E-ntense
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Ive ridden a gaggle of these newfangled 2 wheeled vehicles and while fun and pretty neat, the pedantic in me is curious how activation of the "motor" makes it no longer an emoped and into a mtb.
Granted they are weak enough (power wise) and hence provide a ride experience similar to mtbing, does not make them a mtb.
Granted they are weak enough (power wise) and hence provide a ride experience similar to mtbing, does not make them a mtb.
pedelec, just like it sounds, pedals like a cadillac.....I crack myself up.
pedelec means "pedal assist" You get nothing if you don't pedal. And there is no throttle, this last point being an important loophole for insurance and licensing reasons. And a speed limiter. Points like this are being fought over in NYC, especially among delivery riders.
but just because it doesn't have a throttle doesn't mean it can't go fast. They have different amounts of assist, up to "turbo mode", which is a little silly and dangerous the way it comes on. A slight delay to your pedal pressure, then BOOM. And learning to ride a wheelie is tricky. I rented one to ride around Interlaken. It was fun, we had street clothes. If I needed to commuted, I might consider one.
As for mtb and climbing, etc, let em put it this way, I AM slow on climbs, but at 61, those climbs keep me riding, which is my goal. If, at some point, I am unable to ride without assist, I will gladly use it. But until then, I don't need to give away valuable health benefits of riding my bike (secret bb motor notwithstanding).
IF I want to ride Moto, my WR250 gathering dust would love a romp, but my bike of choice always seems to be my bike.
I still think an electric trials bike could be cool.....pedals or not.
And I did not disagree that they "fundamentally still feel like riding a bike." That doesnt change the fundamental fact that a motor is used, simply means its a mediocre motorcycle, or emoped which seems quite servicable linguistically speaking. Obfuscating the motor only makes your protestations all the more silly.
You don't have to follow the rules. Just call it what it is, don't try to dance around the issue. You're on a motor bike. And yes, you'd probably have to use all the e-juice you could muster to keep up if you rode with me (I'm not even fast. I just get the feeling more and more every day that you're actually slow and just talk a big game
). Me and the stony bros out here in Cali are gonna keep it real and keep knowing the difference between motor biking and pedal biking.DH riders want more power out of corners or in flats, true. But real DH riders go to the gym or put their time in on the trail not install a motor on their bike. That's what kooks who can't hang do. Or....... the dudes who would rather have all the power they want just get dirt bikes.
Hey @Gary I found your next surf board! You should get on a surfing forum and tell everyone how great they are and how you don't even have to paddle any more and how this is the next big thing in surfing and you can totally catch bigger waves now. See what they say.
I'll take your advice and leave you with one last comment. If it has a motor, it isn't a mountain bike and it isn't a road bike. Ride your e-dirt-mopedwithahandicappedmotor all you want out in the peat bogs just don't let us hear you calling it mountain biking or XC riding or any of the other things you listed other than moto and pedalec.
Here's the forum for what you do http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/
I don't follow surfing but seem to recall jetski tows being a thing for some time now on big waves.
Kinda like shuttling or lift access. The motor gets you to the top. After that it's all you.
In surfing if you get towed into a wave that others are paddling into you're not going to be well liked with the other surfers. You might even catch an ass whupping in some places. And many people consider it a different sport even though you're on your own on the wave.
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You honestly think 15mph is fast and boost mode is dangerous?
Learning to wheelie with the assist is tricky, especially if like me you rarely ever use your rear brake wheelying. The pedal input vs torque output goes against all the muscle memory you've built up wheelying bicycles for the previous 40 years.
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I'm tired of listening to you but I am actually going to call you out on this.And yes, you'd probably have to use all the e-juice you could muster to keep up if you rode with me (I'm not even fast. I just get the feeling more and more every day that you're actually slow and just talk a big game
How many months of the year do you ride bicycles? and during those months how many days a week do you ride your bicycle? and how many hours of those rides is actual riding time? ie. not just hanging out with your bros being all true to your bizarre beliefs but actually moving around on your pedals.
And how many months of the year, hours a day/week do you think I spend riding my other less threatening bicycles?
Be honest here.
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12, remember I'm in Cali. It rarely gets wet enough here to keep me off the trails for more than a few days (and one of my local spots turns into loam heaven after some rain). I will admit that during the winter my saddle time goes down as after work rides get cut short due to the sun going down and weekend days get skipped on occasion in favor of skiing.
3 to 4 on average. Usually 2 on the trails and one at the BMX track and then maybe a day of shuttling on the weekends if someone sets it up or maybe a low key race or demo event. Most days of the week I'm either riding, climbing, windsurfing or in the gym doing PT for various injuries. So even my days off can be considered cross training (helps for that power out of the corners that you're looking for). I generally have one true rest day a week.
All of it? I ride with a strong crew that tries to get it in. We don't usually hang around chatting for too long anywhere and there are no unreasonably slow peddlers to wait for. I'm in the back of the pack as some of these guys are seriously strong riders (as in putting up good race results against other fast riders).
Once the ride is over we break out the bongs and wax poetic about how we feel about motors and bikes and how putting a motor on a bike makes it a motor bike. It's crazy deep philosophical stuff but I'm sure that after sampling some our kind buds even you could grasp it.
I have no idea man. You're kinda vague on what you do other than claiming crazy feats like doing 100 miles of xc trail on a dj bike and riding steep mud on Minion SS's or bunny hopping a road bike across the English channel. That's why I'm giving you shit.
I've never claimed to be super fast but I've posted plenty of videos of my own riding on here without being made fun of so I'm probably not a complete hack either. Get your phone out and have one of your riding buddies film you slaying some corners or sending it on some jumps or post some race results or something. I think for someone who talks with such authority it would be interesting for us to see where your skills actually are.
FYI Gary, I'm just taking the piss. You're on a DH forum telling people how great these new fangled motorized bikes are. What do you expect?
Tried to wheel the Focus E-JAM or whatever the hell its called in the Turbo mode when i first rode it. Near death experience. It's like racing 2-stroke RGV250 and having power band kick in at all the wrong times. Nearly backflipped the thing.
The e-bike arguments are stoopid. If you don't like them, don't ride one. If you own one, thats great have fun, just don't pretend you're not bumper bowling.
Yeah but its just like when people come into the enduro thread and whinge about single crown riders. We get it. Just leave it be - it doesn't actually affect you yet does it? Worry about it when it does.
Stoopid but amusing
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E-Ridemonkey or Ride-E-Monkey?
I know we're talking mtb here, but someone brought up NYC in another post, so I thought I'd weigh in on the urban aspect. I can totally see both sides of the N-A/EU debate, given the difference in trail access issues. If trail access isn't an issue, and you think this is fun, and you have the coin, then go ahead I guess...
But in the city, I'm not so sure about these things... at least not on shared pathways. I ride on a pathway (not a cyclepath, a pathway) to bring my boys to school. My 5 year old likes to ride slow and take in his surroundings. He's pretty stable for the most part, but sometimes weaves a bit. But he hasn't crossed the yellow line in a really long time; it's something we've been working on. I'll mostly ride next to him when I see a pack of commuter warriors heading our way, as they generally try and pass each other no matter who else is on the path. Yesterday, some guy tried to lecture me about him weaving around. I pretty much told him to fuck off, that it's a multi-use path and not a cycle path or racecourse. My main point was that pathways have a variety of users on them. Speed is limited by law on them to 20kph. And yet the commuter-warrior-spandex-set are always flying on these paths, and its creating a lot of tension between path users in our town (there's a shit ton of these paths in this city... which is great!).
Bringing it back to pedelec and the quotes, today I saw a granny fly by on a pedelec. On the one hand, it's great that she is out getting exercise, and not in a car or a tour bus! On the other hand, there is no way she has the skills and reflexes to react if a kid/dog/Canada goose (yes, we also have tons of those on the trail) were to swerve ahead of her. So I'm torn.
These things have obvious benefits. But on the other hand, they are also clearly more than a bicycle. Maybe more thought needs to be given on some sort of framework for their use. Not sure if rules, laws, regs are required, but what is clear is that they are not bicycles, and they should have separate set of rules that govern their use.
Some of those paths just beg for the speed... I admit to hitting north of 40kmh on some of them, then again that was out on empty paths on the Quebec side and I'm not a dick and slow down at any site of other people, especially kids on bikes.
But yeah having someone flying around at speed on a heavy ass electric bike would be scary. I haven't see any on the paths around here yet, but I know this towns bylaw states that e-bikes are allowed, while electric mopeds are not.
There's no such thing as a rowdy 29'er - bike or rider! Lololololol!Commencal is the the only company I've seen showing even vaguely rowdy/stylish riding in their emtb promo videos...
They then blew it by putting Remi on the fucking 29 version.
Thanks for answering @rockofullr
I ride 3-4 days a week minimum (except for injury/health reasons) but more often than not I actually ride most days. I'm kinda lucky that I get to ride for a living, work for a charity teaching/coaching/leading rides and teaching bike mechanics. (along with a bit of motorcycle riding/mechanics). I don't really do any other sports or form of excercise and haven't done since I was a teenager. The fact that you use the term "cross training" hints to me that you take mountainbiking more seriously than I ever have. Even when I did race.
similarly I also still ride a bit of BMX (I'm shit at both park and racing and I still enjoy 20" wheels none the less). ride my roadbike a fair bit, and am lucky enough to be able to choose between 10 different mtbs whenever I want. That might be local flattish XC, bigger hillier rides (what folk now refer to as Enduro), The odd uplift day on one of my DH bikes or just messing about somewhere. Yeah. I've been caining the "motor"bike since I got it but I do that with most new bikes until the novelty wears off a bit then I go back to a more rounded choice/use of bikes/rides
One big difference between us is that I ride on my own a hell of a lot (and always have). If I waited until friends were free for every ride I'd be lucky to ride 1/5th of the time I do. But the biggest difference between us is probably age. I'm more than 15years older than you. Juggling being a single parent to kids all over while still living a bit of jakey lifestyle I think i do not too bad at riding bikes.
The only folk my age I know who video themselves riding spend far too long doing it, Vlogging/editting dull dull fatbike or the likes footage. I'm a luddite. I wore a GoPro once and hated it. and don't want to learn that sort of stuff. I struggle with the IT/office part of my job as it is and don't even have facebook/instagram etc. Typing shit on here is about my social media skills limit.
Of course I know you were only ripping the piss here. It's what we do. Pretty sure It's why all of us come here.
If you ever make it to Scotland look me up and I'll happily show you round some cool trails. I'll even ride one of my bicycles... Might even pull some old skool moves if you shout "dance monkeyboy Dance" loud enough.
I ride all year too. Remeber I'm in Scotland! 6 months+ the trails are wet/muddy and it's dark after work (meaning lights whatever the ride), a few months they're snow/ice covered and if we get a really good summer we might get 3 months of dry(ish) trails. Some never ever dry out though.
I ride 3-4 days a week minimum (except for injury/health reasons) but more often than not I actually ride most days. I'm kinda lucky that I get to ride for a living, work for a charity teaching/coaching/leading rides and teaching bike mechanics. (along with a bit of motorcycle riding/mechanics). I don't really do any other sports or form of excercise and haven't done since I was a teenager. The fact that you use the term "cross training" hints to me that you take mountainbiking more seriously than I ever have. Even when I did race.
similarly I also still ride a bit of BMX (I'm shit at both park and racing and I still enjoy 20" wheels none the less). ride my roadbike a fair bit, and am lucky enough to be able to choose between 10 different mtbs whenever I want. That might be local flattish XC, bigger hillier rides (what folk now refer to as Enduro), The odd uplift day on one of my DH bikes or just messing about somewhere. Yeah. I've been caining the "motor"bike since I got it but I do that with most new bikes until the novelty wears off a bit then I go back to a more rounded choice/use of bikes/rides
One big difference between us is that I ride on my own a hell of a lot (and always have). If I waited until friends were free for every ride I'd be lucky to ride 1/5th of the time I do. But the biggest difference between us is probably age. I'm more than 15years older than you. Juggling being a single parent to kids all over while still living a bit of jakey lifestyle I think i do not too bad at riding bikes.
The only folk my age I know who video themselves riding spend far too long doing it, Vlogging/editting dull dull fatbike or the likes footage. I'm a luddite. I wore a GoPro once and hated it. and don't want to learn that sort of stuff. I struggle with the IT/office part of my job as it is and don't even have facebook/instagram etc. Typing shit on here is about my social media skills limit.
Of course I know you were only ripping the piss here. It's what we do. Pretty sure It's why all of us come here.
If you ever make it to Scotland look me up and I'll happily show you round some cool trails. I'll even ride one of my bicycles... Might even pull some old skool moves if you shout "dance monkeyboy Dance" loud enough.
All drivers should be retested at some interval, say every three to five years, no matter the age...
I am glad my state has pretty much banned the things on public trails and regulated the use on streets so I don't have to get e-butthurt in e-arguments.
Bwahahahahaha. how 'bout a real test in the first place....at least for the U.S.
What, a trip around the block, with a left turn into a parking lot, followed by parallel parking behind a single car is not a valid test?
What do you want, skid pad and evasive driving to teach control and awareness?
What are you some kind of Freedumb® hating commie euro Lib-tard™ ??
That too...
My kid didn't even have to parallel park.
Please, in the name of the @FSM, I pray that our robot overlords will take over the task of driving from us incapable humans...
Shiit, just the memories of my driving tests in my home country are giving me the nightmares. Twenty minutes in full traffic, with street cars, parking and dealing with steep hills (clutch), oh the memories!What, a trip around the block, with a left turn into a parking lot, followed by parallel parking behind a single car is not a valid test?
What do you want, skid pad and evasive driving to teach control and awareness?
What are you some kind of Freedumb® hating commie euro Lib-tard™ ??
Parallel parking ain’t on the test here.
This will sort itself out nicely: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/older-men-using-e-bikes-behind-rising-death-toll-among-dutch-cyclists
FYI There are only 2 UK downhill tracks built on actual mountains...
We do pretty good at DH for a nation of damp woods sessioners, eh?