Very much looking at the positives from E-Bike riding – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-48204409

Great to see some positive stories on a major website. Not only disabilites being highlighed, but also new riders getting out due to them.
Also loving the tumble weeds responses from the detractors on here…

A couple of weeks back I did a tweet about my wife getting an e-bike and how it’s enabled her to ride to work every day.

It got over 750k impressions, 12k likes and 300 replies (all but 2 positive) – this is about 6000 times more engagement than I normally get.

I think for ‘ordinary’ people e-bikes are a revelation in terms of accessing travel by bike, for those with physical issues they’re life changing.

I caught that this morning, certainly puts a different spin on it.

I don’t really get the criticism of ebikes, they serve a purpose. I’m sure as hell I’ll be riding one when I’m in my 50’s and my knees are done.

I don’t really get the criticism of ebikes, they serve a purpose. I’m sure as hell I’ll be riding one when I’m in my 50’s and my knees are done.

To be fair I think most of the criticism is aimed at perfectly able riders who choose an ebike as a “toy” rather than an aid or step into physical activity. Given how much the environment is in the public consciousness at the moment, I can understand that criticism.

There’s loads of positive things about them… I bet they’ve saved a fair few bike shops from going under, that’s got to be a good thing.
I saw a link to that article on twitter and the tweet was saying people are now able to commute into Portsmouth from outside the city (there’s a hill in the way, if you don’t know it) – well I’ve seen 1 ebike going over the hill in the past 3 years! And anyway it still doesn’t make it a safe city to ride in just cos you don’t have to pedal as much! (worded better) I damn well wouldn’t, ebike or proper bike.
They still aren’t the same thing as mountain bikes, so it does irk me that nearly every advert in Singletrack mag is for ebikes now. But hey, my opinion is just that, my opinion.

To be fair I think most of the criticism is aimed at perfectly able riders who choose an ebike as a “toy” rather than an aid or step into physical activity.

..and what exactly is a mtb, if not a toy too?

I’m struggling to understand why a fully fit 21 year old needs an ebike to ride the downhill trails at Aston Hill.

..and what exactly is a mtb, if not a toy too?

You are missing my point. You don’t have to plug an analogue bike into the national power grid, and charge up a battery made of lithium that has been open cast mined on the other side of the planet.

You are missing my point.

nope your being awkward/argumentative for the sake of it, as aluminium just drops out of the air, free from any environmental damage…and don’t say I use a steel frame, because it’s going to use lots of ali parts or stuff that been shipped across the world.

ajaj
I’m struggling to understand why a fully fit 21 year old needs an ebike to ride the downhill trails at Aston Hill.

I’m struggling with why we need cars that go after than 70mph, but the forecourts are full of them. Do you actually have a point, or just making another pointless argument, because “you don’t like them“

I’m struggling to understand why a fully fit 21 year old needs an ebike to ride the downhill trails at Aston Hill.

Probably because the Aston Hill push up track is about as infamous as their downhill trails are famous.

I doubt it is a question of “needs” but if that is what it takes to get her out riding and reaping all of its benefits, then all is good.

“the Aston Hill push up track”

The Aston Hill push up *footpath* did you mean?

Actually I’ve no idea if the bike park permit includes a license to ride on the footpath, but there’s no documentation to suggest it does. And it really annoys the local ramblers. A big heavy ebike is both harder to get down and harder to push back up. I don’t see why you’d do it.

Nothing against ebikes in general.

Well this is only likely to descend into the usual rancour.
We’re unlikely to resolve the environmental impacts of lithium-ion batteries vs. aluminium frames on here because there are no useful measurements (ideally being embodied energy or embodied carbon, plus persistence of polluting by-products) for the two materials available. The use/re-use cycle of the materials and components is difficult to compare.
Ebikes contain both materials and more materials so will have a higher footprint. That said, for a comprehensive measure of effects you’d also need to consider how many motor vehicles (careful with that definition!) are being left at home in place of ebikes.
The argument of ability vs sport usage is also void because sport being sport is only worth comparison in competition… or on Strava…
Back to the subject, I thought the BBC article read like a promo, but a good one.

You don’t have to plug an analogue bike into the national power grid, and charge up a battery made of lithium that has been open cast mined on the other side of the planet.

You can look critically at lots of other materials and supply chains that produce ‘analogue’ bikes eg carbon fibre. Everything has a cost of some kind.

Despite being one of the “detractors” (as z1ppy so delicately put it) I fully support the use of e-bikes by those of limited mobility. Indeed I feel that there should be a scheme available to subsidise the cost of them for such people, hence refering to them as “motability mountain bikes”.

I think ebikes have the potential to totally change how car drivers view cyclists, for the better, as they make cycling for transport much more appealing to non-cyclists.

I honestly struggle to see a negative with ebikes, i had one for a whole 3 weeks until it was stolen, but in that time i loved it, it changed the trails i rode, as i was able to ride the uphills and levels in a different way, it opened up the range i could go as well, and it also sat there as a back up commuter bike for those days the legs were all but empty.

I see people out on trails every weekend on ebikes who would never be out if they didn’t have them, instead of pointing, smirking or laughing i tend to think good on them, getting out there and trying to improve at stuff, whether under their own steam or powered, sometimes mountain bikers are as bad as golfers for this stuff!

Good article, They’re not for me (well, for until my knees are shot anyway) But I dont mind ’em.

Makes me laugh when people say ‘Its cheating’ as if MTB is one big competition? Just go out ride what you ride and have fun.

Prices range from just under £400 to £5,000

aye right £10k ebike

E Bikes have revolutionised some of my friends riding and lives – getting back into it after injury, commuting without getting too sweaty, one has just ridden Lejog with her (non ebiking) husband.

I don’t want or need one yet, but if and when I do, all the haterz can just go do one!

A big heavy ebike is both harder to get down and harder to push back up

No it’s not.
My pace DH is about the same on my 150mm travel trail ebike as it is on my Tues.
If you do have to push up you can use walk mode.

Walk mode.

*Shakes head*

ee by gum.

aye right £10k ebike

£10K non ebike anyone.
Whats your point caller.😉

https://www.specialized.com/gb/en/s-works-tarmac-discsagan-collection-overexposed-ltd/p/171353?color=270541-171353

I’ve never wanted to race. Even if I did, the option of partaking alongside the Athertons could be very fair in both directions.
I really like the downhills. Purist self flagellation is for weirdos.
It really means my car only ever goes on the motorway
Electrifying a Tandem/Cargo bike results in amazing mental and physical health benefits for the other half, to the extent it’s her being the motivational one.

I have never seen the point in cars? But people still buy them. 😉

I don’t understand the mindset that thinks they should only be used by the old, infirm or less able.. They are more fun in almost all situations than analog bikes, maybe a parallel could be drawn to how much more fun a blingy FS would be than an old Halfords BSO..

eBikes – the only legal way to feel 18 again. They are fun.

I might get one one day.

If it got her (the able bodied person) out riding so she could “reap all of it’s benefits” then maybe people wouldn’t have a problem.

Aside from the open-cast mining of rare earth metals (worse than aluminium scraping) and the adding to the pressure on the grid – the only actual scientific study done on ebike commuting has shown you’re better off walking or getting the bus. So “all” the benefits, not quite.

Great for the disabled. Great motorbikes in general. Don’t really want to see increasing amounts of noobs up Snowdon when they haven’t spent the time needed to safely get down the busiest mountain in the UK.

I’m a hater and proud.

“A big heavy ebike is both harder to get down and harder to push back up.”

I prefer mine downhill (even on the flatter stuff) to any other bike I’ve ridden, motor on or off. And it’s got a motor for going back up, either pedalling or pushing.

It’s also saving me about 25 minutes a day on my commute!

cbike

Purist self flagellation is for weirdos.

I’m sure you said that tongue in cheek to a degree but it’s not totally fair.

Same as people slagging of ebikes as “cheating”. It’s just as daft to generalise all non e bikers as weirdo masochism lovers.

The point is, it’s all good. There is no “them” and “us”. Buy the bike you want and enjoy.

“the only actual scientific study done on ebike commuting has shown you’re better off walking or getting the bus”

You don’t have to do a scientific study to know that this is bollocks – unless you live and work right next to a bus route in a town with very little traffic or an interrupted bus lane, cycling to work on an ebike vs taking the bus or walking will save you hours each week.

“Purist self flagellation is for weirdos.”

Sometimes I’ll push my legs and lungs to the limit on a climb with the motor off, as that little button near my left thumb tempts me with an easier life!

Of all the ecologically damaging things you can do (and probably do) an e-bike is pretty far down the list.

Get over yourselves. All MTBs are toys not paths to enlightenment, e-MTBs are no different.

Despite being in my 50s I can still get my bike uphill. The day it becomes too much I’ll be ordering an ebike.

I was in France earlier this year, and every hilltop monastery we visited had loads of middle aged men on bikes. At first I thought they simply had fit blokes in that area, then I realised they had hired bikes to get them to the top. Seemed great to me.

I’d like to read the full study:

“…a study by the European Cyclist Federation showed the overall carbon footprint of ebikes as nearly identical to traditional bikes, stating that a cyclist produces 21g of CO2 per kilometer traveled whereas ebike user produced about 22g of CO2 per kilometer, compared with 101g by bus and 271g by passenger car. One reason why the numbers between ebikes and traditional bikes is so close is that an ebike user expends less energy while riding than a traditional bike rider, and so they will theoretically be consuming less carbs, which reduces their carbon footprint.”

By that logic, as bikes are a more efficient form of transport than walking or running, so too must be ebikes.

Nice @chiefgrooveguru

You’ve pretty much shown how little effort an ebiker user has to go to by showing lower energy expenditure of the rider.

That’s in-line with the other study that came out with they do bugger all for your fitness.

And that’s the thing isn’t it. Nobody is claiming they’re not fun. But the able-bodied average cyclist puts in a lot of effort as a way of keeping fit. (Queue the millions of ebikers who now say cycling is nothing to do with keeping fit and it’s “all about smiles per mile”. Well, yep. it is on an ebike).

Queue the millions of ebikers who now say cycling is nothing to do with keeping fit and it’s “all about smiles per mile”. Well, yep. it is on an ebike).

This is just STW where to some people, riding is all about the handling, the descents, jumps, drops, popping wheelies.
I’m in that group.
To others riding seems to be about turning cranks.

I can ride my normal bike up a hill. I have ridden an off road 100km Peaks ride with 3000m of climbing in it and hardly walked any of it and can ride nearly every uphill on the Mary Townley Loop.
However, unless its very gradual hill, often it’s only at around 4 to 6mph which is tedious.
If it’s a very steep hill I’m sometimes only slightly faster than I can walk yet putting in significantly more effort. Pretty shit.
It is soon time to get an E Bike.
I’ve got a 12 month plan which should finish with me owning one this time next year.
Demo a few of the 2020 models when possible.
Pick one that I like then buy it at the end of the season when they get reduced in price as the 2021 models come out.
I’m glad I didn’t rush to get one as I’d be stuck with the 500 watt hour batteries and their very limited range. It seems like now they are getting 750 watt hour batteries and beyond which is much more like it. They are looking very appealing as it should mean I can do my usual 30 milers in turbo mode throughout.
I’ve ridden a few on demos and hire. Hills are so fast and easy. The only real thing that stands in their way is gates. Locked gates and styles are horrendous.