G-Sport

I assumed it was for the gram of coke they did before designing it...

If well engineered, why would it be any worse than your "bolted together" cockpit?

@mkul7r4: If it's not warm you need less. If you can refill then why carry all your water for the ride for the whole ride? If you can stop at a cafe or a van for a cup of tea, why the hell would you want water? ;-)

@wpplayer18: Maybe it's different where you live, but here it isn't really any harder to get to the more difficult tracks than it is to the easier ones.

@GBangShredder: Really? If I was attempting a track that was too technically difficult for me I'd choose a bike with more suspension and bigger wheels over a heavier ebike. If the argument is that the ebike lets them do more laps then surely there comes a point when they aren't "inexperienced" anymore? It's just progress. I wouldn't go back to the terrible bikes of the 80's and 90's for a second, suspension and droppers etc have made more stuff rideable and it's more fun. I see (lightweight) ebikes as just the next step.

@wpplayer18: But this article was specifically about low-power ebikes (which nobody seems to be seeing as any difference to the 10lb heavier "full power" ebikes. I've still seen plenty of gompers on non-ebikes taking bad lines and skidding. Blame the gomper not the bike?

Wouldn't this same argument apply to suspension, 29" wheels, slack head-angles, long chainstays etc? When I started riding MTB all bikes were fully rigid, this suspension crap and 29" wheels has resulted in unskilled riders smashing down trails, braking hard over bumps creating braking bumps, cutting corners because their 4 mile long 29" wheeled monster takes a week to turn, cutting gaps in fallen trees because they can't bunnyhop etc etc. If we are going to ban ebikes from trails then maybe we should limit suspension travel and wheel size too?

I'll stick my head above the parapet. Recently got a Levo SL and am loving it. Sure it would be nice if it was even lighter, but overall it has resulted in an increase in fun. Instead of slogging up a fire-road or actual road, I will take a more techy way back up the hill, this is just extra-fun that I didn't have before. Downhill it is a little more inclined to take a straight line and plough through but that is probably as much from switching to a 29" front wheel as anything else. It also means I can do more rides from home and hit a bigger variety of tracks a little further afield that I usually drove to before. Is it cheating? Yes. But so is uplift, but riding up the hill is way nicer than sitting in a cramped van between runs. But I'm very glad I didn't get a full-bastard of an ebike. The temptation to up the assist from 30 to 60 to 100% is always there and when you drop it back down you feel like you've just been dropped in treacle, I can't imagine the come-down from full power on a full-bastard ebike.

This isn't an issue with e-bikers, this is an issue with bell-ends.

@pmhobson: Well there's a whole fascinating rabbit hole, thanks. Does suggest that CO2 would also permeate the latex in sealant which is probably not good. I gave up on CO2 cartridges (in favour of a mini-pump) a long time ago for other reasons, a mini-pump never runs out and the disposable cartridges can't be very good for the environment, but now there's another reason.