Thought I would write a mini report on all things electrical that I saw at the show yesterday. Unfortunately it's more of a story of who wasn’t there…
EMTB absences
Whilst there were plenty of EMTBs on show, almost none of the big newly announced bikes were there. There was no Haibike, Lapierre, Giant or Specialized at all which was disappointing, and the large Vitus presence from last year had also gone AWOL. Marin’s new HT ebikes were also MIA (apparently there are only a couple of protos in the whole world at this point).
Probably the most interesting EMTB present was the Rocky Mountain Powerplay which I had never seen up close; it is very well engineered but a little less aesthetically polished than the offerings from the bigger brands. It still looked good, but I would be very nervous about paying out that kind of money though given the proprietary motor unit and very small UK distributor network.
There was also a Bosch powered Kona Remote Ctrl that could have been a Trek Powerfly FS if you’d changed the paintjob.
And a Corratec which I'd never heard of...
Fantic and Orange were both there; the welds on the Orange were as brutal as always..
Finally, there was a brand called Wisper with two all carbon STEPS E8000 powered EMTBs, the Wildcat FS and Wolf HT. I rode the Wildcat on the outdoor urban ebikes test track; obviously it was impossible to learn much about its trail manners, but it felt light and checkable at just over 21kg. At £5.8k with a Yari fork and Deluxe RT shock it looks decent value for a dealer supported bike.
e-Road bikes are definitely a thing
Last year Orbea had their prototype Gain, and that was pretty much the only drop bar ebike I saw. This year you could barely move for them. A few were lesser known brands like Wisper, Corratec and the Cairn gravel bike (a brand I believe belongs to Hunt Wheels)…
…but there were also ebikes from Pinarello, Look, Bianchi and Ribble.
Encouragingly many of these were Fazua powered. That is good news for us as I doubt premium brands would jump onboard with a company who couldn’t support the product long term. Hopefully the investment they are getting from these partners will in part go into building a support network for Fazua across the EU, meaning we can buy Fazua powered EMTBs with confidence.
PS - The only rideable drop bar ebike on the day was the Gain. It had a very natural power delivery and friction free running beyond 15mph from its hub motor. I still wasn’t quite convinced on who will buy these bikes outside of those who live in a mountainous area though; maybe they are after Dentists in the Alps!
Watch out for Whyte
I couldn’t resist ribbing the guys on the Whyte stand about the absence of EMTBs this year after they had confidently talked about them last year. They confirmed things had taken longer “because some of the key components we want to use were delayed”, but that there were mules out in the wild undergoing final testing and that there would be a range released in summer 2019 (the 2020 model year).
He also confirmed they would use Bosch, Shimano and Fazua across their range of EMTBs and urban bikes, though which would get what he wasn’t prepared to divulge. I would imagine a Fazua powered version of the Roadplus Portobello and Glencoe could be stunning...
I was very surprised when he said Bosch, as the dimensions and weight of the current units wouldn’t seem to sit well with Ian Alexander’s philosophy on geometry. Does this point to a new Bosch motor in 2019? It might (I hope so as riding the Cubes on the test track convinced me they are now well behind the competition), but I guess it will be some time until we find out.
And my favourite ebike? That was the Spectral, it rode superbly. Right afterwards I rode a retro full suss MTB on the same track - it was fun, but extremely scary!
EMTB absences
Whilst there were plenty of EMTBs on show, almost none of the big newly announced bikes were there. There was no Haibike, Lapierre, Giant or Specialized at all which was disappointing, and the large Vitus presence from last year had also gone AWOL. Marin’s new HT ebikes were also MIA (apparently there are only a couple of protos in the whole world at this point).
Probably the most interesting EMTB present was the Rocky Mountain Powerplay which I had never seen up close; it is very well engineered but a little less aesthetically polished than the offerings from the bigger brands. It still looked good, but I would be very nervous about paying out that kind of money though given the proprietary motor unit and very small UK distributor network.
There was also a Bosch powered Kona Remote Ctrl that could have been a Trek Powerfly FS if you’d changed the paintjob.
And a Corratec which I'd never heard of...
Fantic and Orange were both there; the welds on the Orange were as brutal as always..
Finally, there was a brand called Wisper with two all carbon STEPS E8000 powered EMTBs, the Wildcat FS and Wolf HT. I rode the Wildcat on the outdoor urban ebikes test track; obviously it was impossible to learn much about its trail manners, but it felt light and checkable at just over 21kg. At £5.8k with a Yari fork and Deluxe RT shock it looks decent value for a dealer supported bike.
e-Road bikes are definitely a thing
Last year Orbea had their prototype Gain, and that was pretty much the only drop bar ebike I saw. This year you could barely move for them. A few were lesser known brands like Wisper, Corratec and the Cairn gravel bike (a brand I believe belongs to Hunt Wheels)…
…but there were also ebikes from Pinarello, Look, Bianchi and Ribble.
Encouragingly many of these were Fazua powered. That is good news for us as I doubt premium brands would jump onboard with a company who couldn’t support the product long term. Hopefully the investment they are getting from these partners will in part go into building a support network for Fazua across the EU, meaning we can buy Fazua powered EMTBs with confidence.
PS - The only rideable drop bar ebike on the day was the Gain. It had a very natural power delivery and friction free running beyond 15mph from its hub motor. I still wasn’t quite convinced on who will buy these bikes outside of those who live in a mountainous area though; maybe they are after Dentists in the Alps!
Watch out for Whyte
I couldn’t resist ribbing the guys on the Whyte stand about the absence of EMTBs this year after they had confidently talked about them last year. They confirmed things had taken longer “because some of the key components we want to use were delayed”, but that there were mules out in the wild undergoing final testing and that there would be a range released in summer 2019 (the 2020 model year).
He also confirmed they would use Bosch, Shimano and Fazua across their range of EMTBs and urban bikes, though which would get what he wasn’t prepared to divulge. I would imagine a Fazua powered version of the Roadplus Portobello and Glencoe could be stunning...
I was very surprised when he said Bosch, as the dimensions and weight of the current units wouldn’t seem to sit well with Ian Alexander’s philosophy on geometry. Does this point to a new Bosch motor in 2019? It might (I hope so as riding the Cubes on the test track convinced me they are now well behind the competition), but I guess it will be some time until we find out.
And my favourite ebike? That was the Spectral, it rode superbly. Right afterwards I rode a retro full suss MTB on the same track - it was fun, but extremely scary!
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