Relatively new dad here with a recent 'first ebike ride' experience.
TL;DR: I get it. The convenience is attractive, but I wouldn't buy one for several reasons - most important of which are cost and lack of access to trails where they are permitted.
Just two weeks ago I first took an ebike out for a recon lap up a service road on my local mountain. It was a friend's 140mm travel Ghost SL AMR (by no means superlight but maybe it's supposed to be SLAMR? I don't know. It was a 2019 or 2018 version of this) Anyhow, I am about 6'5" and it's a size medium so right off it was ideal that I was riding a little-used area on a weekday morning. I am sure I looked like a total goof.
What I was setting out to do was connect a full lap to connect a large, somewhat-unused area that woudl conclude on a very freshly-built (albeit unsanctioned) trail. For this I thought the ebike would be a slightly better tool for the job. The 5.5 mi approach is usually a 90-95 minute affair on my Slash but given that I had a short window to ride, I cannot deny that i was looking forward to putting this thing into full-power mode to hasten the service road climb. It was over in 36 minutes. I had one glitch like the one Cam refers to above: it was the result of me powering off the battery during a brief descent on the road, and powering up with pressure on the pedals. Of note, I nuked 60% of the battery on the climb and as a result got range anxiety for the balance of the ride knowing that I still had one significant climb left before I had completed the lap. (I never did run out of juice.)
Based on a sample size of 1 on a bike that obviously was too small for me, I can admit "I get it". It rode \*fine\*. It handled the limited singletrack of my lap without any complaint. I've ridden enough motos to know that the mass is going to melt away as velocity increases. But given that I am lucky enough to live adjacent to some world-class trails in Bellingham - most of which are off-limits to eMTBs - AND I am a new dad with seriously limited discretionary income, there's just no way I am going to be an ebike owner any time soon. Would I get one if i won the lotto? You bet. And I would count on having to mostly ride it alone as I only know one other ebike owner (for now).
It's interesting to think about the potential for this market during this pandemic... will people be motivated to buy one because the riding alone reality isn't as much of a penalty? Or will people be more thrifty with their funds because the future is so unknown? OR yet again, will people taking the plunge and incur the big expense precisely BECAUSE of the uncertainty? Me, I am squirreling away nickels and dimes for an EXT shock for my Slash. I'll be naturally aspirated for quite a while.
April 24, 2020, 10:23 a.m. - Dan
Relatively new dad here with a recent 'first ebike ride' experience. TL;DR: I get it. The convenience is attractive, but I wouldn't buy one for several reasons - most important of which are cost and lack of access to trails where they are permitted. Just two weeks ago I first took an ebike out for a recon lap up a service road on my local mountain. It was a friend's 140mm travel Ghost SL AMR (by no means superlight but maybe it's supposed to be SLAMR? I don't know. It was a 2019 or 2018 version of this) Anyhow, I am about 6'5" and it's a size medium so right off it was ideal that I was riding a little-used area on a weekday morning. I am sure I looked like a total goof. What I was setting out to do was connect a full lap to connect a large, somewhat-unused area that woudl conclude on a very freshly-built (albeit unsanctioned) trail. For this I thought the ebike would be a slightly better tool for the job. The 5.5 mi approach is usually a 90-95 minute affair on my Slash but given that I had a short window to ride, I cannot deny that i was looking forward to putting this thing into full-power mode to hasten the service road climb. It was over in 36 minutes. I had one glitch like the one Cam refers to above: it was the result of me powering off the battery during a brief descent on the road, and powering up with pressure on the pedals. Of note, I nuked 60% of the battery on the climb and as a result got range anxiety for the balance of the ride knowing that I still had one significant climb left before I had completed the lap. (I never did run out of juice.) Based on a sample size of 1 on a bike that obviously was too small for me, I can admit "I get it". It rode \*fine\*. It handled the limited singletrack of my lap without any complaint. I've ridden enough motos to know that the mass is going to melt away as velocity increases. But given that I am lucky enough to live adjacent to some world-class trails in Bellingham - most of which are off-limits to eMTBs - AND I am a new dad with seriously limited discretionary income, there's just no way I am going to be an ebike owner any time soon. Would I get one if i won the lotto? You bet. And I would count on having to mostly ride it alone as I only know one other ebike owner (for now). It's interesting to think about the potential for this market during this pandemic... will people be motivated to buy one because the riding alone reality isn't as much of a penalty? Or will people be more thrifty with their funds because the future is so unknown? OR yet again, will people taking the plunge and incur the big expense precisely BECAUSE of the uncertainty? Me, I am squirreling away nickels and dimes for an EXT shock for my Slash. I'll be naturally aspirated for quite a while.