Getting a few things off my mountain biking chest.
Sometimes it’s good to moan. It can help get rid of frustrations. A problem shared is a problem halved and all that. Clear the air and move on.
With that in mind, these are the 10 main things that have been bugging me with bikes for the past few years.
Semi-lightheartedly, here goes nothing…
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Carbon (apart from rims)
Let’s kick things off with a biggie. Aside from the ecological argument (that I don’t want to get sidetracked by), I just don’t think carbon is worth the money. The amount of extra £-pounds you have to spend to save one or two lb-pounds is faintly outrageous. Arguably most of that weight saving is due to the bike industry seemingly having given up on even trying to make metal bikes light(er), especially North American brands. And a lot of the time I think it’s a worse performing material than metal. The one exception is wheel rims. Carbon rims can be the best rims available. Still loads of money, mind.
High-set helmet peaks
I’m going to pin this one on Specialized. Although other brands are hopping on board this aesthetic, I think Spesh was the first to bring out helmets with peaks set bizarrely far-too-high. High to the point of actually being pointless. Even if you don’t live anywhere that sunny, these high peaks now make dusk rides an exercise in squinting and, quite frankly, dangerous.
Thru-headset anything
Yep, the classic. People may be bored of moaning about thru-headset cable routing but we need to keep up the pressure. Not only does it add complexity and cost to routing service jobs, it doesn’t even look better than regular routing. It’s a disease that’s drifted over from dropbar bikes and it can drift off back there thanks.
Torx bolts
Is it just me, or are torx bolts more prone to rounding out than Allen key bolts? Especially on items that aren’t disc rotor bolts. Any test bike from torx-tastic Scott, for example, usually ends up heading back post-test period with all of the torx bolts looking scratty and mashed. Hex FTW.
Disc mounts on chainstays
Am not exactly sure if brands are putting calipers on the chain stay for suspension-v-braking reasons but I am sure that such a location makes it much more difficult to get at the caliper mount bolts, especially with a multi-tool. And as for the introduction of the patently awful flat-mount standard coming in from roadie world… No. Just no. Can’t we just bring back I.S.? That was clearly superior.
Tokenistic adjustments
One reason why I don’t pick on brands that don’t offer proportional chainstays or flipchips, is because the brands that do offer these things very rarely do it to a sufficient degree. 11mm difference in chain stay length between Small and XX-Large? 0.5° change in geometry via a flipchip? Hardly worth it. If you’re going to market sizing/adjustments, at least make it justifiable.
Curvy rates
Whether this is suspension frame leverage or air springs, I rarely get along with curves that aren’t consistent. I can get them to function okay but in a world where most riders (understandably) don’t want to spend hours and hours setting up a pushbike, these curves are often a recipe for extremely poor bike setup and thus handling. The marketing idea of ‘supple at sag, rampy at the end’ is not what a lot of riders end up sat on.
Silicone grippers
Helmets. Knee pads. Liner shorts. Any of these that have silicone grippers frequently get on my wick. Sometime literally. Essentially using hot glue to keep cycling apparel in place. Ugh.
Car industry aping
All these ‘Works’ bikes. Or eebs with stronger motors in the top tier models. Feels very Beemer M Series. Naff.
And finally…
The tenth slot is open to you. Add your suggestions below!
Because fk people with health issues, amirite?
and the proportion of eBike riders with health issues compared to “easy ups and more downs" issues is?
Indeed. eBike is transformational for all sorts of reasons – and any reason people ride more but need an ebike from health to riding bikes is just fun, is a good enough reason for me……
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Can I ask for more focus on ease of maintenance, reparability, durability and all things sustainable?
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irrelevant. If e-bikes get more people riding/out and about, that’s better. Speaking as someone what was an MTBer who became unfit/stopped riding much, bought an ebike that got me back riding enough and fit enough to get back on, and race, regular bikes.
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Gatekeepers can get in the sea.
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Don;t feed the troll
Why is there an issue with ‘easy ups & more downs’?
Do you like being miserable?Â
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No issue with it (other than massively increased trail erosion at popular off-piste areas – see Barnhill/Bixlade @ FOD) just found it funny that TH was using whataboutery (won’t you think about the disadvantaged) to excuse perfectly able bodied riders buying ebikes. I get they’re fun and that you get more fun in the same time but, to me it just feels wrong. Â
Anyway it’s thread derailment and wasn’t my argument in the first place.Â
What else should the bike industry to stop doing now please?
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I don’t think you could build an electric mountain bike without a motor. You haven’t though this through
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Ironically, you picked a prime example of somewhere I live, and have dug / helped dig a number of trails in that spot.
Its general volume of traffic is way more of an issue than e-bikes IMO. And as most of the people who dig in the FoD are ebikers anyway, it would be amusingly hypocritical if we took offence to the type of bikes ridden.
That area is in a bad way in general because of its closeness to the Cycle Centre & it’s very much the first place people stumble across when going searching for trails, as a result it gets a lot of traffic. Now there is little to no building & maintenance because, basically no one can be bothered there now.
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Floodgate keeper?
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I think you might be stewing in your own shit for a while (literally, if that other thread is anything to go by).
I get the argument that emtbs allow those with health issues to get back out again.
However, I’m also keenly aware that ebikes have created two tiers of mountain biking and the more popular ebikes get the greater the barrier to entry for mountain biking as a whole will become.
Ebikes could lead to mountain biking becoming like jet skiing. A somewhat anti-social activity done by well off people looking for a new toy rather than an accessible sport for young people who are be able to get into without having rich parents.
I see both sides of the argument but with the way ebikes are currently being marketed and sold I don’t see them having an overall positive effect on mountain biking.
Don’t mind ebikes. My little corner of Surrey is now quiet as they must all head off to doing endless loops of Barry Knows Best. I can crack on doing my own thing on a normal mountain bike.
Ebikes and ebikers seem lovely people when I do meet them.
Things I don’t like? That retaining bolt on rear calipers that is hard to get to. That idea needs to be rethought.
Otherwise it’s all good.Â
And we’re back to gatekeeping about e-bikes and ‘MTBs not needing motors’, that didn’t take long. MTBs don’t need droppers, disc brakes, hydraulic suspension or tubeless tyres, but they sure make riding a helluva lot more fun.Â
There are plenty of e-bikes out there without batteries and motors, they’re called regular bikes. It’s not like the industry has stopped making and selling them. Bikes are fun, e-bikes are fun, if you want to be avoid e-bikes then don’t buy one. I have both and they are both great fun, personally for me I’m loving the e-bike more right now as I get more downhill for my time and that’s the bit I enjoy the best.Â
If I want to slog across Dartmoor on a big sufferfest or muck around with my e-bikeless friends then I’ll take the normal bike instead.Â
E-bikes taking shortcuts up the hills destroying the original trail in the process. Why can’t they just follow the trail round the switchbacks rather than just cutting straight across them all. Some of the climbs at Cannock re getting trashed by these shortcuts
This is the only thing I hate about ebikers, the people not the bikes, its the attitude that it is acceptable to just do it, maybe trail centres need to just make some ‘proper’ ebike trails with real steep climbs so they can go test themselves, rather than a lap of the blue, stopping every where for a 20minute chat.
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People have been taking shortcuts and trashing trails for decades. There have been ‘Strava lines’ and corner cutting since biking began. You can’t blame that all on e-bikes.
Also before you point out that e-bikers are rude and hammer up behind slower riders and insist they let them pass, this has been going on for about the same time as bikes were invented as well
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Get off your high horse and step away from the gate. More bikes of any kind are good for the industry and sport. Next you’ll be complaining that all these uncouth youths are coming out to the country and ‘jibbing’ everywhere talking their street jive.
Go shake your fist and shout at the clouds.Â
It’s not so much gatekeeping from me. It’s more I’m worried that if ebikes become the default for mountain biking then mountain biking fundamentally changes.
It goes from being the natural progression for kids messing about with their mates on bikes to a very expensive toy which excludes all but the kids with the richest parents.
Time will tell but it’s a legitimate concern, imo. Not sure what the solution is though. Perhaps genuinely limiting the power output might be a start as the ‘maximum’ continuous power is not an actual limit on power output.
People riding/driving all sorts of vehicles can be rude and impatient. It doesn’t take much to say “hi, on your right" or whatever… and to give the rider in front of you a chance to assess the trail, and find somewhere safe to let you past. It’s not peculiar to e-bikers.I’ve seen how children and less experienced riders feel that they have to move out of the way immediately when I come up behind them. They have every right to be there too. I find myself saying “wait until it’s safe" or “keep riding until it gets wider".
We know what humans can be like with cars, motorbikes etc (power, speed, “move out of my way")… so I’m not sure what the answer is to keep cycling attitudes positive and polite.
But it all stems from something deeper than powered vehicles IMO. I just hope we don’t find ourselves having to live with boy racers anti-social behaviour as cycling becomes easier and more accessible.Road riding can be a challenge because of those attitudes… we have a good opportunity to nip things in the bud as far as MTB riding is concerned (i.e no close passes, be patient, be polite). 🤞
The whole thing made perfect sense when I was riding an event. Had a chat with a lovely chap in his 70s, riding an eMTB… he only started riding in his mid-60s. The first thing I thought was: it would have been VERY cool to go MTBing with my dad.Â
Also, for long technical trails/descents – if I wanted to session something a few times to get familiar with it, it would be nice to have an eMTB to focus on those bits (if I’m not out to focus on pedal fitness). But I don’t want more than one MTB. Tempting though.
Commuting/shopping – for sure, perhaps an ideal use case. But I’d rather get an e-motorbike for that (for not much more money). Nothing wrong with e-bicycles at all, but drivers can be d*cks. I’d rather be overtaking safely than being overtaken unsafely.
I agree but not on climbing sections where they go straight up rather than round the corners. I doubt there are very many riders who could ever ride up these lines without an ebike. These lines have appeared in the last couple of years, so either those on mtbs have suddenly got super strong in sufficient numbers to create a trail or its e-bikes