I have the following MTBs on my fleet:

2008 Marin HT; – light, fast, used for XC and some rollers work
2013 Lapierre Zesty FS – pretty light, my go-to bike for most riding
2014 OnOne c456 HT – cheap fun – built pretty tough as my winter hack
2017 Mondraker Dune XR – the “Big bike” with 180/170mm for smashing alps and bike parks

A good range of capabilites and all built well with nice parts.

However, other than the zesty, tbh, most don’t get ridden very much, the HT’s are fun, but honestly are a bit too much of a beating for my aging body, and the Mondy is really too much bike for most things.

As pretty much everyone i know now has a eBike, should i sell the lot and buy one? Would i miss the range of capabilites i currently have?

Actually questions only i can answer, but i’d love to know if anyone has done a similar thing and gone from a few bikes to one eBike?

Not quite, I went from having a few bikes, 6 at one point, to a FS and a commuter, for the last 4 years.

I then replaced the FS with an ebike about a month ago, so aye, it’s my only MTB.

It suits me at the moment, I spend a fair bit of time hill walking and running, not really one of these folks who just cycle, if that wasn’t the case maybe I’d feel differently.

But, at the moment, it suits me really well.

As you say, only you will know really. 👍🏻

No – don’t get rid of them all

You need a non ebike as well. for going out with pals, for doing long distance where you do not want range anxiety, for just having a laugh on

I haven’t ridden my ebike for weeks

I’d keep one of them so you can go out when the bike’s in having a new motor fitted.

I have an ebike, it’s great.
But I wouldn’t have it as my only bike.
Keep the zesty.

If i kept one it would be the zesty! A real do-it-all bike

I sold all mine bar one like others on here. Lasted about 6 months of non use before I sold up completely. All depends what type of ebike you buy and what you ride mostly. Most of my riding is general xc and trail stuff and I bought a focus jam2 29er which does it all. Friends bought more dh/enduro focused ones and bemoan the fact that they’re not as good as their manual trail bikes for normal riding. So I’d say it can be done solely with an ebike.ymmv

I have a gravel/CX/road bike thing, a very nice FS & an eBike.

I’d quite happily ditch the lot for the ebike. I’ve only kept the FS for racing really, although I might as well just race the electric one these days.

Range anxiety isn’t really an issue for me, I don’t go out and ride for the sake of riding, it’s all for climbing to find and ride trails. Current bike (new Gen3 Levo) will easily do over 3000m of vertical & 70km in Eco.

You can still ride with people on normal bikes. Eco turned down on mine is barely negating the extra weight of the bike.

will easily do over 3000m of vertical & 70km in Eco.

…. Eco turned down on mine is barely negating the extra weight of the bike.

Thinks….. So why not erm…

I think it depends how you’re wired. I’ve been riding a borrowed e-bike for four or five months now and it’s been an interesting experience. Some things that might not occur to you: an e-mtb can weigh 50lb plus, which makes it a pig to lift over stiles and to carry in or on top of a car if you often drive to ride. You can also feel that weight in the way it handles, harder to pop the front end etc.

It’s also, despite what people tell you, not a great workout, though great for your upper body if you’re lifting it over stiles a lot. Sure you can drop the eco level down to the point where you have to work reasonably hard, but then why ride an e-bike at all?

It’s great for effortlessly dispatching climbs if you don’t like climbing. And I get that people don’t like climbing, but then I do. I don’t mean riding for fitness – if that’s all you ride for, get an e-mtb for fun and a gravel/cross/road bike for beasting yourself. What I mean is the visceral joy of being self powered and feeling your body working. The vicious kick you need to get up a technical climb and the mad rush of booting it along a section of undulating singletrack till your heart’s beating out of your chest. I miss all that on the e-bike. And no, dialled down eco mode is not the same.

I also find that if I ride local loops in trail or turbo, it feels like the ride’s in fast forward the whole time, I actually like relaxing and thinking a bit. They make a noise too, which can be intrusive, but if your mates ride e-bikes, you’ll know that already. They’re also potentially expensive to run if the motor or battery fail outside warranty.

I’m not saying e-bikes are terrible things, I think they’re great in their own context, but I wouldn’t want one as a sole bike. Maybe as a sole mountain bike if you’re basically all about the downs and don’t enjoy climbing because climbing on a mountain bike is hard – I’d forgotten that until 15 months of not being able to ride made it abundantly clear.

Anyway, if I were you, I’d sell them, buy a trail-ish e-mtb and a gravel bike, but I’m clearly not you and wouldn’t do that anyway. In fact I don’t think I’d ever buy an e-bike unless it was the only way I could ride, which it was for a while. YMMV etc.

I sold a full-sus and a hardtail to buy an ebike as my only bike, but after 6 months I bought another hardtail for lots of reasons mentioned above.
– easier to ride with non-ebike friends
– its a better workout
– also ebikes are more likely to go wrong and you’ll need something else to ride whilst its being fixed.

ok, i’m now totally conflicted! lol! thanks all 🙂

Perhaps the sensible halfway is as already mentioned to sell the Hardtails and Dune, and buy a ebike, but keep the zesty for self-powered days out?

As pretty much everyone i know now has a eBike, should i sell the lot and buy one?

Do you actually want an ebike? “Everyone else has one” wouldn’t be a good enough reason for me.

I’d be asking “Would I have more fun on an ebike?” (answer for me is no).

This is very true: “I think it depends how you’re wired.”

Which makes the irony of this quite amusing: “It’s also, despite what people tell you, not a great workout”

You can work as hard as you like, or chill out and let it do all the work uphill. Downhill you have to put as much and possibly more effort in than on a normal bike. I imagine being forced into ebiking due to a health issue will give you a very different perspective than someone who’s using one to get more riding into less time.

I wouldn’t just have an ebike. I like having a normal hardtail but if you prefer full-sus bikes then I’d have an unpowered one of them as well.

Exactly what chiefgrooveguru said. If youre out there to exercise as opposed to just letting the bike do the work, then you’ll get exercise. My objectives each time i went out on mine was to see how fast i could go, all the time. Basically could 40 year old me on a mahooosive big enduro ebike keep up with 22 year old me on a 100mm travel XC bike. The answer is no but i had some right good fun doing it and i was sore in places i’ve never been sore before riding a normal bike and that wasnt due to lifting it over gates.

I entered an Ebike enduro at Fort Bill a few years back and i noticed i was, quite obviously, blasting past the guys on regular bikes at an insane rate of knots. But for achieving that insane rate of knots i was near enough full on sprinting all the way to the top whereas the vast majority of people were just trundling up to the top and using their energy on the downhills.

Point i’m trying to make is you can do either. If you want to blast up the hill an ebike will get you there quicker but you’ll still be putting in the same effort and burning the same calories over a set time period. Its just that you’ll smash in 10 laps/stages whilst everyone else is maybe managing 4 tops. If you want to trundle up as you’ve smashed it the day before and just want to hit the downhills then the bike will do that for you as well. It gives you more options.

FYI i dont have an ebike anymore as i went through 5 motors and 4 batteries over a 300 mile period of ownership so make sure you buy one with a good warranty and also as has already been said, dont make it your only bike.

Keep the dune for foreign trips, and uplift days, because you can’t fly with an ebike, it’ll also be useful as a backup bike, sell the rest and get an ebike.

You can work as hard as you like, or chill out and let it do all the work uphill. Downhill you have to put as much and possibly more effort in than on a normal bike. I imagine being forced into ebiking due to a health issue will give you a very different perspective than someone who’s using one to get more riding into less time.

I wasn’t forced reluctantly into e-biking in that sense, I was genuinely curious and interested, it gave me a handy excuse to try one – I was also very grateful that it allowed me to get back on the bike of any kind. Anyway, I’m not saying that you can’t work hard on an e-bike, but even set on 20% assistance, the loan Levo is still easier to pedal uphill than my hardtail. I guess I could go even lower and I suppose if getting fit was my main goal, I probably would, but this is really a cul de sac. If you’re lazy and unfit to start with, I’m not sure an e-bike is going to change that, just saying 🙂

It all depends on why you bike, everyone has their own reasons, I ride for fun, and an ebike is brilliant for that, hitting techy descents a wee bit fresher than I otherwise would have been, and getting more of them. I get my fitness and stamina from running and hillwalking, so want to maximise a couple of hours fun on 2 wheels these days. 🙂

Anyway, I’m not saying that you can’t work hard on an e-bike, but even set on 20% assistance, the loan Levo is still easier to pedal uphill than my hardtail. I guess I could go even lower and I suppose if getting fit was my main goal, I probably would, but this is really a cul de sac. If you’re lazy and unfit to start with, I’m not sure an e-bike is going to change that, just saying 🙂

That’s the point IMO. I don’t ride bikes to pedal up a hill for 30/40 minutes to ride down for 4. I can pedal up in 15 if I want now.

The beauty of them now if you can adjust the settings to your ride. As I mentioned before 10% assistance in Eco just about covers the extra weight of the bike, so is ideal when out with those friends who don’t have ebikes (yet).

As you say though, if you are inherently lazy, an ebike will give you more riding and downs, but won’t exactly help you with the fitness. I don’t ride bikes to get fit though – running, gym (& turbo in the winter) are far more effective.

“ Anyway, I’m not saying that you can’t work hard on an e-bike, but even set on 20% assistance, the loan Levo is still easier to pedal uphill than my hardtail.”

No, you’re still missing the point. I ride my Levo on turbo most of the time – well, either turbo or off. Sometimes I just chill when I know my legs need a rest but usually I pedal hard, as hard as on my hardtail. When I do that the climbs are over much quicker but they’re no easier, just shorter.

If I do a whole ride like that it’s much more intense than on a normal bike because you get more descending into a shorter time, and you have to concentrate far more on uphill singletrack because suddenly there are loads of corners that were insignificant at normal bike speed.

If I had all the time in the world I’d probably ride my hardtail all the time, but as I’m in that time-squeezed part of life with three small children then the Levo is very useful!

Given the tales of woe for E-bike motors letting go and not being promptly replaced, plus the various waiting lists for new bikes of all flavours, I’d personally be inclined to keep at least one alternative.

Given the Zesty is your current “Go To” bike, that would suggest it’s the best candidate, plus it’s not a “current” wheel size so that might count a little against it when selling…

If the other 3 aren’t seeing much use why not chop them in, used prices are up at present so it’s about the best opportunity you’re going to get to liberate some funds for an E-bike.

Maybe dip your toe with the least used of the lot and see how you get on, if it goes well flog the next, and so on…

As pretty much everyone i know now has a eBike, should i sell the lot and buy one? Would i miss the range of capabilities i currently have?

I was pushed into it by the majority of my riding buddies, and had every intention of still riding my manual bikes, and did with other ppl on manual bikes, but then circumstances changed, so they aren’t out. Now as much as I love my old manual bikes (still got a FS and HT), the e-bike makes my riding more fun, and fun triumphs fitness for me on a mtb. What’s your priorities?

I would add, for me, my riding has improved hugely due to having an e-bike, after 15 year of manual bikes, 3 years on an e-bike has made me a better, more confident rider. I can concentrate on the dh, and not just be hanging on for grim death, trying to catch my breath.

No, you’re still missing the point. I ride my Levo on turbo most of the time – well, either turbo or off. Sometimes I just chill when I know my legs need a rest but usually I pedal hard, as hard as on my hardtail. When I do that the climbs are over much quicker but they’re no easier, just shorter.

I find riding up hills flat out in turbo significantly easier than riding the same climb hard on a normal bike. I’m sure you could get into a deep dive discussion on the physiological impacts of those different forms of loading, but hey, it doesn’t really matter.

As an aside, the one thing I really noticed going from an e-bike back onto a normal bike was the absence of a dead-spot in the e-bike pedal stroke. You suddenly realise that actually riding bikes is quite hard.

I bought an ebike with the intention of selling my normal FS bike and my hardtail (hardly used anyway these days).
Firstly I found that whilst the ebike is great fun it has its limitations. It’s not as agile because of the weight, which means on narrow trails and tight corners I’m much slower than I used to be. Although I can get air quite easily due to the weight almost preloading the bike for me, it’s not as poppy and I have to work for making sure I clear tables. My normal bike handles better in the air.
Switching back to my regular FS I genuinely thought my brakes were stuck on at first, but after a while I realised that it’s so much easier to pilot along a trail and although not as well tracked descending it’s much easier to pop over obstacles and change direction. I am going to keep both. Plus the ebike has had two faults already (not with motor or battery) so glad I had another to ride.

For me, the ebike is great at exploring, tackling sections like a steam roller and for getting more riding distance in a shorter time, which suits me.

I got my Ebike (Jam2) 6 months ago and kept my FS. Haven’t used it once. Anyone want to buy a lovely Intense Primer?
I am keeping my Croix de Fer, though.

For me, the ebike is great at exploring, tackling sections like a steam roller and for getting more riding distance in a shorter time, which suits me

I could have written this. 🙂

Buy the Ebike, and keep a 2nd bike for whatever.
you will enjoy it.

Ignore the naysayers, seems from those answers they have a lot of negatives to add, without the experience of actually owning or riding on one. Haters will hate so they say.

Heavier ? Yup. Ride differently ? yup. But thats pretty much the same with everything. Use to riding a full on XC race bike weighing 11kg, then buy a full on DH monster. Does it ride differently, as in the feel ? Yup, is it heavier and therefore affect everything youre used to ?, Yup.
Used to a lightweight hardtail ?, buy a heavier full suss, and again the same argument would be applied.

Just get one and work it from there. Yes its heavy, but hell’s teeth is it amazing going up hill ?, hell yes, nothing to beat it.

I think if you got rid of some of the older ones and got a modern shorter travel full sus you would be happy. I’ve recently moved on from some 2012 bikes that were top spec and good condition so I was reluctant to part with them. Turns out geometry has moved on a lot in that time and I’m much happier on my new bikes even though they’re lower spec than my old ones.

Ignore the naysayers, seems from those answers they have a lot of negatives to add, without the experience of actually owning or riding on one. Haters will hate so they say.

Edit: I don’t think anyone on this thread is a ‘hater’, it’s just that there are pros and cons to owning an e-bike as sole bike and people are pointing to the potential downsides as well as the ups.

maxtorque watch out for the max torque

Only buy if you want an ebike… shouldn’t really matter what your mates choose to ride.

I’d sell all your bikes and buy an Ebike and a short travel 29er with up to date geo.
A bike for all occasions then.
Much as I love my Kenevo I’ll not be getting rid of my G13.

but you’ll still be putting in the same effort and burning the same calories over a set time period.

As they say, there is theory and there is practice. I’d wager big money that your average e-biker isn’t burning the same calories.

As they say, there is theory and there is practice. I’d wager big money that your average e-biker isn’t burning the same calories

All depends if you measure fun in calories!

How much cash do your have to go towards the ebike as selling the bikes up there will net you £1200 Max

“ I’d wager big money that your average e-biker isn’t burning the same calories.”

I’d say the same about geared MTBs vs singlespeeds.

Depends where you ride/the terrain you ride as well as who you ride with (i.e whether your mates who have ebikes also ride other bikes).

If you mainly ride steep hills/mountains and your mates only ride ebikes then you’ll probably not want to ride anything other than ebikes.

If you mainly ride in the ‘flatlands’ and/or you ride with others who don’t have ebikes, you may find that you either have to cruise or pedal above the limiter a lot and you’ll be unlikely using the ebike to the full potential and probably be wanting to use your hardtail some more.

I’d say the same about geared MTBs vs singlespeeds.

Saving legs isn’t the same as saving calories in that sense. You still do all the work on a geared bike after all.

If you mainly ride steep hills/mountains and your mates only ride ebikes then you’ll probably not want to ride anything other than ebikes.

And if they ride motorbikes you’d probably still want to ride a motorbike 😀

“ Saving legs isn’t the same as saving calories in that sense. You still do all the work on a geared bike after all.”

But on an ebike you can do more work, in the physics sense of the word, because there are two power sources. It’s down to the rider to choose how they want to ride. Some will let the bike do the work, some will work hard as well. Some weirdos like me will ride it with the power off when with normal MTBers because I’d rather suffer a 20+lbs handicap than be the only person who’s not getting a proper workout uphill.

I tend to pedal harder on the Levo than on my Zero AM hardtail because the hills are over quicker so I can really attack them – and if I wreck my legs the motor can save me.

It’s all about choice! (Which is why I like to have a non-ebike too).