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Anyone gone over to an e-MTB?


212swat

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Bravisimo!!!  That is Stack Hall of Fame worthy right there!!! Exceptional work, you make me proud!👍😁

Invest in some pads, my honi is much happier since I did, no more bloody sheets after one of my episodes of stupidity.  

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A couple of years back a colleague of mine here in NZ MTB trail rashed his elbow about 2 weeks before he was due to fly to Aspen for a ski trip. The wound got seriously infected. Ski trip put off for a year.

Mind you, he is a shit magnet for luck. The following year on his first day skiing he was the victim of a hit and run at the top of Snowmass' Naked Lady, concussion and a broken clavicle. Travel insurer insisted he flew home ASAP.

I've invested in elbow and knee pads (POC VPD) and wear them whenever I ride. Scarcely notice I'm wearing them from a riding point of view.

 

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On 7/3/2020 at 6:13 PM, JRAZZ said:

I ended up getting some Leatt knee pads and POC vpd air elbow pads. The crazy thing is that this happened on an easy green trail.

Greens and blues if your a competant fast rider can be some of the dodgiest to ride due to them generally being designed to be run at lower speeds for beginers, they can be alot of fun to ride at warp speed though just need to be careful. One of my biggest crashes was on a demo mondraker foxy xr where i hit a blue table top about 10mph faster than it was desgined to be hit needless to say i over shot the landing by a long long way lol

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Blast from the past here. Looks like incredible country—very jealous.

A buddy of mine just bought a new ebike. I tried it out for a couple hours yesterday. I see the appeal.

I think it’s partly just a personality thing. I bike to challenge myself. If I can’t make it up a climb, I session and squat and session until I can.

When you mention you like passing people on climbs…personally, I’d apologize to every rider I passed. Hahahaha. I see some local riders who are good riders but I don’t think put in much work, and in the last year or so they’ve all gotten ebikes and now blast up sections they couldn’t previously clean and are suddenly leading packs they couldn’t before. I just mostly feel that all of them could have done it the traditional way but took the easy out. But at the end of the day, these guys love biking as much as I do!

It’s very hard to distinguish between technological advances that are OK and not OK, though. Why are carbon frames, dropper posts and 12-sp drivetrains OK, but  pedal assist not? I don’t know. I think it just gets to something pure about cycling and everyone turning the same cranks that’s just no longer true. Maybe I’m just grumpy about being passed on climbs by guys I know couldn’t make it if they didn’t have a motor.   😆

To me, a carving analogy would not be all these advances in fancy shapes and materials and plates—it would be if someone invented a Segway-type device that helped move riders into the right posture and balance and therefore carve way better. Some people would love it and a lot of people would view it as cheating the process.

The big thing for me is going to be trail use impacts and crank power. I live in a super-urban trail area and in the last year or so we’re seeing a shocking increase in erosion, particularly on climbs. The suspicion is that pedal assist is suddenly resulting in more riders on difficult trails and a ton more wheel spin opportunity. And of now, also a lot more riders able to access the same difficult trails. I’m sure someone is looking at that data. Maybe it’ll have to be a company like Strava or Trail Forks.

And the battery power is another big thing. It likely will need to be regulated asap. Otherwise it’s simply a technological arms race for who can fit the biggest motor with the longest-running battery. Last fall I ran into some guy who had a home built ebike with some niche motor that he said put out an insane amount of torque. It was annoyingly loud and this guy on his 60 or 70-lb contraption was sitting down for traction on a climb that I’ve seen stall university club XC riders. I feel this is going to be an increasingly common concern as the technology quickly progresses, and we get back to debating the fundamental reasons why engines were banned from some singletrack trails in the first place. 

Fun times in the MTB community! 

 

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