Video: Ronnie Renner On A Stealth Electric Bike

 Buddy just buy a dirt bike.

 e-bikes should be named e-motocycle

 good to see someone shares my dislike of people calling engines "motor's"

 Actually, if it was gas then it'd be an engine. You are correct it is a motor though, since it's electric.

 If I ever see anyone riding one of these on my local trails I'm calling the cops

 Engine and motor are not strictly defined. Ford Motor Company, General Motors.

 @b45her

Motor: a machine that turns other forms of energy into mechanical energy; which creates motion.

Engine: A MOTOR that converts THERMAL energy into Mechanical motion.

SO. ALL ENGINES ARE MOTORS, BUT NOT ALL MOTORS ARE ENGINES.

Note, by definition - if there's no combustion, there's no engine. Purely electric bikes don't have combustion, so they are strictly motors, not engines.

 Ronnie Renner for President

 Seems like all the riders are getting on board. Renner, Filip Polc, Sylvain Guintoli, Brandon Mears, Sun tour, Fox, Marzocchi. Pretty simple to check youtube yourselves and see the trend is happening. I don't understand what could be nearly bad. Less pollution, no more paying to shuttle, Opens up tons of unmarked territory and its super fun. This is the future for me.

 I just noticed Magura for brakes on the 13's as well. I might need a better job to buy one, but that's cool. More for me.

 Are the boy scouts voting on this too?

 I tink it would be pretty fun to ride but still would rather have a peddle bike

 Cool and very interesting! Just not the toy for me.

 Unless you charge it strictly with pedal power (no idea how this thing gets energy) then its burning fossil fuels so its not green. By plugging it into the wall it doesn't magically become green energy.

 Valid point^, a lot of electricity still comes from coal plants

 Jane Fonda ain't got a motor in the back of her Honda Maybe she has an engine

 @arizonadownhill because it is harder on the trails than a bicycle and in my experience the kinds of people who ride them dont do trailwork

 @Tek-8 Not if you recharge the batteries from your PV system or buy green energy from the grid. We put back nearly as much from our PV system as we take out from the grid, and I'd love to be able to recharge our car or bike from it.

 Yep, I can see how it would be harder on the trails. Just look at what happens to that berm in the vid. Riding that thing looks more like its about dirt bike riding than mountain biking. It belongs on dirt bike trails.

 @si618 The other problem with any battery powered vehicle is that producing batteries is not very enviro friendly, and despite all kinds of great claims over the years, none of the batteries seem to get the lifespan manufacturers claim. Then there's the disposal of them - another dirty process, if they even get recycled at all. My brother in-law just got rid of 2 electric lawn mowers (with a total of 3 batteries) that were barely 5 years old. I've got a gas mower that's 15 years old and still going strong. The energy to produce all that short lived stuff probably doesn't offset the bit of good it did.

 holy SHIT IT LOOKS SO AWSOME

 It's just another reason for your trails to get shut down , people complain enough when you are doing 25mph with your legs , now imagine people turning up on these things .... worse than those idiots who buy pitbikes and shred the shit out of your trails.

I can only see bad things come from these.


Looks cool but I think they will only cause problems , also why not be a man and buy a proper MX bike ?

 A guy in my LBS showed me a cheap XC hardtail with an electric motor that they got it. He said "it's the future of off-road cycling". I said "not if you remove the cycling part". He hasn't sold any yet. What's so bad about pedaling?

 @jamadi, it's harder on the trails because it's going way faster and is way heavier than any mountain bike.

 It probably sounds like a prius...

 I've ridden one and they are fucken awesome. I reckon you could increase the power half the weight and run the power through the gears with a kitted All mountain bike. Whoever says just get a dirt bike doesn't under stand how ghostly quiet these things are. How they don't cause the same erosion of trails and they are lighter and thus brake better and handle better. You can lift one over a fence but still do 80 kph. It is something new, not a dirt bike or a MTB. I can bunny hop a 40lbs bike with clips and you could get an ebike that light. Try bunny hopping your dirt bike.

 30mph and trees hurt , imagine it hurts more at 50

 Yeah, it really seemed to accelerate very fast at the beginning. I wonder what it's 0-30 or 45 time is.

 Question: does the battery explode when you hit a tree at 50mph? I have never had to even think about my bike blowing up in my face after a crash, but I imagine its a bit of a concern with motorcycles...

 "Question: does the battery explode when you hit a tree at 50mph?"...yes, but this is the least you have to worry about when it happens

 I had a small RC car battery (7.4v, 4000mAh) explode. You'd easily have time to get out of the way, and you'd be plain stupid to hang around when smoke starts spewing out.

Plus, modern lithium ion packs are filled with fire retardant anyway. Expensive packs won't explode, just puff up.

 just like cell phone batteries, a lot of hissing but no exploding... although what is hissing out is highly poisonous, haha. and themountain, good call, hahaha.

 And they don't weigh 2-300 pounds!

 If it's not a full blown regular DH bike, or a DJ/SS bike, it's the work of satan and your family should be tortured if you ever buy anything other than those two types of bikes.

At least that seems to be the general vibe a person would get from reading the comments here.

Oh, and anything new coming from the industry is just the Illuminati conspiring to take over the globe and rob you of your money.

 I think the issue is that pink bike is for bikes. Ill go to vurb or racer x to read up on dirt bike stuff and washed up free riders.

 Agreed, this is something you could take any place that says no dirtbikes allowed. You could probably do a 50 mile loop in half the time it would take you to do 20 miles of your same favorite single tracks.

 dirtyslim, thanks for summarizing the problem with these things.

 pretty good outlook on it, but I don't know if I'm sold just yet..

 @dirtyslim69 - I'd classify that as a dirtbike, it's got a motor after all.

I agree with Geodood, if you're capable of doing twice the distance it's only going to cause problems on mtb trails, and judging from the amount of torque it produces, it would tear up trails pretty quick, especially any climbs and berms. The other downside is a lot of our local trails are shared use, so more risk for walkers, and more hate for riders.

The stealth looks like fun, but I'd take a zero over it and keep it to street or dirtbike trails. www.zeromotorcycles.com

 Well yes maybe the torque could be a problem in some instances. I think this is a good concept though for people with say knee, leg problems. Cardiovascular problems, who knows. but want to get out and join the friends in the mountain bike park. Guess they need a less toque model. You wont see me on one anytime soon. I am good with my AM bike. But you never the what could come crashing down on you at anytime.

 ^^^^^^ i agree . that is one hell of a cool bike, i know there's guys that wont touch one and think its got no business in the mtb scene, but damn that thing is fast and still light enough to shred just like a mtb. also how fast did that thing shoot out of his shed from standstill.now that is worth the cash in itself to me.at the end of the day if you like that kind of hybrid bike then whats the big deal. just ride it and have the time of your life doing it....

 it accelerate even inside a berm or on the fly!!

 That's the beauty of electric power; loads of torque from zero RPM

 Yup, there goes the neighbourhood.

 Totally agree. Max power from Zero revs is going to shred trails, and make it possible for someone to go unnaturally fast up a DH track. All Bad IMO, no matter how much fun it is.

 If they do show up, some engineer needs to kickstart an EMP solution that will fit in a backpack...good luck pedalling out! ;-)

 It becomes a motorcycle when it has a motor. Gas or electric.

 Hmmm. Yeah - I kind of agree. I hate to talk down about innovation in the mtb world but I am somewhat wary of seeing these on the trail.

Many of the areas used by mtb'ers that I like to ride are shared access with members of the public. In short, they often "tolerate" us as long as we're respectful - sad fact of life. Anyhow....I reckon that if people were to start ripping down such trails on what members of the public see as "motorbikes" (lets face it, many of them probably won't notice the subtleties in difference between a "stealth electric bike" and a "motor bike" as it flies past in a blur), my guess is that it'll sooner or later undermine the goodwill and mutual respect that we rely on to keep riding these trails.....that and the 1001 other arguments about legislation, environment, safety, e.t.c. Seems like a bit of a minefield at the moment to me....

That said, I remember coming across similar problems with public acceptance, legal issues, trespassing issues, e.t.c. years ago when I first started mtb'ing in the early 90's and look where we've got to now!

 Actually, yes. I think pedaling is one of the most important parts. Pedaling is what gives us access to most of the trails around where I live. Motors will relegate us to the same places as other "motor"cycles.

Keep the pedaling in bicycles.

 Will someone too unfit or broken to pedal a bike be willing to get out and maintain our trails? Especially since they will be destroying them a whole lot faster. It's takes a lot more work than most people realise to build and maintain a sustainable trail.

 thanks coach , fix the trail yourself dic head

 Lithium ion batteries are easy as hell to recycle. Crush them up in a big compactor, sift through what's left, and separate the plastic from the now powdered lithium. The lithium doesn't even need much processing to be reused, it's not sulphated up like lead acid batteries are at the end of their lives.

 Is it cost effective enough that manufacturers are actually going to bother to do it? How about the amount of electricity they require to charge?

 It's not the manufacturers that decide, it's whoever recycles the batteries. Some will, some won't. And when you factor in co2 emissions from coal power plants, something like the tesla roadster works out at about equal to 120mpg.

 ha yup , the wedge. we used to ride 250's behind mvhs there was lines and hill gaps everywhere

 unfortunately you can buy a moto-x bike and a dh bike for less than that mongrel costs.

 dought it my moto cost around 1000 and my scott about 2500 i cant see them been over 3500 quid if they are then thats pretty shocking

 Try 9 grand.

 ouch you can get a new santa cruz v10 carbon for that !!!

 It will do a lot of damage to mountain bike trail advocacy. and wreck tracks.

 My rant above aside, I've just read this comment and I have to admit, I'd love to nip down to the shops on one of these

 The full moto gear was gay as balls tho

 thats the whole problem with these, on flat courses skill+fitness determined speed, now anyone can rip a xc course on this where other riders are going 10-20mph these are goin 40+. I just hope these are banned before they get more common, otherwise some rich f*ck on one is gonna get nailed by a clothesline on my trail.

 www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xs8uiGhObzI

 the funny thing is KTM makes and electric mx bike haha.

 lightest is 75 lbs. not bad considering some of the ol' DH bikes weighed 50+

 Bro, do you even lift? lol

 lol it could always be worse

 We had some Haibike electric bikes in and ours was sub 50lbs with 150mm of travel

 You're stupid, it's still two wheels and looks fun. Free your mind man

 Then buy a real motorbike. The only thing you are going to achieve by buying this is more trails closed to the real mountainbikers, an even worse public opinion, and a faster erosion of the trails we have built for many years. It sure is a lot of fun, though not as much as a DH bike on the descents, as they are more flickable, or a MX on a proper track, as they are slower than any real MX. Therefore I just don't see the point of this.

 This is great! You can basically treat cross country trails like downhill because you can maintain so much more speed! It's perfect if you don't live near any proper hills and want a speed rush! But shit 75pounds at it's lightest! I'm thinking I wouldn't want to have to pedal that thing home if it died! I'd love one but it probably costs as much as a full on motorbike!

 amen, krankin. two wheels on dirt is always fun or funny or both. always a good time. i wouldn't pass up a test ride on it.