but I couldn't wait to be able to ride a proper bike again. And for as long as remain able-bodied I will stick to proper bikes, I just didn't like it. Too much faff, and it's less type 1 fun than a motorbike, and less type 2 fun than a proper bike.
Ive got an E-cargo and i inherited an E-"mtb" from dad .
I them it for commuting / Nipping to the shops/Taking the kids out (both fit on the cargo bike) on days when i otherwise may not cycle because tired legs etc.
I wouldn't likely have bought the e-MTB but it has actually been really good its far more bike like to ride than the cargo bike - which in turn means i use it more. The Cargo bike i now only use when i have "cargo" or need to move both kids
I don't have one, because I can't afford one. I'd need a lot more disposible income than I've got to make me buy one too, I don't ride my full sus bike enough because I'm scared of the cost of maintenance. I think I'm going to sell it this year and buy a hard tail. An ebike would be orders of magnitude worse than that.
I'd love an ebike for commuting though, I'd go for one of those before an e-mtb, more useful I think and a lot cheaper.
How about an option "I looked at the prices and bought a motorbike instead" (I did)
I don’t see many self-propelled bikes here on the Quantocks… same when visiting Cwmcarn after work. Saddens me that it feels like something that was on the up has completely stalled and the shift to something I don’t value has put me off mountain biking a bit
Conversely, other than the potential for increased erosion in some places, I don't have any issue with folk riding electrically assisted bicycles. Unrestricted/illegal power is a separate issue.
How about an option "I looked at the prices and bought a motorbike instead" (I did)
I did that 4 years ago and never rode the motorbike. Riding on the road is awful.
One of my 3 MTBs is electric
No. I like to suffer! Reliability would worry me too, and they cost a bloody fortune. I can see the appeal though, if I lived near some of the big Scottish riding destinations I'd definitely consider one.
Reliability is pretty damned good now, from all brands tbh, and most are very serviceable/repairable, but buying one from a reputable LBS is still recommended. As for more expensive.. yes but you ignoring it has a motor and battery ontop of the 'normal' bike, so being realistic, it was always going to be 'more' expensive than a normal one. More so if you buy the top of the range model, or one that just been released, but there plenty of bargains out there on Paul cycles and the like.
I can't help you on the suffering front though.. well you could buy one and run it till the battery dies, and then you would know about suffering on the way back
I can't help you on the suffering front though.. well you could buy one and run it till the battery dies, and then you would know about suffering on the way back
I tend to flog myself silly on my e-bike because its just so hilariously good fun to ride AND I know that I have some emergency energy to get me back out of trouble if I properly bonk. Some of my most 'suffer-est' rides last year were solo ebike rides, max chat on the HR for ages.
2 of
Full fat E susser, and a lighter Ecommuter
I'd like to see more content on urban/commuter/cargo, though any Ebike chat is good.
Consider why you ride , if you love to earn your climbs crack on we aren't all the same . I ride both , up until recently the EBike was just for big days out off road. Over this Winter I've discovered it's hidden talents . I'm 70 retired for 4 years now, never really thought the " They're great when you're pushed for time " applied to me .
Yesterday after 2 days of grey miserable weather suddenly at about 4 pm the rain finally stopped. Decision time , get changed hop on the Rise , local cycle paths across a nature reserve, sublime sunset and back home just as it was getting dark, 12 fun miles in what was shaping up to be another boring hour what's not to like 👍
Been able to do this a few times this Winter now , not just on a grey wet days but also on below zero days when it hasn't looked rideable when finally early afternoon the icy roads have finally relented 👍
Yesterday after 2 days of grey miserable weather suddenly at about 4 pm the rain finally stopped. Decision time , get changed hop on the Rise , local cycle paths across a nature reserve, sublime sunset and back home just as it was getting dark, 12 fun miles in what was shaping up to be another boring hour what's not to like
Been able to do this a few times this Winter now , not just on a grey wet days but also on below zero days when it hasn't looked rideable when finally early afternoon the icy roads have finally relented
I'll often go out on the ebike with my drysuit on in conditions when I wouldn't even consider dragging the normal mtb out - eg last Sunday when it was raining when we set off
My takeaway so far is surprise that only 3.3% of the responses indicate the possibility of an ebike purchase this year.
It could be that most of the potential buyers already have one and it discounts those planning an additional/replacement ebike, but it's still a smaller number than I'd expected given much of the chat on here.
(I guess an additional question might have been 'are you likely to buy any bike this year"? That might put the 3.3% in more perspective.)
My takeaway so far is surprise that only 3.3% of the responses indicate the possibility of an ebike purchase this year.
I bought one last year so this one has to last me 10 years as they are so expensive.
I'll often go out on the ebike with my drysuit on in conditions when I wouldn't even consider dragging the normal mtb out - eg last Sunday when it was raining when we set off
Yep Ive found that too, tend to head out when I wouldnt necessarily on a push bike. Also big win in snow. They care momentum so much easier. The other week I did 20miles in the snow, I would never have been able to do that on a push bike in 4" of snow
