"To Buy or Not To Buy" an EMTB

[GoSlowGoFar]

Work is in the holiday lull, no snow on the ground, so my mind is wandering. I have my own biases against ebikes, an overriding feeling of "throwing in the towel" at my defiance to succumb to "big mtb" and buy the latest and greatest new thing. But my two closest riding buddies have reluctantly, or not so reluctantly, bought emtb's. Is it time to find new friends? Do I try to keep up with the Joneses?

What say you TGR? What's caused you to go electric or why are you abstaining? I'll never get rid of my RM Element, love that bike, but with time increasingly precious between work and family, being able to do a quick lap up some moto trails in my backyard seems increasingly appealing.

[CS]

I don't have tons of free time to ride and riding is part of my exercise routine, so I like to still get exercise from my regular bike. Plus the 3 guys I mainly ride with are all on normal bikes. And, well, I freaking love my bike (GG Megatrail) and how it rides and it suits me perfectly for the trails i ride most here, which encompass lots of jumps.

[jackstraw]

I bought eeb for two reasons. Friends bought them recently and trail building. Riding with friends is important imo. I was still riding with them on the Amish, but it wasn't fun...on the Ups. Downs are obviously not the issue and many easy 20mph+ gravity downs the Amish is faster!

I still ride my regular bikes more than the eeb, but it's super nice to have. A third reason for having one, and was not a motivator for me to buy, is it's great for a recovery ride after you beat yourself up on the Amish. And now a 4th is my new wfh job I can rip a much bigger lap at lunch.

You can also help to change the perception of ebike riders by showing mtb etiquette to the rest of the community. It's clear as day when someone is an actual mtb rider vs a newbie ebiker on trail.

[rudy]

I have both and still ride the regular bike quite a bit but I'm primarily in it for the down and having an ebike either gets me a lot more down or the same amount of down in a fraction of the time. I'll never not own one again.

Another reason I love it is that I had unexpected heart surgery last year and the medication I'm on gets me winded much easier than before so it was nice to go for longer rides while I worked back up to them. Can't say that was the reason I bought one as I purchased it a year before my surgery but damn happy I did.

[XXX-er V2.0]

You arent gona keep up with any body on an acoustic bike

I am on my second Eeb in > 7000kms in 4 seasons so I can ride in boost 40 minutes up a hill 8 kms where I would be in the puking zone after a bunch of manadtory stops

I get to top do a pulse check and I am at 110 BPM which is muchbeete rfor my heart

just buy an Eeb from an LBS near you mine is 4 blocks away cuz IME no where is it more important t to have an LBS who is goan take care of you than with an Eeb

get a bike you like that has a motor as opposed to chosing a motor attached to a bike

go full power which nowdays is pretty much 85- 100NM while mid power is like 60 IME don't wank around

IMO go avinox or Bosch motor because Shimano sucks dead goats and 10 bike mfgers have dropped them ( google it)

every time somebody powers on an Eeb a kitten dies

[Andeh]

I got my first eeb a couple years back, no regrets. I still try to ride my normal bike every other ride, at least on weekends but in reality it's probably 70/30 eeb/normal. My skills progressed a ton once I got one just from more repetition. My favorite uses for it are doing after work power-hours where I can squeeze the equivalent of 2.5 hours of normal bike riding in to an hour before dinner, and doing ridiculous long backcountry rides with it and not being utterly destroyed after. To the first point, I am able to ride more now with the eeb while creating less time share drama with my family than before.

Despite what the internet forums would say, I didn't get fatter by getting an ebike (actually have lost weight), my cardio has improved dramatically, but my leg strength has dropped a little bit. Upper body strength improved too.

I also got a lot better at setting up suspension, since it's so easy to do repeat laps and really dial things in.

[GoSlowGoFar]

I’m allergic to cats so the last point isn’t of concern.

Was expecting more flaming but maybe the folks on pedal bikes are still out riding?

Interesting note on the Bosch/Avinox bit - an LBS has a Marin Alpine Trail E2 with the EP801 for a decent deal that I was leaning towards but maybe I’ll steer clear. Been trying hard to find a deal locally in Truckee, most shops have their bikes priced like it’s 2022 while still labeling them as “deals”.

[rudy]

I'd steer clear of the Shimano motor. I'm on ebike #2 because the SC with a Shimano motor shit the bed. Still working on getting it operational again with little success thus far.

[XXX-er V2.0]

I am also on #2 because of Shimano , my Bullit was in great shape at 4 yrs / 7000kms and my EP8 shits the bed, Shimano north America tells my lbs there are no motors for me to buy , even tho I have heard brits tell me that can get them

SO you have been WARNED

I now have a bosch and its better/ more power

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZXBidU4weY

this guy does pretty good vids

There seems to be more acceptance of the Eeb in the 4 yrs I been on them maybe people get older and buy one

I had a bad ACL

if you need more work out just do 2 or 3 laps instead of 1


IAND i am deadly serious about the cats BTW

[toast2266]

My wife got an ebike a while back to let her ride while she was recovering from an injury. It fits me well enough, so I ride it too.

These days, my wife rides it approximately never. I use it for a "real" ride very rarely (zero rides on it this year). I do use it for trail building / maintenance sometimes - it's great for that.

Reasons why I don't ride it more:
1) the trails where it's legal aren't as fun as the trails where it isn't legal, and poaching is douchey. At least around me, most moto trails aren't that fun on a bike, even if the bike has a motor.
2) the trails where it's legal are farther away from my house.
3) I don't feel like I get much exercise on the ebike, and I'm at a point in my life where I need whatever exercise I can get.
4) I have less fun on the ebike. It feels unwieldy and stupid. I'll hit pretty much any feature at my local trails on a regular bike, but there are quite a few features I won't hit on the ebike.
5) To some extent, I equate it with riding chairlifts. I don't do it a ton, but it's a nice option when it's hot out, I'm feeling lazy, or I just want to do a bunch of descending. The difference is that the lift served trails tend to be more fun than the moto-legal trails I can hit on the ebike.

In my riding friend group, there's probably about 10 of us that have ebikes. Out of that 10, I think there are 2 that still ride their ebikes regularly. Curiously, those 2 are the young ones without kids. If there were more / better ebike legal trails near me, I suspect the numbers would be different.

[XXX-er V2.0]

YMMV but around here Eeb is legal and fun everywhere so I put on > 7000kms, I don't have an acoustic trailbike there is no point cuz I likely wouldn't ride it , Eab is so much fun I didnt ride any of the other bikes in the stable

[GoSlowGoFar]

Thanks Toast, definitely worry that it’d become an expensive garage decoration. I’m in Truckee so a descent amount of emtb legal trails, lots more if you start to throw in Hough/Sierra Buttes/Grouse Ridge (45min-1.5 hour drive).

Truthfully though, outside of my backyard moto trails that are actually decently fun I don’t see it getting tons of use right in town. But that one ride would be great to be able to squeeze in at lunch or before picking up the kid from daycare as opposed to setting aside 1.5-2 hours. Mostly likely it’d be to eliminate the need for shuttles in the other zones listed above.

[Dantheman]

If there's good moto trails close by it definitely makes some sense. The guys passing me last weekend going up >10% grade fire road in pants and jackets when it was 55* and sunny made me pretty skeptical they were getting much of a workout.

[Peruvian]

Have you tried one yet?

I just got my first taste on a weekend in October and it's a damn good thing I'm not in the market for a new MTB or it would certainly be a plug in. My experience leads me to believe that eMTB is not the same activity as MTB. It's a freakin' shit ton of fun, but it's not the same. I don't care who says that you get as much exercise, etc. but they are just wrong.

[Danno]

I have to admit, the thought of one has been appealing to me more and more.

But can someone enlighten me as to wtf "eeb" stands for? I gather through context that it's a shorthand for e-bike or maybe e-mtb, but why? What's the acronym?