# Pro eBike Racing Has Arrived



## honkinunit (Aug 6, 2004)

https://www.bicycling.com/racing/uec-electric-bike-circuit


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## Mackeral_Fillet (Sep 16, 2017)

Cool! Its only a matter of time!


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

Interesting perspective on it.

Straight talk: E-MTB pro racing - why tuning is the smallest problem | E-MOUNTAINBIKE Magazine


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## Legbacon (Jan 20, 2004)

Humanity is in decline.


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## ALimon (Oct 12, 2017)

That’s bad news for all the anti ebike folks...


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## sfgiantsfan (Dec 20, 2010)

ALimon said:


> That's bad news for all the anti ebike folks...


Why do you keep making these types of ridiculous comments? If anything, it will be easier to keep them banned. Now we can say " Hey look, these are race bikes, keep those motor racing jacks off the trails"

Are you even sure it's true? You just posted that only idiots believe what they read on the internet.


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## 127.0.0.1 (Nov 19, 2013)

ebike will never be disassociated with fraud.


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## eFat (Jun 14, 2017)

127.0.0.1 said:


> ebike will never be disassociated with fraud.


It's not as if it were otherwise for cycling in general ...


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## LargeMan (May 20, 2017)

Cool, already been done before, I think they call it MotoCross?


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## Walt (Jan 23, 2004)

People don't watch or care about "professional" mountain bike racing (I was one of them, I can tell you exactly how many autographs I was ever asked to sign: zero) Why would they care about/watch professional e-bike racing? 

I get that you could theoretically make the climbs less boring to watch, but they're still going to be pretty boring if the riders are going 15mph instead of 10mph or whatever. Hell, DH racing is mostly pretty boring for average people to watch - it just looks like a lamer, slower bunch of MX dudes to Jane Sixpack. 

If you used unlimited/derestricted bike, even, you'd probably just end up with lame/slow motocross (or if you got rid of the pedals, just electric MX, but that already exists). I'm sure there could indeed be some strategy involved with conserving battery power... but that sounds like something more fun for the rider than the viewer. Timekeeping enduros went the way of the dodo long ago because people didn't want to spend a bunch of time doing math problems while they raced, so I'm not even sure it would be fun for the participants. 

Bikes are really fun to ride. They're not all that fun if you're just watching someone else ride, mostly. 

-Walt


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## Gutch (Dec 17, 2010)

Yup, totally agree. Boring. I’d rather watch athletes play curling... wait, isn’t that a bar game? Wtf!


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## mountainbiker24 (Feb 5, 2007)

Kinda like watching the Special Olympics. It's cool and respect to those putting in the hard work, but I'd rather watch the real Olympics.


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## honkinunit (Aug 6, 2004)

Why would someone watch Formula E when they can watch Formula 1?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/how-formula-e-is-affecting-motor-sports/


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## sfgiantsfan (Dec 20, 2010)

Formula E is a worthy addition to motor sports. A few weeks ago, a sold-out crowd of 20,000 people watched a Formula E race—called an “ePrix”

Perfect


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## honkinunit (Aug 6, 2004)

sfgiantsfan said:


> Formula E is a worthy addition to motor sports. A few weeks ago, a sold-out crowd of 20,000 people watched a Formula E race-called an "ePrix"
> 
> Perfect


Exactly, and ebike racing could be the same.

I think there should be a 100 mile ebike endurance race where the weight of the bike is limited to some number - for example 50 lb. You can ride whatever you want, as long as it scales in at 50 lb or less.

Riders would have to balance their own output against using battery. This type of racing would push the industry to come up with super cool, lightweight ebikes. The lighter the bike itself, the more motor/battery you can have. Within a few years, we would have bikes under 50lb on the market that could legitimately assist for 100 miles. Maybe at that point the weight cutoff drops.

You could even have weight classes: 30-50-70, etc.


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

honkinunit said:


> Exactly, and ebike racing could be the same.
> 
> I think there should be a 100 mile ebike endurance race where the weight of the bike is limited to some number - for example 50 lb. You can ride whatever you want, as long as it scales in at 50 lb or less.
> 
> ...


Since endurance races like Leadville have become hardly the extreme end of the mtb racing spectrum any more, I think you'd have to go out to 200 miles or something before anyone would notice.

While I like to watch road racing, I'm bored to tears by world cup XC. Enduro and DH are fun to watch since I can relate, and the riders skills are stellar. You'd have to come up with something unique to make riding around on 250w emtbs stand out.


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## honkinunit (Aug 6, 2004)

Harryman said:


> Since endurance races like Leadville have become hardly the extreme end of the mtb racing spectrum any more, I think you'd have to go out to 200 miles or something before anyone would notice.
> 
> While I like to watch road racing, I'm bored to tears by world cup XC. Enduro and DH are fun to watch since I can relate, and the riders skills are stellar. You'd have to come up with something unique to make riding around on 250w emtbs stand out.


Look at Nascar ratings.

I hereby propose winter ebike racing where the riders stop every five miles and do some curling. Kind of like Biathlon where if they miss the target they take penalty laps. Maybe chug a beer and THEN do the penalty laps.

Or maybe for eMTB racing, about 50 miles in there is an octagon and the riders can fight it out for a spare battery?

It is ironic to me that the most popular bike racing on TV is road racing, which in person is like gathering on the side of the road in anticipation of seeing two flies getting it on. Track racing, which is actually watchable, is barely alive. It is all about the manufacturers pushing road racing, and thus paying for TV coverage. They can't sell enough track bikes to justify the coverage.

I agree that XC MTB can be pretty boring as well, but hey, if Giantrekcialized get behind eBike racing, it will appear on TV.


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

honkinunit said:


> Look at Nascar ratings.
> 
> I hereby propose winter ebike racing where the riders stop every five miles and do some curling. Kind of like Biathlon where if they miss the target they take penalty laps. Maybe chug a beer and THEN do the penalty laps.
> 
> ...


Racing is all about participating, or about making money. I've been involved in promoting events in the past, you need a product to sell that will get enough eyeballs to pay for the deep costs to televise it. Track racing would be perfect, but it's too odd for non track racers to care about, endurance events cost too much to cover to ever make it work, which is why enduro/DH/Slopestyle/Rampage are cost effective enough.

Road racing is just a soap opera on wheels, people like the drawn out drama.

Coed Naked ebike races <drops mic>


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## pitdaddy (Aug 6, 2013)

Geritol has jumped in as a big time sponsor.


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## life behind bars (May 24, 2014)

pitdaddy said:


> Geritol has jumped in as a big time sponsor.


Co-sponsored by Depends.


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## honkinunit (Aug 6, 2004)

life behind bars said:


> Co-sponsored by Depends.


Geritol and Depends would be capable of putting more money in than a lot of the cycling sponsors you see today.

More likely eBike sponsors would be LG and Panasonic (batteries), Bosch, Yamaha, Shimano, electric car manufacturers (crossover), tech companies, and of course bicycle manufacturers.

I'll be shocked if Honda doesn't jump into the eBike market eventually.


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## life behind bars (May 24, 2014)

honkinunit said:


> Geritol and Depends would be capable of putting more money in than a lot of the cycling sponsors you see today.
> 
> More likely eBike sponsors would be LG and Panasonic (batteries), Bosch, Yamaha, Shimano, electric car manufacturers (crossover), tech companies, and of course bicycle manufacturers.
> 
> I'll be shocked if Honda doesn't jump into the eBike market eventually.


It still sounds as exciting as moped races.


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## fos'l (May 27, 2009)

JMO, but as much as I like many forms of racing, the only bicycle racing that has ever been interesting to me was indoor track in the Olympics. Think it will be a hard sell, but hope it's successful.


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