Benji expresses his thoughts on short travel e-MTBs, Chipps explains how and why 2x gearing seems to be back and Hannah sentences Fabien Barel to a de …

By mark

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Balls to short travel e-MTBs PLUS Fabien Barel

I’m looking buying either the rift zone e over the alpine trail e – the rift zone is 140mm the alpine is 150mm at the back so only a difference of 10mm. The geo is exactly the same. The bigger difference for me is mullet Vs 29r….

I’m leaning to the rift zone as I can swap bunch of bits over from my current trail bike – wheels forks etc.

But the again my other bike is a fill rigid fat bike set up for fun. Travel doesn’t = fun….

tl;dl on the short travel subject?

Theres a number of threads over on the EMTB forum of folk who opted for the short travel Ebike, then post up inquiries about fitting a longer fork and pushing the shock.

You can always go down the travel in the future, but the other way isn’t as easy or desirable, or even possible in the case of the shock.

Maybe a pro rider can get on with shorter over longer, but not everybody is a pro.

Yes but benji complains that a shorter travel doesn’t necessarily mean better efficiency, I’d argue that longer travel doesn’t mean more fun.

I sensed that Chipps did not entirely agree but wasn’t about to be drawn into the debate.

I have both a Merida e120 and e160, which are basically identical other than fork and rear travel. Can confirm the e120 is pointless and has no advantage over the e160.

I sensed that Chipps did not entirely agree but wasn’t about to be drawn into the debate.

You may be right 😉 You may have detected I was trying to start that ‘debate’ but Chipps is just too nice 🙂

I’d argue that longer travel doesn’t mean more fun.

But it often means more capable.