In my last editorial I wrote about how the sales of eMTBs look like they will uproot the financial underpinnings of high-level enduro racing. However, going through the comments, I get the impression that many of our readers wanted to talk about racing eMTBs instead. So here we go, my two penneth on racing ebikes. Should we be racing ebikes? Yes, of course—we should race pretty much everything with wheels. Should we be organizing elite-level competitions right now? Probably not.
I’m not sure we should have eMTB race series at anything more than a local level, or at least not yet. I joined Pinkbike around ten years ago. I was (and still am) living on the French-Italian border where enduro racing was huge around me. Chasing after the races, I followed the ascent of this phenomenon as it emerged onto the world stage. I don’t like saying I was lucky to be there, I believe you make your own luck, but it was an exciting time to be part of. There was the feeling that we were riding some great wave and with hindsight, I think it is fair to say that enduro racing was the biggest upheaval in mountain biking during my riding life. Up until the arrival of the eMTB, at least…
Enduro at its heart is a deeply European idea. The first season of the EWS marked the tenth anniversary of the first modern enduro race, the Tribe 10,000 in Val D’Allos, France. Superenduro in Italy had been going for more than five years, in the UK the Gravity Enduro series three or four. There were series in Spain, Germany, everywhere. I know some people dispute the role of the Tribe 10,000 as ground zero because in many places there were enduro-like races stretching back as far as the 1980s. It was an idea that riders wanted and before there was a defined sport to latch onto they could instinctively feel the rough outline of the thing. The EWS rose from a groundswell of grassroots through to national-level racing, it was the natural conclusion of a movement that had been gaining momentum for years.
In the US things were not as far along. 2012 marked the first national series, the North American Enduro Tour (my wife, Mary Moncorge, won it), combining Crankworx rounds, the Wasatch Enduro in Utah and several rounds of the Oregon Enduro Series. Around that time one edition of the Crankworx, Whistler enduro went down in infamy for having impossible liaisons. Many races were little more than rebadged Super-D races, stripping the crucial technical elements out of the racing. The Sea Otter enduro was raced in full spandex. I was fairly
vocal about how shitty I thought it looked, but with hindsight, I think my comments were unfair.
What I didn’t grasp at the time was that North American mountain bikers found themselves in a very different situation to their trans-Atlantic counterparts. European enduro racing was something created by grassroots riders and had time to mature and grow into something ready for the big stage. In North America, there was an already-defined discipline being introduced from the top-down to racers. That created tension. I remember the response at the time swinging from outright hatred to over-excitement coupled with an unclear idea of what the thing actually was. Does anyone else remember “enduro” blue? How every new product seemed to have the ‘e’ word plastered across, regardless of how appropriate it was? Today grassroots enduro racing is huge across North America, maybe even more so than in Europe, but only because it has had time to find its own way to that point.
"What has this to do with eMTBs" I hear you asking? "eMTBs are not mountain bikes." While I would argue that they are not so different, to ignore their differences is unwise. eMTBing is also a young sport. Realistically eMTBs that can be ridden hard on technical terrain have only been around for five years or so. To draw a parallel to mountain bike history, I would say that they have left Mount Tam, reaching the early days of commercial mountain bikes. Even the early adopters are still trying to get their heads around the bikes. I first rode an ebike six years ago now, and I am still searching for the limits of what I can do on one of these bikes - certainly my current bike is capable of way more than my first personal eMTB in 2017. Imagine asking Charlie Kelly to visualize a modern EWS race based on racing the Repack on his klunker. Or Mike Sinyard to extrapolate the modern Stumpjumper Evo from his first hardtail frames.
If history teaches us anything about mountain bikers, it is that given time they will find the limits of the bike and sooner rather than later put a stopwatch to it. They haven’t got there with eMTBs yet. Here on the Franco-Italian borderlands there are people pushing eMTB racing - the founder of Superenduro, Franco Monchiero, has run an Italian national e-enduro series since 2017, we had the launch of the World Ebike Series (that has never left Central Europe) and around the Southern Alps many of the former enduro race organizers turned their attention to eMTBs a few years ago, there have been hillclimbs, eXC races, weird enduro-alikes, enduro races with a token climb thrown in and a few very good stabs at getting something right. It is worth noting that at the same time here in the Maritime Alps, a place where enduro was the lifeblood of the local scene for almost two decades, the popularity of grassroots enduro racing is coming crashing down and it seems like a majority of riders are making the electric switch. Amongst all this no single format has emerged though, nobody has yet struck upon the magic formula, and if you head to less racing-obsessed areas there's a good chance there are no races at all.
I raced a round of the Italian e-enduro series back in 2017. In honesty, it was pretty good, the racing took place on a course that for the most part would not have looked out of place at a good enduro race, but the team had added in some ugly climbs, a more XC-focused stage that would have been miserable-at-best on a mountain bike and a 45-minute charging/snack break. I finished 16th scratch, in case you were wondering, and no, factory teams have not been beating down my door to offer me a ride since. It was so good that I headed back in 2018, riding a course recce with the organizers and practicing for one round, but was disappointed to see what I found. The organizers had softened up the courses. Asking them why they were heading in this direction they explained that the people who were buying eMTBs, who were coming to race the whole series, did not enjoy the more demanding courses as much and they had to follow what their customers were asking for.
This is where eMTB racing is different from mountain bike racing. Mountain bike racing is, for the most part, sustained by young, hungry riders. They are the people that are there week-in, week-out, who race organizers depend on to keep their series going. But if you are young and hungry, chances are you don't have the $15,000 spare for the latest Specialized Turbo Levo. With the E-EWS you will need two extra batteries if you want to race in the pro class and the current generation of larger batteries will run you around €800 per battery. The people that are going putting this kind of money into their bikes may show up for a race or two as an experience, but they will not be there regularly enough for a series to work. Then there is the rate of development of the bikes themselves. Today a bike from two years ago is more or less obsolete, maybe not if your goals are having fun, but certainly for winning races - one well-known DH legend skipped the Pietra Ligure E-EWS as he only had the Shimano E8000 motor available, not the EP8. And all this is before we start talking hacking the motors, power to weight ratios and the disproportionate time gaps from climbing compared to descending.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we won’t see a lot of eMTB racing in the next couple of years. Our industry has a racing problem. Racing is how companies sell bikes to us and how they think about the sport. Our global governing body is hard-wired for racing, which means the national federations are too. And, try as we might, it filters down to most of us too. So along comes a new type of bike and it makes sense that brands want to go and race them, in some cases for no other reason than it fits nicely with their existing marketing structures. Those bikes proving to be such enormous commercial successes only adds fuel to that fire, despite the fact that the current commercial success is not based on racing.
What this all adds up to, I don’t know. It is certain there will be a lot more ebike races, I think it is a safe bet that they will be met with resistance in many places as eMTBs are not yet universally accepted and mountain bikers seem to be instinctively sceptical of anything coming from the top down. If I had my way, we would all take a step back to watch how the eMTB market evolves, how these eMTBs are being ridden and what the people who are buying them are looking for. I am pretty certain that given time that riders will find a fun way to race them and we will have better racing by waiting…
...we're skeptical b/c it has a motor. If it was a mountain bike, you wouldn't need to call it a "eMTB"..it would just be a "MTB." In the past there was push-back to 27.5 wheels, then 29 wheels, disc brakes, etc.....but none of those innovations made us questions whether the improvement/change no longer made it a mountain bike. Its different in this case b/c there is an outside energy source providing power. I'm not against eBikes, they have a place and I don't hate people that use them, but its not analogous to past changes/improvements in the industry. As a commenter once said in another article..."I'm not against escalators but I won't call them stairs."
Sure, in a bike the motor only is used for 'support', but that's a bit vague right? And that 600W is a lot of support for your wimpy 150W threshold power. An added complication is that a lot of power without skills to match is a recipe for trail conflicts and not just between mountainbikers. That adds more fuel to the trail access fire.
The industry did not care about this whole discussion. They simply found a new cash cow.
Then we can all get back to complaining about human powered mtbs
If you take the work- PEDALING UPHILL out of riding a mtb then it just opens up pandoras box for every poser with no trail edicat to invade are already overcrowded trails.i have nothing against electric powered vehicles including bikes and I have no problem with people that have issues with injury or just old age catching up with them...I am 62 yrs old...switching to a ebike to continue riding.fine I may even be in that catagory some day soon...I've been riding mtb since the mid 90's and I never would have imagined that there would ever be a difference of opinion of what is a bicycle and what isnt.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengt_%C3%85berg
Passed on 6 March, 2021, age 76.
Who are you?
"I am a old time motocrosser look up my user name"
Someone did... The name you use is of a dead Swedish moto racer.... I laughed at you.
And I'm the one being called "numbskull".... The 70's called. They want their sick burn back.
But a smaller ocean than the space between e-mtb and real bikes
Example - surron.ca/pages/light-bee-x. Less than half the weight and about 1/7th the power of a dirtbike, about twice the weight and 10x the power of a light e-mtb like a Levo. MTB suspension, brakes and wheels.
Worth mentioning that I actually like e-bikes too. I'm not trying to hate on them and I'd even consider buying one of those Sur Rons, everything I've heard about them has been positive.
Not saying everyone has to like E-MTBs, but to suggest that they should go to OHV trails is not consistent with what they are actually designed to do.
If the new lines that are developing on my local trails are anything to go by, then corners of any type are off the menu. Straightline all the things.
If that’s what you want, go race xc. If 140 mm bikes are competitive in an enduro or enduro bikes in DH, the organizers have clearly messed up.
As far as I’m concerned, trails for gravity racing should be just as fast chainless. Plus, you eliminate a bunch of the temptation to dope that way too.
ebikes, hate em or not, are crazy capable on the downs now. Sure, nothing compares to a normal bike, but that’s why it should have some more E specific stuff like crazy climbs that couldn’t be done otherwise.
I enjoy watching moto guys do difficult hill climbs…I don’t think this would be as cool for obvious reasons lol, but more bike content to watch can’t be a bad thing? I guess.
Meh who knows
I'd take this one step further, until the bike companies/UCI as an organization are able to pay liveable wages/provide benefits to teh top 50-100 ranked riders(just drawing a line) MTB racing in general should not be done. Cause right now I see the normal MTB racing scene as setting up many "pros" with no usable professional skill sets after they're done riding, as well as not providing a liveable wage to them currently. Plus the damage their doing to their bodies....
When I read articles like this it just reaffirms that everyone in the industry whether pro, or PB tech editor, are completely out of touch with the real world. Mountain biking is a hobby, prove me otherwise.
If you want more get a motorbike and ride somewhere else, pissed off with ebikes damaging trails, hounding actual riders on climbs etc.
why is 35mph ok in some places but not 37?
(Edit: also, 1 horse power is 745.699872 W. so this is where 750w is coming from)
Not exclusively. For instance, 50to01 team demonstrates a different flavor of riding, with different priorities in riding --- and that's more entertaining to watch and more relaxed to follow in comparison to racing. Words like "playfulness" start to matter in bikes reviews.
You cannot
Ebike racing is a BS idea
We don’t have lift access in the uk unless you drive to the top of Scotland and that’s 7 hours for me from the middle of the UK.
E-bikes are the future for the uk gravity riders.
in one case, that's a pure sport, fully human powered, all sweat, pain, and tears. (but there are some good moments too, I swear!)
on the second case, much less effort....
one is helped by an engine, one is not. that just cannot be fair competition...
Is running to the donut shop in high heels more or less pure than lapping a supercross course in bowling shoes?
How does one go about ranking hiking gravel pathways (fully human powered) vs sledding in 3 foot deep pow (sweat, pain, beers)?
Will riding a bike only downhill after lazily sitting on a chairlift make me tired?
Curious minds want to know.
And for the pros, let them race and help test/refine the technology. I'm cool with that.
It would be nice to see eMTB used in a way that allows for more accessible racing for physically disabled riders though. Or is there already racing like that available?
Just my 3 cents.
I'm sure lots of people would love to do that, or watch if for that matter. NOT
On some of the flatter stages with a pedal, the chipped/unrestricted bikes are 10-30 seconds a stage faster, not via skill, rather just having assistance way past the allowable legal limit imposed here.
I'd do a national series if it was happening, and the rules were fair.
Pointless.
In all seriousness, no issue with e-bikes personally, although I have no interest in getting one and I have mates who’ve raced in the e-bike category at local level enduro events. Tend to think that racing, at whatever level should be about the rider and how they handle their bike, not about who has the better motor or longer battery life.
Try riding a dirtbike trail on an mtb - it's not that fun unless you're pointed down (and even then, with loose scree that typically develops on dirtbike trails, it's not fun on a light bike that get's pushed around).
IMO - eMTB and the sur-ron style hybrids will find themselves developing trails to suite their new capabilities - give it 10 years - enduro and DH all followed the same path.
I do kinda like the idea of eHillclimbs, though.
There is no difference in racing e-mtb's comparing to mob's or whatever other this you would like to race;
Also, competing and war typically allows technology to developed fster; which means better ebikes for city commute, less pollution, less cars, higher safety - etc
Actually eMTB are better for Enduro racing them MTB, in the true sense of Enduro racing any platform other then a MTB, you have uphills and downhills within the stages.
It is going to take most MTBers a major mind shift to understand eMTB racing, but it will happen over time.
The next 5 years of eMTB will be interesting as tech will change a lot and more eMTB racing will start to happen.
As far as cheating that is just part of any form of racing and human nature to try to gain an edge on the competition:/
Find the weak links and the custom builds start to evolve...I think emtb racing unlimited would be a great class...
Emtb can and are raced at the same places as legacy bikes. In the UK there is soon to be an emtb only series.
Quicker and less tired getting to the top means more timed runs, ie the fun bit, unless you are an odd xc type who enjoy riding uphill?
gnccracing.com/page/emtb-racing-information
Bike Open / max 2 KW engine with max 2400 Wh
The boomers gambled away their children's future.
No single generation has done this much damage to their progeny.
The hyperbole you are posting is laughable at best, if not outright sad an adult can not take any self responsibilty for the state of his own life.
And since you commented on the topic of "ScReEnS/DeViCeS" you're the one actively deciding to argue with strangers in the comment section of a hobby website... So pot meet kettle.
I'm not saying adults can't take responsibility for their own lives, no idea where you got that from.
Commenting on the internet doesn't make me a hypocrite, lol