Sydney group ride - - Saturday 18th August

[full-throttle]

Cool trails, but where are the motors ??

What's wrong with legs?

Besides, motors are not welcome in MTB parks. Got to stick to boring fire roads..

 

[Hyena]

What's wrong with legs?

Nothing, it's the heart and lungs doing their job that I have a problem with :lol:
That said, that's just a convenient excuse now, I was always in the ebike corner.

Besides, motors are not welcome in MTB parks. Got to stick to boring fire roads..

That's the beauty of silent ebikes, motors are not welcome most places but if they don't hear you they don't know :wink:

 

[Hobbit]

And then there's the whole...." in and out before they knew what hit 'em"

....now i'm describIng my love life again.... :lol:

"was that an e-bike?"
"where?"
"back there.... Gone now"

 

[full-throttle]

motors are not welcome most places but if they don't hear you they don't know :wink:

You know what they say - you can't fool all the people all the time. Sure, you might get away with an odd ride or two. Do it regularly and see what happens..

"was that an e-bike?"
"where?"
"back there.... Gone now"

Not down Cressy Descent! The record is 2:30-ish. On a hardtail You think you can do better with a motor - be my guess :lol:

 

[Hobbit]

Alrightie!..,. I just need to borrow jay's fighter for a couple of days. I'll get right back to you....

 

[Hyena]

You break it, you buy it my friend
I have no delusions of being able to compete with a well sorted mtb down hill (even a hardtail as you say) and don't really have any desire to. As I've said before for me ebikes are all about getting that downhill speed/power/thrill all the time and without the effort of having to lug the bike to the top of a mountain to start with. I actually often take downhill tracks slower on my fighter than I do flats as I know my brakes are fighting harder against gravity and I won't be able to slow down/stop as easily. Unless you hit a tree, then the rate of deceleration is fairly constant :lol:

You know what they say - you can't fool all the people all the time. Sure, you might get away with an odd ride or two. Do it regularly and see what happens..

Sooner or later the hills run out and then they'd be left huffying and puffing at my back like the big bad wolf
If all the ebikers rode responsibly there'd be no issue but like anything it's the people doing the wrong thing that ruin it for everyone.

 

[Hobbit]

Agreed, but i think what full-throttle is alluding to is "cressy descent" being one of those purist meccas where anything other than "taking yourself far too seriously as an athlete/cyclist" is scorned. A bit like that bike track at loftus, if ya ain't wearing lycra, you dont belong.

 

[full-throttle]

haha - no lycra on Cressy Descent (one of the track on the video)

This event is open to everyone on anything - be it a downhill, all-mountain, cross-country, freeride, cyclo-cross or BMX bike, if you want to race your road bike or your kids bike, you can. Please share around the flyer, feel free to print it off, put it in your local bike shop or pub if they do not already have one. It is also worth trying your best to convince some of those 'recreational' riding buddies who label themselves as 'awesome' to step it up and put their ego's on the line. With transport included to the top of the hill on both days - fitness & hangovers are not valid excuses!

But yeah, I totally agree: off-road e-bikes make a lot of sense. In many respects they are better suited for urban environment as opposed to gravity-assisted (DH) bikes. It's just that MTB as sport has over 20 years of evolution. E-bikes will continue to grow and once reached enough exposure (critical mass) will potentially conflict with pedal only bikes. It has already started. The best option is for e-bikes to develop as their own sport, and instead of invading MTB parks create tracks more suitable for them. Urban e-MX/e-enduro circuits is really what's missing.

Meantime I'll enjoy both :wink:

 

[Hyena]

Urban e-MX/e-enduro circuits is really what's missing.

This is something I'd love to do as a business and a big part of the reason I started building high performance ebikes to start with.
I have a cheap dirt bike which is great fun to ride but there's no where within an hour of the city here where I can ride. And even the tracks that are an hour away are a bit light on and boring. Failing that the alternative is to drive 2+ hrs to the farms of friends or friends of friends. There used to be a small mx track closer to town but it got shut down with council complaints, largely about noise.
Consider ebikes though where half a dozen of these could be buzzing around on the block of dirt next door to you and you wouldn't even notice. Aside from liability for injury and greenies and dipsticks complaing about erosion or damage to the environment ebikes are the perfect solution. There's plenty of places closer to town where you coudl have these e-mx parks where young and old could come to have fun without disturbing anyone. Either BYO or rent something onsite. And you wouldn't need a fleet of expensive stealth bombers or hurricanes either, cheap chinese dirt bikes could be coverted for 3 grand, quick recharge stations and battery swaps and you'd be laughing.
Meh, maybe in 20 years if no one has taken the initiative

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Urban e-MX/e-enduro circuits is really what's missing.

This is something I'd love to do as a business and a big part of the reason I started building high performance ebikes to start with.
I have a cheap dirt bike which is great fun to ride but there's no where within an hour of the city here where I can ride. And even the tracks that are an hour away are a bit light on and boring. Failing that the alternative is to drive 2+ hrs to the farms of friends or friends of friends. There used to be a small mx track closer to town but it got shut down with council complaints, largely about noise.
Consider ebikes though where half a dozen of these could be buzzing around on the block of dirt next door to you and you wouldn't even notice. Aside from liability for injury and greenies and dipsticks complaing about erosion or damage to the environment ebikes are the perfect solution. There's plenty of places closer to town where you coudl have these e-mx parks where young and old could come to have fun without disturbing anyone. Either BYO or rent something onsite. And you wouldn't need a fleet of expensive stealth bombers or hurricanes either, cheap chinese dirt bikes could be coverted for 3 grand, quick recharge stations and battery swaps and you'd be laughing.
Meh, maybe in 20 years if no one has taken the initiative

I'm with ya...would be awesome to do this. Actually where we were in Kurnel would be a good spot, but good luck getting National parks to agree to that... :lol:

I can't find the info now but, isn't this pretty much what Quietrush has done, or is planning to do down in Canberra? He did it with a bunch of Fighters too I thought.
http://store.quietrush.com.au/

You could potentially get the greenies on board by pointing out that if people are riding e-bikes, they won't be riding fuel guzzling alternatives somewhere else.

Cheers

 

[argh]

Yay, been busy every night, but finally I have a video online of the ebike ride at Kurnell.

[youtube]T4uUYbHg-wo[/youtube]

argh

 

[saiyan]

must go to this place.......

 

[Hyena]

Cool Argh, nice to see things from as different perspective. And if I had of had a sudden hall failure off the edge of the cliff you would have captured it

 

[Scruffoid]

Was somebody being a rebel and going on the other side of tte taped off area? I notice you didnt show that on your vid :lol:

 

[Architectonic]

They're my tyre of choice for a "mixed use" ebike. The only down side is the sidewalls are a bit thin/soft so you've gotta watch out for ninja shards of glass and thorns that flick up and spear in sideways.

I had that experience yesterday - mashed sidewall of a 60% worn (2500km rear) DMR Moto. Slime spewed everywhere (never again with the slime..)

This was of course the day after I decided to purchase more. (though I purchased the 2.2s instead of the 2.4s, shipped for $40)

 

[argh]

Cool Argh, nice to see things from as different perspective.

Talking about a different perspective, I freakishly stumbled across this video on YouTube last night. I've been spotted! Only I would be able to tell, it is on my commute to work in the morning and looking at the shadows it's about the right time of the day too.

[youtube]5ij7CYT5Eag[/youtube]