Forum

Hi.
I’m buying an E-MTB and was wondering if I should also get a manual bike or would the e bike be capable of doing all the manual one would.
Cheers

Two very different beasts?

Why would you want an E bike? do you need the assistance? are you commuting? are you planning of using the bikes in the woods?

Gonna be used for everything, commuting, trails, woods( mainly Danbury) and in Devon when I go. I’m also not particularly fit either and getting on. Just really getting into it

I’ve had a bit of a dick around on a couple of ebikes and while for the first 5 minuets they are great fun the reality of actually owning one does not make any sense. The issues I have with them are:
They are heavy - I mean really heavy so out on the trails they don’t handle like a normal bike so you have to ride them very differently (bunny hopping over stuff or picking a line that you have to float over bits of the trail). They are heavy to pick the bike up to get over gates, sties or fuller trees which being out on the country side there will be lots of (if your non ableled body it will be impossible to do so).
They are complicated - if the batteries or electric go wrong it can’t be fixed or bodged on the trail to get you home, it becomes a big paper weight to drag back to the car.
Power to the people - given some sone the ability to go faster when as a newbie or non ableled body that has not the required skills, it is always going to end in disaster.
More expensive than a regular bike

I would say go and demo one but go with the mode set of how would this be in the real world and not just it makes me quick up the hills so it must be good

Listen to Vanders!

I have demo'd

Cannondale - Moterra 160mm
Trek - Powerfly 120mm
Focus - Bold HT
Specialized - Levo
Specialized Kenevo Expert
Haibike - Eduro
Haibike - Dwnhll

All of them fly up hills no worries.

All of them had one teething problem or another, usually related to the speed sensor on the wheel coming out of line, a straight forward fix.

Of all of them I think the specialized levo on normal width tyres was the best ride.

Lots of them come with super wide tyres which in my opinion do nothing for the handling of an already overweight bike.

All of them are too heavy to lug over a farmers gate.

The specialized has a nice walk mode for when you really can't ride up something or its not appropriate to be on the bike.

The focus was the worst.

Haibikes can be hacked to run up to 45mph the one I rode did 30mph.

I couldn't buy one at this stage of tech, the batteries are far too heavy, i'm almost certain we are on the cusp of a battery coo whereby we will see a dramatic reduction in the size and weight of batteries very soon.

Look at what tesla can achieve with an artic!

None of them jump very well, they are well suited to pedal mashing and keeping your wheels on the floor.
If your bike handling skills are poor they will put you on the floor as the extra weight requires good technique to get through loose surfaces.

I have ridden them at Forest of Dean, on the trails and the DH runs, as well as at Hadleigh.

Hope that insight is worth something.

I concur with the above, keep the Ebikes to commuters or for less able bodied to get out and enjoy the countryside.

I know someone with one can't remember what one he has, but I picked it up just to check the weight of it out just cause of the size of the battery, this was a few weeks after I'd bought my bizango which I thought was heavy... It's a feather compared.. told me mate 'i hope ya battery don't run out far from home, itll be as heavy to peddle as it is to lift. Bout a year later he moved to Norfolk, went out with the misses him on his her on a normal bike for a ride an yeah the battery died. He slogged on for a while an then told his misses " you ride home get the car and come get me, it's to hard an heavy to ride" few hours later she turns back up, they load it into the car an the next day I get a call from him telling me the story.
An the fact it's Norfolk and it's flat an they had been just riding round the roads not hills, nor forests, no muddy tracks, nothing exciting just roads and basically after that it has just sat in his garage since.

After a few rides you will be fit.

Well I ended up buying a Whyte T130 , thanks for all the advice.

Now I need to learn the ropes and routes

Are there easy beginners routes around Danbury or are they all silly scary?

The whyts are a great bike, really good geometry. If you want jumping there is the common, it’s recently had a refresh so it’s running really well. It has a real mix of sized jumps to learn and improve on mostly table tops and a few doubles). If you was pedal ride (xc/trail ride) there are loads of little woods that can be linked together to form a 15/20 mile loop using the bridal ways and footpaths (can’t really say just go there and you will find it though). I was there at the weekend, was still nice and dry as a whole, need to post up more often when i’m Heading out but with winter I end up deciding last minute

Brilliant thanks scula, I might pop over this afternoon and try and Susie it out