Mountain Bikes!

I ride clips on the road bike and 5.10s with good flats on the MTB. I am scared to death to ride clips on the trails.

 

SPD's on New England tech for me. I had the same fears and misgivings as everyone else but just jumped right in. Just work your way up the trail difficulty and at some point, it's completely intuitive. Flexing the size of my trail dick here but I've no problem going up and over 10 foot boulders sight unseen clipped in. That being said, the gains from being clipped in are very slight, if any. I loose my pedals a bit less on janky ass downhills but that's about it. A good rider will be able to rip in either.

 

So I am not anti-eMTB by any stretch. I am sure I will be adding one to the stable next year. I can't wait for the short window of time that I can ride my 10mile,2k' loops to be extended to 15-20miles loops and 3/4k' in the same amount of time.

I do have some hesitation about how eMTBs fit into all ecosystems. I realize that the terrarium trails in Florida there isn't much of a difference, but in National Forest with elevation I do believe that there needs to be some thought an effort on how eMTBs fit into the trail system.

1. There will be more usage of trails: While you bring up your friends on meat powered bikes being hard on trails, those same people are not going to slow down when they get on eMTBs and will be putting in more miles and with heavier bikes. So trails are going to see more usage before even accounting for the number of 'new' riders that all of a sudden can do 3k of climbing in a day. For small volunteer supported trail systems they will likely cope, for raw rugged national forest with hundreds of miles of stretched out trails this could be an issue as there is still some regulation that needs to be dealt with in terms on who can work on trails. Increased use is good again, I just know that trail erosion and lack of maintenance has caused some trails to get closed off to bikes. Hopefully it leads into new trails and more access, but I and others worry about the opposite happening.

2. The need for directional trails: There is no way for a lot of trails to enforce/encourage directional usage by bikes as they generally are multi use trails. Even with eBikes being banned in all of the trails around me this is already proving an issue. Climbing on an eBike is great and its going to be great to clear some technical climbs I could only dream of, but not being able to designate direction is causing issues. There is a clear new contingent of riders on eBikes that don't follow/know trail etiquette but hopefully that will work itself out.

I hope the National Forest system can come up with a compromise between opening everything up to eBikes and the current flat ban. I don't think there is the funding to support multiple levels of trail categories which I would love to see an eBike designation. I think a great compromise at least in my neck of the woods is if they just opened a lot of trails to OHV, as we are sorely lacking in Pisgah in single track OHV.

On a side note, why do you need an eMTB in Florida?

 

Also I ride flats on full squish bikes, and SPD on my gravel bike and hardtail. I like the freedom that flats provide for days in the woods, but on a hard tail on gnarly fast descents even with sticky rubber and good pedals I have found my feet bounce off too easily.

 

1993 Marin Steel frame, hard-tail. Shimano XTR (top of the line at the time)
SPD pedals
Photo is not mine, but mine's identical except for the seat and I took the chainguard off the rear wheel.
Just did 2.5 hours on it today. Holy fsckballs am I out of shape. 6min/mile going up hill over 5 miles. Total elevation ~1100 ft.

 

On a side note... why do we need air conditioning ? why do we need 30 different restaurant chains? why do we need race compound tires for track days, or races for that matter? why a 1000cc for a track bike ??
but why an Ebike for Florida ? (obviously you haven't experienced our trail systems here).. but regardless.. The fun factor. Why ride trails 10 miles, when i can do 15 or 20 ? why have to transfer to a trail head that is over a mile from the parking area without pedal assist? This discussion of Ebikes are worse than regular pedal bikes is silly. The ignorance is what fuels the fears and talk of bans .. ignorance is what has people assuming that a pedal assist bike isn't a workout. I assure you , they can be if you desire it. I race ktm dirt bikes in national enduro in an "A" class (often finishing top 10% overall for all racers including pro and AA classes), and as many 2+ hour harescrambles as roadracing schedule permits.. my heart rate average is similar with higher PEAKS on the Ebike, than it is when I race and ride woods

 

Sounds like (as with most everything) it is an education issue. The pedal assist e-bikes can't just rally up a climb like a dirt bike with a throttle. That's not how they work. You still have to pedal. And for the most part, the power is put to the ground is in a much smoother fashion than someone just mashing their pedals up the trail. The bikes are heavier, but comparing straight bike weight without factoring in the rider weight is just plain stupid. Are the pedal assist bike heavier all else being equal than their non-assist counterparts? Sure. But an old cheap alloy or steel bike is heavier than a high end XC racing steed. Most heavier bikes are running wider tires than the lightweight race bikes.
Are we going to put rider weight limits on trails as well? The whole "but more weight" argument is a non-starter, not even worth the time I just took with all this.
Can I bitch about people riding 35 pound enduro bikes on the trails where I ride my 22 pound XC bike? What about vice versa?
Directional trails? WTF does this have to do with e-bikes? If a trail system manager wants to implement directional trails, awesome. We have lots of them around here. We have downhill only, bike only trails and we still come across trail runners running up the trail on occasion. And those assholes get all sorts of pissy about the bikes being in their way. But multi-use or non-directional trails make up the vast majority of trails, and that's a great thing. You learn how to interact with the other trail users and nature. It's what MTB is really about.
Trail etiquette is something all new riders need to learn regardless of what they are riding. Mountain bikes yield to everyone on multi-use trails, downhill riders yield to uphill. It's a simple concept, just needs to be learned by all. Good trail systems will have signs informing of such.
The class 1 e-mtb should be allowed on any trail systems. Class 2 only where other dirt bikes are allowed.

 

I am sorry the dig was taken so seriously about Florida, I have ridden the terrarium trail systems in the past. I was only joking because it’s seems like a waste when you don’t have any elevation to throw an ebike at.

I am well aware of the advantages of eMTB and I am not anti them at all. That said none of the trails in Pisgah are open to them so getting one hasn't been high on the list. The fact you can’t fly with them is also a bummer.

Brex, I’m sorry I mentioned the weight, but again given just the same riding community throwing them on eMTB will mean 1.5-2x more trail use, before even including the new riders that will be able to access previously unattainable trails, there will be more wear and tear on trails.

I think of myself as pro eMTB (Especially compared to my riding group) I just still think there tail managers should have discretion.

 

I’m okay with someone having a low-power e-bike for use in the privacy of their own yard.

But high-powered, high-capacity e-bikes have no place on a public trail. Think of the children.

 

I hacked mine yesterday, moved the sensor and magnet to the peddle crank. Hauled ass to 29mph instead of cutting out at 19mph.
Only worked for 4 or 5 miles then threw a code and shut down.
I'll be looking for a more powerful set up soon.
I rarely ride trails.

 

Take that down the north side from Mt. Soledad if you dare.

 

Ride up n down Via Capri Capri, La Jolla Mesa and Soledad Rd regularly.
Bombing down Capri is fun. Overtake cars on the inside of turns

 

"high powered, high capacity".. lol.. you guys think these things are literally motorcycles.. get on one, see what the fuss is about. report back. Till then, your opinions on them are, well, pretty meaningless. You might be joking with your "think of the children" comment, if so, apologies

 

A buddy got the part on ebay for $190 or something like that, works great, total override.. he says it's a game changer as he does a LOT of jumping, and now he's not having it cut assist at times just as he's lifting off. Think chopping throttle on a dirt bike as ya leave the jump face. Want's to endo. Another buddy tried a backyard hack on his Haibike with Bosch motor, had all kinds of troubles.. can't get it warrantied as they can tell right away when they hook it up to diagnostics it's been hacked..

 

My sarcasm wasn't obvious enough, I guess.

 

can I use your ebike to charge my cell phone? I kind of drained it being an ethug on Facegores!

 

So thanks to the gym being closed a few months back I started riding again...like everybody else apparently. A few days ago I ran out of talent on a trail and now my bike needs more in repair than it’s probably worth even in this market, certainly more than I WANT to put in it. I’ve been eyeballing a full suspension 29’er anyway so time to pull the trigger...like everyone else apparently!!!

Unless I’m willing to part with $10,000 there aren’t any bikes, period! For now I’m borrowing my dads Stump Jumper Elite 29. It’s a higher spec than what I had my eye on but compared to the Bargain basement HT I’m coming from it feels like I’m cheating on this bike.
The shops around here are about to start taking deposits on 2021’s. I’m trying to stay in the $2,000 range and I’ve kind of locked on a Giant Stance 1 and a Stump Jumper ST. Anything recommendations in this range?

I know this is pretty much entry level for a descent bike, would I even notice a bump in price at a pretty beginner level of riding?

the Stumpy https://www.specialized.com/us/en/s...585?color=274056-170585&searchText=93220-7402

and the Stance
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/stance-29-1-2021

 

To make a long story short, with both prices being so close I'd say Stumpjumper due to the 148 rear hub... I really with Giant would shy away from that on the Fathom and Stance models.

 

I would go with the Giant Anthem over the Stance. To me the Stance steers like a truck.

 

My friend bought a bike shop here in Tampa at the beginning of march. thought he was fu**d when covid hit.. was best move he could have made apparently. He is selling a LOT of Giant Stance bikes. From what little i know, after a few thousand dollars, it costs lots more to get a little bit more bike. Like horsepower. exhaust, tune, cam timing.. easy enough. More than that gets big money.
Seriously consider the Giant Ebike lineup. $3500-4200'ish and you don't NEED a carbon fiber frame to make it light. You have a bit of pedal assist.