E-bikes, friend or foe?

So I was recently provided an e-bike to try by the good people of Giant Brisbane and have put a few different rides in over the term break. I was excited to try something new plus understand these as I have had course participants join my adult courses the last few years.

The weapon of choice was. Giant Trance X Elite Pro 1. For those that are not familiar with the Giant naming regime, the Trance X is a 150 travel trail bike. The Elite is the new Super Lightweight range (SL in some other brands) which are a new bread of e-bike with a full powered motor (the other SL brands are doing a lower power motor in their SLs) and a 400 Watt hour battery as compared to a 700-900 typical in most full powered bikes. So weight savings are the name of the game and this one comes in at 19kg where as your typical full power full battery is 22-25+.

I was excited for this one not only for the hybrid of full power (85nm motor) low weight (battery 400kwh) but I have a Trance X Pro 1 which is effectively the same like less the motor, so a perfect comparison. The “acoustic” version is more like 13.5kg. There are a couple of subtle differences between the two bikes but boy did these make a difference.

The first is the mullet set up of the e-bike. (for those not familiar with the bike world mullet, it’s version of business up front and party out the back is a 29 front 27.5 rear wheel size. Theory being the 29 rolls over things more easily, and the 27.5 saves some rotating mass and corners a little better. The big different though (especially on the e-bike) is this allows the manufacturer shorten the chain stays. What this does is shift your centre of gravity back a little which is enough to make wheel lifts (as in manuals) easier and given the extra bike weight this was a welcome thing. The other thing it does is shorten up the wheel base which allows it corner a little sharper (and if you are thinking yes, but at the cost of a little stability you would be right but not by as much as you would think. Due to the extra bike weight, these things are planted!

Now whilst I’m not a full on weight weenie, I’m conscious of not carrying too much excess weight for things you don’t need. I typically get away with less travel than the average rider given I’m only 68 kg wringing wet and can land a bike relatively lightly off a jump. The other area of consideration is tyre weight. This one is especially important which is rotating mass. This impacts the effort required to accelerate or climb with the bike. I typically will take a lighter weight tyre with a smaller knob and generate the extra grip myself through applying my body weight to the bike.

These are two areas I was able to indulge on the e-bike and carry a full 36mm fork with 150 travel and a full fat 2.5 wide tyre set with a chunky knob, and both were noticeable. The 2.5 tyre width with its extra air volume allowed me to run pressures a little lower which together with the larger knob gave excellent grip in corners. The 36 dia 150mm fork soaked up the bigger hits that resulted with the 19kg bike weight and the typical higher trail speeds from the motor.

I did find the extra torque the bike gave me made for a very forgiving ride experience. I could go into technical trail areas and know I had the power to get myself out of trouble. I found myself pushing this envelope to explore how far I could get my self out of techy induced difficulties by powering out of it, and the scope here was great!

The extra bike weight (all be the super light version) was noticeable but if ridden with good technique the power of the bike could be used to overcome the bike weight and make it “touch lightly” on the trail obstacles. Again if you don’t have this finesse yet the consequences are less than on an acoustic as the loss of momentum was less of a concern as the e factor would get you back to speed again with little effort. Another forgiving element of an e. I will say, I can see how these bikes can get punished by a rider with little skill. You can point and shoot a trail and low your way through anything but this is not good for the bike in the long run and probably not the trail features either. You would also be increasing your risk of an off with these heavier impacts.

Another good comparison to my acoustic friends was heart rate which we often compared at the top of the climbs resulting in a typical 20 bpm difference. That’s not to say I couldn’t get an intense workout on an e-bike, you just won’t get as hard a work out when riding with no e riders.

There was an interesting question posed mid ride debating which of two trails we were going to go down as the climb back up was contemplated by the acoustic riders as a one time in a ride trail. In my mind on the e, I was thinking let’s do both! So I guess the e would have allowed me to cover more ground with fewer restrictions of how many hills I would ride down.

So what about the downs? Well here I didn’t see any downside either. The extra bike weight gave me a bit more gravity on my side to descend faster. The fatter chunkier tyres added cornering grip and the big (200&220mm) brake rotors with 4 pot callipers they put on these things are fantastic!

Another factor noticed was that I felt less fatigued after (an obvious one but less time spent asleep on the couch on a Sunday afternoon. Those that know me would know that I coach all day Sunday so like I get a chance to do that anyway!).

So to sum up I believe these bikes do have a place in the mtb community. If you have an injury, are not yet fit or ride with others that are fitter and faster than you when all are on acoustics, then this is a great leveller to help you keep up. If you are time poor and want to fit in more higher quality riding (as in ride more good trails in less time), this may be for you too. Or even if you just don’t want to feel smashed on an afternoon after a morning ride, this too would make an e-bike suitable for you.

Am I any of the above? Well yes, I do find some of the above benefits appealing however I find my love of riding with other acoustic bikes and having to push harder is more appealing to me at this stage of my life. In time I’m sure these machines will become more appealing to me but I’m happy to wait, for now. If you fit into any of the above or some other unique reasoning for an e-bike, then I say go for it. They are a bucket load of fun and if that gets you out on trails where an acoustic bike would not, then it’s done its job.

Just don't forget to keep lifting your skill base with your fitness base, and with an e-bike you get a very quick lift in the the speed you can ride trails so are at a greater exposure to incidents unless you accelerate your skills learning. I recommend our Intermediate 1 course as the perfect to do just that. It runs a couple of times a year and provides a good skills base to build on through our our intermediate 2 and advanced courses. Visit our courses for more info and to register if this would be of interest to you.

Happy trails and see you out there!

This thing is a beast. Giant Trance X Elite E. Supplied by Giant Brisbane.