Coastal Crew on E-Bikes
Having the Coastal Crew ride E bikes is no accident; they represent the soul of a certain segment of mountain biking. They are riders untainted by sugar drink sponsorship and seemingly indifferent to fame and corporate motives. But now this. It’s likely they honestly had a good time riding the Levo and as a result were willing to shoot a video – which clearly was something Specialized wants. But capability isn’t the issue for many riders.
Capability isn’t the issue. Fun isn’t the issue. Photo – Harookz
This video was presented to us titled as “Skeptical.” We have chosen our own title to ensure the message is unobscured by the rad riding of the Coastal Crew. We’ll have more to say on this soon, but for now we’d like you to see this video and hear what you think about it.
For now – here is Skeptical.
Thoughts?
Comments
ChrisW
7 years, 5 months ago
Merwinn, was just taking the technological progression to one possible conclusion. Can see the advantages of saving the energy for the downhills. As for your Dad - I have an 89 year old customer who has just bought an ebike (this came up in our chat - I don't work in a bike store) so he can keep up with his younger cycling buddies (he is riding road, easy xc type trails). I will be holding out for as long as possible - but if it means I can keep riding when I am that old - sign me up.
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Merwinn
7 years, 5 months ago
I know my dad, in his early 70's, would appreciate an ebike on the climbs and for longer rides. For for the rest of us, it doesn't do you any favours in terms of gaining fitness for any sort of racing. I would also imagine you'd need a bit more muscle to maneuver it in the air and through techy sections that you can't effectively pedal through simply due to the increased mass. Then again, how heavy is the Levo…
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flatch
7 years, 5 months ago
there is no switch,there is no throttle, it's pedal assist. If you don't pedal it don't work,sounds like a bike to me.
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michaeldorian
7 years, 5 months ago
This.
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Howard Roark
7 years, 5 months ago
So glad to see someone who actually pays attention and learns about a topic before commenting on it.
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Felipe E. Valdivia
7 years, 5 months ago
sorry but their dragging the ass of the bike, they loook solid, well valved suspensions to hold the high comp speeds while maintainning middle point, but…. it's not a bike, there is no flow, there is no force, you can see clearly in the vid the rear wheels are defo too heavy on the vehicle and they're making a lot of force to make it flowy.
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Cam McRae
7 years, 5 months ago
I don't think the rear wheels are much heavier than your average all mountain bike. And certainly lighter than a dh bike. And I don't see much extra effort actually.
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ExtraSpecialandBitter
7 years, 5 months ago
Is this an ebike too?
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Merwinn
7 years, 5 months ago
Switch + throttle + license plate - pedals - crank arms = motorbike
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ExtraSpecialandBitter
7 years, 5 months ago
Although countries differ, the actual definition in Canada is that the electric motor on a bicycle must be restricted to 32 km/h. It says nothing about throttle vs. pedalec or anything about your formula above. There are many e-bikes with throttles and switches. I'm also fairly certain the Levo has a switch somewhere to turn it on or off or change the level of assist.
Shall we call it a motor-bicycle? It's not a bicycle and it's not a motorbike, but legally there are many things that could be e-bikes that wouldn't match your formula, and no matter how much you don't like it, people will abuse the laws and ignore access issues.
There are also some companies that seem to be telling people that LSMs are e-bikes. I've had more than one person confidently tell me that he was on an e-bike according to the City of Vancouver while riding one of these:
So don't be surprised when one of those Zeros shows up on your local trails because someone decided that it was an e-bike. Who's going to enforce your definition of e-bikes on the trails?
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ExtraSpecialandBitter
7 years, 5 months ago
In fact, by the ICBC definition above, Specilaized Levo do not qualify as e-bikes and are LSMs. The Levo offers 530 Watts of power and ICBC says, "no more than 500 W".
So you say "ICBC is for roads, we need a different definition for trails."
And I say, "Whatever helps you sleep at night"
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Merwinn
7 years, 5 months ago
The Zero has no pedals or cranks and moves with out pedaling. Regardless of it's power source, functionally it's a motor bike. Local trails are off-limits to motor bikes. I live at the base of Fromme and I have seen and heard people on Moto trials bikes up there. Gas or electric, yesterday or tomorrow, there will always be a few.
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ExtraSpecialandBitter
7 years, 5 months ago
I know, I'm trying to play devils advocate to illustrate that lines could quickly blur. Your definition of e-bikes vs. motorbikes was incorrect (as per the ICBC link), and the Specialized Levo should be defined as a Low Speed Motorcycle and have a license plate and registration to reflect that. Or if it's OK to cross that 500W line, then where do you stop? What's the maximum allowable assist while still calling it an e-bike? If we change the maximum allowable for one company, do we also bump it up later when someone only exceeds it by 6%? How about after that? What about removing just one or two of the other requirements to make something an e-bike? I mean it's still a bicycle so long as you sell it and market it as a bicycle, right? Pedals, cranks, bell? This is not as black and white as you want to see it.
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ChrisW
7 years, 5 months ago
No more worrying about that pedal speed into jumps. Just flick that switch. Now if they could just link the electric motor to a GPS and we could all dial in the right speed for the each section of track. Still have to hold on to those handlebars though.
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Merwinn
7 years, 5 months ago
I thought is was just pedal assist? No pedal, no electric power, no?
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michaeldorian
7 years, 5 months ago
Correct.
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michaeldorian
7 years, 5 months ago
No - you still have to pedal. It doesn't have a switch or throttle. It just gives you 25-30% boost in human pedal power if you keep it in a mode has any sort of decent battery life to for normal trails. Max mode is 50% assist. But you won't get far with that battery setting. Either way you'll still be slower then Graves. Why is this so hard for people to understand. Educate.
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walleater
7 years, 5 months ago
Weird choice of video. It'd have been more interesting to see how the bikes perform uphill, i.e. power up some slabs, nail some techy uphill lines etc. As impressive as the riding was, it didn't show any benefits of the bikes at all. They could have done all that on an old Bullit.
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Morgan Taylor
7 years, 5 months ago
Except, of course, that the video didn't start with a pickup truck rumbling up a logging road…
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Alex
7 years, 5 months ago
Hm i think the choice is pretty well… All of us know the uphill power an e bike can offer but I really doubted that an ebike is capable of such jumps! I might have to rewind my thoughts on Mountain e bikes.
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Rob Gretchen
7 years, 5 months ago
Haters gonna hate, but the wave is coming to a trail near you… don't shoot the messenger…
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