E-bike brands look to powersport dealers to reach dirt bike enthusiasts

[opik_bidin]

from USA but I think it would be copied all around the world.

as many people say, that ebikes are really just motorcycles, why not have motorcycle shops and dealers selling them? too many haters in the bicycle world, so why not just cross over to the motorcycle world, which has happily received them, even forcing UCI to make a ebike competition.

on the other hand, the article also poses the question of shop and dealership, which then goes on service, especially since EV is going to explode the next years. Would you take your ebike to the bike shop or the Motorcycle dealer? why would you take it to your LBS only to be met by sneers and unfriendly remarks of not riding a real bicycle by the sop and other customers while your motorcycle dealer will happily service you? Will ebike be taken away from the bicycle world?

interesting to see the future. as ebikes were mostly received better in MTB, dirt bike enthusiasts are gobbling them up, but as transport becomes important I see city bikes and road bikes will have this effect too.

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/retail- ... bike-sales

Several e-bike brands are looking to powersport dealers as retail outlets, especially for electric mountain bikes, which are becoming a hit with off-road motorcycle racers.

"Local moto dealers would come up to us (at GNCC events) and say 'we want to sell your bikes,' and we thought maybe this is something we should look into. At first we thought it made sense to serve the GNCC racers who use electric bikes for training and as another toy in the garage. But when we started to visit the stores we saw there was a larger opportunity," Leiken said.

Scott said racers use e-bikes for training, race course reconnaissance, and for getting around the race pits. They allow parents of young racers to move around the course quickly to see their youngsters race.

Committed dirt bike enthusiasts see even $6,000 e-MTBs as a bargain compared to motorcycles, he said, and the e-bikes let them conveniently train from their homes when they don't have time to load up their dirt bikes and drive to a legal riding area

[bychosis]

I’m not looking forward to the influx of electric trail bikes. Won’t be able to hear them coming in the bush like you can with current noisy petrol ones.

Unfortunately we are also going to see blurring eg lines with what is an e-bike and what is an electric motor bike which will mess up what is currently a simple difference for wether bicycle infrastructure can be used or not.

[RonK]

What a load of bs. Sneers and unfriendly remarks at the lbs? Haha - bike shops are falling over themselves to sell e-bikes. Not to mention there are specialist e-bike shops springIng up.

I've owned an e-mtb for a couple of years and have never encountered sneers or unfriendly remarks anywhere. What I do encounter is great interest, and quite few e-bike purchases have resulted.

E-bike haters might prefer to believe there is common disdain for e-bikes, but the reality is quite different.

[zebee]

I wonder if they will be teaching motorcycle mechanics to build wheels? Probably not, just swap them... Dunno if MotoX riders maintain spokes I vaguely recall getting told to tap the spokes of spoked motorcycle wheels now and then but don't think I ever did it.

[find_bruce]

from USA but I think it would be copied all around the world.

Impact is probably limited to US & those countries that copy US regulations.

Most countries follow Europe where an e-bike is limited to 25 kph (15 mph) with motor <= 250 watts.

In the US however this is 32 kph (20 mph) with motor <= 750 watts

Speed is the effective limit on the road. For MTB however triple the power makes a huge difference to how they are ridden.

[queequeg]

I’m not looking forward to the influx of electric trail bikes. Won’t be able to hear them coming in the bush like you can with current noisy petrol ones.

Unfortunately we are also going to see blurring eg lines with what is an e-bike and what is an electric motor bike which will mess up what is currently a simple difference for wether bicycle infrastructure can be used or not.

Tht is basically the local e-bike company, Stealth Bikes, core business. You know, the company that managed to get a 5% tarriff whacked onto every other e-bike being imported into the country, even though Stealth primarily only makes bikes that can be ridden on private property. Their only legal model, the P-7 is an ugly looking thing that is clearly just an off-road bike tweaked to meet the legal requirements for Australia. The same model when exported to the USA has 500W of power. Their flagship "e-bike" is the B-52, which has a staggered 6,200W max output and a top speed of 80km/h. These bikes are not able to be registered, so you can't ride them on any public road or road related areas. They are not e-bikes, they are electic motorbikes

[Mububban]

E-bike haters might prefer to believe there is common disdain for e-bikes, but the reality is quite different.

This is true in my experience too. Whenever someone rocks up (often rather apologetically) with a new ebike, all the other riders go on about how cool they are and how much was it and what motor does it use etc etc. Nothing but positivity.

[bychosis]

Nothing but positivity.

In my experience the non-positive reactions come from those that want one, but can’t justify the cash. After all they aren’t cheap and there aren’t many second hand avaaible yet either.