GT Releases New Force GT-E eMTB

 This guy know how to sell Ebikes !

 It's just getting sad at this point.

 Felt a little bit like a hostage video, all it was lacking was Martin holding up todays newspaper as proof of life.

 Straight from his heart, euh paper.

 @Rusettipasta: “Im so so sorry that I hurt the feelings of all Chinese people. I’ve realised the error of my ways. Now I love China... and ebikes.”

 I don't get it... corporations do this all the time with sponsored athletes. Yeah it was laboured, but this guy is a hero to a lot of people. He's getting paid (probably more than you or I) and he's in an awesome location and for the 15 minutes it took to film this (ok, an hour), he got to ride there (probably for free) all day. I don't feel sorry for him.

 That felt a little too forced for sure. This should have been a job for Wyn.

 I thought Phil Kmetz was their number 1 sponsored rider....?

 @chriskneeland: uh was it any different when they sell anything else? This is what "pros" do.

 @ElakeEdvin: yeah exactly when Ibis brings out their ebike it's gonna be way sicker (it actually will be, though...)

 ...When you don’t completely erase your first answer and the teacher marks it down as incorrect.

 Looks like the boss has been welded on backwards

 Look at how skateboarders managed to kill rollerblading back in the early 2000’s by making it totally uncool and being complete a*sholes to anyone who showed up to the skatepark on rollerblades.

There is some sort of parallel there with ebikes...

 esk8 is a way different genre of skating. It's more for carving and commuting. It's seldom that you see anyone trying to do tricks on an esk8. I dont see much hate other then purist knocking esk8s for their lack of board feel and that some of them feel really "junky"

 Noone cares about e-boards in the skateboarding world because its just one of many disciplines so "that's great, have fun but we don't take you seriously and you'll never win xgames on one" is pretty accurate. Same with inline skating, theres plenty of ways to skate and it only helps get more people involved in the industry.

For the record, Skateboarding didn't kill blading. The culture is alive and self-sufficiently thriving right under your noses.

Blading was a threat to Skateboarding industry because all the little skateboard kids who were being treated like shit by the older boarders at the skatepark found inline skating (BMX'ers are also guilty of being dickheads to kids too). 90% of bladers have BMX and Skateboarding backgrounds; some are even better at them at their own disciplines. Ask any blader to bust a kickflip and they can do it no problem. Ask a skateboarder or BMX'er to simply stand up straight on skates and watch them flail around like a newborn fawn. Their own insecurities of "looking cool" made them act like a*sholes to anyone who did something different.

Losing big money sponsors like Levis, Gap, Old Navy, Mountain Dew, etc.. hurt the industry financially. The straw that broke the camels back was the Xgames team (*Pat Parnell*) wanted to experiment with a new filming format and asked inline skaters to grab a camera and follow the athletes around on the course to get that "go pro-like" footage; and Skateboarders & BMX'ers were complete dicks about it and said "We're not going out there if theres a rollerblader on the course" so, Xgames leadership decided to drop rollerblading from their line-up. The Xgames were built on Rollerbladings success in the 90's, without blading there would not be an Xgames. Pat Parnell is a rollerblader. Id bet most of the readers of this blog are closet rollerbladers too. I've been skateboarding since the 80's, I'm a rollerblader, skateboarder, mtb'er, and I ride BMX and Snowboard and Ski. Do what you love and dont be a dick about it, the kids are watching.

 @wibblywobbly: Soo...you're saying there's a chance?

 @NYShred: "Ask any blader to bust a kickflip and they can do it no problem." lmaooo this is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Literally not a chance this is true. I would guess that most rollerbladers in the 90s and 2000s chose the sport because they couldn't do anything else, similar to how I see a ton of kids riding scooters at skateparks now. I don't have anything against rollerblading but I think you're severely exaggerating the skill it takes and the amount of people who still do it.

 @NYShred: You make some good points. Way too much shade thrown because of perceived image problems. However you are wrong about the X-games origins and rollerbladers. Mat Hoffman ran a contest series in the early 90's called the BS series (which came after the 2-Hip series of the late 80's). ESPN took over the BS contests at the end of 95' and in 96' the X-games began.

 @moonraker: absolutely, yes the Xgames were -Created- through Mat Hoffmans event(s), but the Xgames success was -Built- off of the popularity of Rollerblading in the early 90's. At that time noone was paying attention to BMX or Skateboarding, there wasnt any access to them unless you were actively in the scene. The concept of "extreme sports" didnt even exist on television at that time either. The money machine was Rollerbladings popularity, so putting them on the ticket assured ESPN viewership. Without rollerblading, the Xgames would have been a niche' thing for a small group of people that would have eventually failed.

 @wibblywobbly: Rollerblading? Did you mean fruit-booting?

 @NYShred: Is your post a joke? I lost interest 2 sentences in, in any event.

 @NYShred: We saw exactly how much "skill" was involved in inline skating when Soap Shoes came about and the wheels went away. We totally laughed at all the dorks who would run up to a rail, jump onto it, and jump off...because it looked completely ridiculous.

"Aggressive skating" was a complete fabrication to sell something to kids, and look how that worked out.

 @NYShred: I agree that all should do what they love and not be a dick about it. Although, when I was kid learning to skateboard in the early 90's the older kids were a dick to me and other young kids as well. For good reason though! Kids were kooks and had poor etiquette when it came to getting in people's way and snaking runs.
I learned from them and it taught me to respect the spots and the sport as a whole.

Yeah, some were too harsh but I wish people were a little more like that now. I go to skateboard parks now and it's a zoo with kids scootering all over and not one with any type of etiquette. It's lame.

There should be gatekeepers and people trying to keep their sports pure. If we didn't we would instead be seeing more than just the one kook blasting AC/DC from his Bluetooth speaker, the trails would be full of e-bikes blasting by you with no consideration, slow groups not letting people pass and just another fun sport sanitized just in the name of making it more "inclusive".

 You might not be able to win the X games with an e-skateboard....but you can win a rainbow jersey with an E-bike

 no they don't. most skaters think they're sick. Obviously most people are just cruising around on the them, but at the high level they're f*cking sick (just like emtb) -- they're having uphill races on them now and getting ROWDY, from what I can tell. If anyone is familiar with the Maryhill Festival of Speed, I read something the other day that said this year's uphill winner (i.e. e-board, up the hill instead of down) broke the OVERALL course record. Obviously it's still not quite a skateboard but it's another thing you can get rad on... just like ebikes.

 @teagues: to me, inline skating is just parkour on wheels... parkour might be goofy, but at a high level it's sure not. I mean honestly most of the dudes in these comments don't need that much "skill" to ride what they ride on bikes... so sure, to rip around on blades doesn't require much skill, but I would think cork 7 transfers on rollerblades are f*ckin hard, because they're f*ckin hard on two feet.

 @zarban: Very good points. At a few local high-density riding spots conflicts are starting to become more common and they usually stem from a person or group not following trail etiquette and rules. What surprises me is how few people actually say something to the offenders, most just stare and do nothing. Like you said we don't have to be dicks but community enforcement of good behavior through talking to one another, including calling out people for being dicks, should help the situation

 Huh I don't ever remember seeing in-line skating in the X-games. Probably because I changed the channel or went and did something else at the venue during that time. But I guess I owe a lot of my teen entertainment to in-line skating. Learned something new today; that carbon fiber can be powder coated.

 I doubt it, because lazy people (Americans specifically) will always take the easiest option, and a lift to the top is still easier than effortlessly pedaling your e-bike for 15 minutes.

 I don't think so, people don't want to pay the $$$ for an e-bike + battery is limited + people need to ski in the winter. So i think we're good!

 Highlands already has Wednesduro where you can get a $10 pass (almost $40 less than a lift ticket), pedal up and ride down. So with an ebike you can get in twice as many laps.
www.highlandmountain.com/wednesduro-uphill-riding-highland

 @monkeybizz: pretty sure there are some bike parks that make more money off of bikes than skis. (Specifically the lift services not the entire economics of the town.)

 @raelx: interesting. Never ridden out east, but paying to pedal up to a bike park kind of suggests that there aren't many other trail options (outside the bike park) in that area. Bummer.

 @stevemokan: good point.

 The lift at highland is approximately 98 years old and regularly breaks down. A new lift will cost several million dollars and is probably not a financially viable proposition. Highland is one wind storm or a few rusted out parts away from becoming the worlds first ebike park.

 @wibblywobbly: woah!

 @JDFF: Well here in Canada lift tickets for skiers costs at least 2x as much as mtb + you have the snowboarding crowd as well... I don't know what hills you are talking about but it's pretty hard to believe your argument here. + how many people ski and snowboard vs mtb is a huge difference smh

 Most people who are serious about parks are going to be on enduro/dh bikes anyways. Ebikes are too heavy for fun DH riding for us mortals who are not Sam Pilgrim.

 @monkeybizz: For many resorts summer is very lucrative. Firstly, it's not just the numbers of enthusiasts (mtb vs ski/snowboard) it's the number of casual visitors - a lot of mountain resorts see higher occupancy and lift use (by number of people) in summer with a lot of sightseers, day hikers etc. They also buy one-off lift rides, far more lucrative against cost than the season pass. Secondly, staffing and infrastructure isn't as costly. Summer needs lifties, patrol and some trail maintenance/builders; winter needs lifties, patrol, maintenance, groomers, snow guns and admin of snow schools and racing programs.

 @wibblywobbly: i ski'd highland once in the 90's

 @monkeybizz: I believe that Whistler makes more revenue off summer lift operations than winter. Apparently diesel costs for winter snow grooming is a huge cost, which plays into this. If I remember correctly this shift in profits occurred sometime around 2012.

 @JDFF: you better check your facts.

 @phops: ebikes weigh the same as dh bikes did a few years ago. Obviously you haven't ridden one to know how much fun they are.

 @d-man: exactly! My decoy is 50 pounds and feels great as soon as the trail points down.
They’re a blast and I can’t imagine how anyone who wants to be a better rider could fail to see the advantages of owning one.

 I took my levo to Northstar bike park. They welcomed ebikes there. Even rent them for the park.

It was fun but I would have preferred a standard bike bike there. You don’t use any of the advantages of an ebike at a bike park. Just lug around a motor and battery that you really don’t use there.

 This is 'merica. Home of the Big Mac, Sloppy Joe and Fat Martha. We don't ride when there's a lift. E-bike or not.

 Thanks for sharing.

 roosting is sweet. maybe not on high use "flow trails", but if you don't have an "roost safe" trails, go build some!

Also, everyone saying, " increased wear and maintenance on trails due to e bikes is genuine discussion" sounds like how the Sierra Club talks about mountain bikes... imagine the same situation where some "hiker" get's pissed when he sees a patagonia ad with an mtb in it.... "Don’t these companies get that increased wear and maintenance on trails due to MOUNTAIN BIKES is genuine discussion?"

ebikes are sweet. They're motorized and shouldn't be used on non motorized trails. It's that simple. If any manager(s) of a particular trail system think they can open their mtb trails to ebikes sustainably, then that's awesome too. If not, that's understandable too. That should really be the end of it.

 Just the same as every cool bro edit coming out these days.

 If it ain't broke..

 How about carbon frames? Any recycling for them yet?

 @d-man: not really. Bmw does a little something but it's def not widespread method.

 www.pinkbike.com/news/video-the-stories-of-3-adaptive-riders-in-resilient-race-race-creator-series.html

 These are the important things we need to know.

 Not that was original.

 And seat tube 27.2 ?!?!

Different seat tubes between bikes. ??

 @rafallied: Must be a spacer in there?

 @willaasss: no idea

But strange at all

 I like what you did here.

 E-force is already copyrighted by a racquetball company.