I’ve wrenched on a pile of beyond-meat bikes, inclusive of {almost} every currently available blend of motor-assisted pedaling and pedal-assisted motoring. As is the best practice, I’ve parking-lot tested the whole heap as part of repairing them. Some folks find this funny, but I call it work. No different than mounting buckets of bindings on skis, even though I don’t slide.
Despite and due to my proximity to the world of more, more, more power, I will never understand the expeditious and extensive transmogrification of mountain biking from a strictly human-powered community and activity to one where motors amplify human effort by 400%+. And, I wonder without waggishness where that metamorphosis will end as the growing overrun* grey area uncouples motor drive from the previously precepted pedaling requirement?
*{Overrun allows the motor to power the eeb forward for a limited time without pedaling.}
I’ll take down the remainder of the poetic waxing that went here, but suffice it to say the whole mass transition is beyond my understanding, but I cannot deny that it is occurring, for whatever reasons.
On top of a general love for meat-powered commuters, ATBs, and mountain bikes {hardtails & sag-wagons}, I like to think of MEATengines as a home for the 50,000:1 club. That is, folks choosing to take a step back and start rigid single-speed mountain bicycling. I also happily admit relief that the burden of Closing The E-Gate belongs to another group now. In fact, I rarely find myself writing anything about e-bikes these days other than work order notes at the shop. I love that. But please accept this rare exception.
Eebs now represents the majority of new ‘mountain bike’ sales in many markets and, while I am serially suspicious of the sales stats bike brands put out because I can’t imagine the after-sales costs of some of the warranty support I’ve seen, apparently they are key to margin dollars for dealers, designers, and distributors.
As such, being NAOghty (not an ostrich) by nature, I read a fair amount about them. It’s dry technical updates mostly, but this excellently written injury-recovery piece by Jeremy Schwab, published on NSMB.com*, is worth a read-through.
*{Drewitors note: usually the reader comments on NSMB articles are a bastion of respectful discourse in a sea of angry internet trash, but I’d proceed with caution if scrolling the garbage island below the conclusion on this one.}
Maybe not equatable to the extent of Jeremy’s moto-related injuries but I know plenty of folks who have chosen to rehab some aggressive bodily harm one small person-powered pedal stroke at a time. That is, rather than plugging-in. Then again, full disclosure, I also think that for many people a non-e-bike makes just as good a car replacement as an eeb {depending on distance and elevation}.
I’ll leave it at that. As someone who can never see myself owning an e-MTB of any output, I still found this an engaging read, and thought-provoking:
[A me-Bike*] Curmudgeon’s e-Bike Odyssey by Jeremy Schwab
*{We don’t use the ‘a’ word to describe mountain bicycles around here.}
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