The First Electric Bike Festival is in the books!
Many people came together and created an event that was a fun celebration of all things ebike.
Huge Thank you to Kyle Peredies event organizer who came out all the way from Hawaii with his entire family to support including "auntie".
I knew I would get along perfect with Kyle when I found out he was racing ebikes against motorcycles in Hawaii.
Kyle's first trip to California was to race the Benduro (an extreme MountainBike race in the El Dorado Forest).
It was then that we committed to putting on the event. We wanted to have an event that was fun , allowed for all kinds of ebikes, and had no limit for power or throttle. Tired of lame test tracks or not being allowed to ride at all at events at all...we wanted an event that allowed a builder to bring their best equipment and run it in an unrestricted manner ,testing both rider and bike. The Event had cross country pedal assist, throttle open class,
Long jump, drag race and Best of Show build.
Weekend summary:
It took us 2 days to set up. We marked a 6.5 mile course that was meant to challenge rider and equipment but be fun to ride.
Course started with a windy steady climb up from the main ranch, fast rocky ridge run , fast downhill with g out, three twisty courses with soft deep sandy turns (meant to be hard on motors..
!),long fun double track,one last twisty trail, final sprint straight away through arch.
Tangent Dave showed up Friday night with two amazing builds. Practice Friday night was crazy fast with several crashes and lots of hard riding.
Bikes all ran great but one crash resulted in me breaking my thumb...(in full cast now) but show must go on...
Saturday morning about a dozen people had camped so ebikes were ripping around everywhere testing setups , jumping the long jump and taking runs down the drag strip all morning. John from Adventure Sports Journal came and set up a booth (cool dude...gets it),Joe Allison from Hero Dogs came and set up a booth and brought some great people, Kevin Risse from Risse Racing set up, Tangent Dave, EcoBike Adventures all set up booth and were giving test rides and chatting ebikes. Beer tent was open at noon and Free beer was flowing thanks to our friends at Lagunitas Brewery.
Rider meeting was around 11 and first event was pedal assist cross county. Riders needed to complete two laps 13 miles.
Riders without a bike were fitted with a bike from EcoBikeAdventures.
Racing was tight in lap one with top three rider within 40 seconds of each other , lap two was tougher on bikes and riders. Garrett McConkie (Haibike)won with Kyle Perfidies(Haibike) and Rob Welsh(Bafang 750) finish 2,3 . both Kyle and Rob had chain issues lap2.
Girls 18 and under Throttle open was a fun competitive class.
Ages ranged from 9 to 17. Girls raced one 6.5 mile lap with staggered starts. Nina Rothe (14)Santa Cruz Bronson) took the win , followed by Kylena Peredies (24inch Fat Tire)(9!!) second, and Carolyn Dick(Santa Cruz Bronson) (17) third. These girls ripped the courses with some times as fast as the experts. All bikes and batteries performed well.
18 and under expert was filled with fast riders. Top spot went to Max Rothe (Santa Cruz Bronson), Second Wyatt Shannon (Santa Cruz Bronson),
Third Osin Fagan. This class was hard on the bikes ..smoked one motor (overheated melted trace) and one battery (BMS).
Throttle OPEN!
This means if you brought it you could race it! As fast as you wanted!! Tangent Dave had his sweet builds, RIsse racing brought a beast, Ecobike had Carbon V10s and Bronsons running 3000w .Pro Riders were fired up and after a wild and fast practice Friday, pace was going to be full out!
Rob Welsh on a full Carbon V10 (same bike and rider won Benduro) went out first, Tangent Dave went second , Kyle third. First lap was tight with Dave taking the lead and only 40 second separating the field. Second lap Kyle dug deep and pulled the win , followed by Dave Dubose, and third Rob Welsh
Bikes and riders were challenged with some bike hitting thermal limits and throttle damage in crash on V!0.
Expert Open!
Fast riders many on bikes from EcoBikeAdventures. David Fitz Randolph crushed finishing almost a minute ahead of second place.
Kent Ferris our oldest rider ripped it finishing second followed by Garett McCorkie third.
No known mechanicals in this race
Beer started flowing Thanks Lagunitas! and lunch buffet was set up in barn.
Tritip, Salad, Beans, garlic bread , hit the spot after an action packed race morning.
While people wrapped up their meal the Awards were given out for the winners of the morning races.
The long jump was moved into place for the next comp. The jump is approx 10 feet long , 18 inches high with a slight transition.
All riders started same location with the marker being moved in one foot increments. Hit the mark twice and your out. riders put on a great show with top three near or over the 30 foot mark. Winners David 31 feet , Max 30 feet, Osin 29.5 .
Point of this event was not every ebike can be jumped....bikes were jumping further than a non electrics starting at the same spot ....all bikes were midrives with batteries in backpacks...
Drag Race!
Friday night style.. line up, race whoever and whatever you lined up against, winner goes right loser left , two losses your out best of three final
Huge congratulations to DEVO1223 endless sphere member for winning against Kevin Risse in an exciting final.
thanks, Kyle,Dave,Kevin,Craig, Johhny,Ken, Jim and everyone else that helped put this on.
We are looking forward to having two events next year one in late April early May and then another about same time end of August.
will post as we secure date
Looking forward to having more bikes come out growing the event to have live music and more industry participation.
Let us know if are additional thing we should add for the next festival...ie road ride (100 mile Sierra Valley loop possible)
EBike wheelie contest...(talking to you RadPower )
Pictures and additional link can be found at ww.ecobikeadv.com and our Facebook.
Best
Chris
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