Attitude towards E-bikes

[Artstu]

I thought someone said it had become more favourable. This Haibike piece on the Wiggle facebook page begs to differ.It's on this page, I can't seem to simply link to the exact review.

https://www.facebook.com/wiggle

 

[trex]

the price tag of £3,700 may have something to do with the general reaction.
For me, bikes costing over £2,500 are bought only by people who do not think about prices (Sir, if you ask for the price, you can't afford it).

 

[flecc]

I can't even find it on that page link. Wiggle shouldn't react to the £3700 since they are selling the £5500 Haibike on this link.

I see one gets a chain as well for the extra £1800, though pedals are still extra.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

the attitude is a depressing reality within the main stream cycle industry I'm afraid.

 

[flecc]

the attitude is a depressing reality within the main stream cycle industry I'm afraid.

In Britain yes, but not so in much of Europe where manufacturers and the retail cycle trade have enthusiastically and successfully adopted pedelecs.

I'm not at all surprised at the UK difference, just look at all the photos on that Wiggle page linked to above and you'll exclusively see sport road bikes in various competitive events. That sums up the UK, it's where cycling is almost exclusively a sporting pursuit and where bicycles are not seen as transport except by cycle commuters in a handful of cities. Even many of them are lycra clad cycling enthusiasts adding commuting to their sporting interest.

Given this I think it's entirely reasonable for much of the trade to concentrate on their core business.

In Britain e-bikes increasingly tend to be seen as a separate type of vehicle, this reflected in the way we have a number of exclusively e-bike retailers, sometimes quite large with more than one branch. Conversely those cycle shops which do try to handle e-bikes often have little success with minimal sales of perhaps just one brand or even just one model. That's because their footfall isn't appropriate to making e-bike sales.

 

[mike killay]

In Britain yes, but not so in much of Europe where manufacturers and the retail cycle trade have enthusiastically and successfully adopted pedelecs.

I'm not at all surprised at the UK difference, just look at all the photos on that Wiggle page linked to above and you'll exclusively see sport road bikes in various competitive events. That sums up the UK, it's where cycling is almost exclusively a sporting pursuit and where bicycles are not seen as transport except by cycle commuters in a handful of cities. Even many of them are lycra clad cycling enthusiasts adding commuting to their sporting interest.

Given this I think it's entirely reasonable for much of the trade to concentrate on their core business.

In Britain e-bikes increasingly tend to be seen as a separate type of vehicle, this reflected in the way we have a number of exclusively e-bike retailers, sometimes quite large with more than one branch. Conversely those cycle shops which do try to handle e-bikes often have little success with minimal sales of perhaps just one brand or even just one model. That's because their footfall isn't appropriate to making e-bike sales.

I noticed this in a Bike Shop in Belgium. Most of the trade was little old ladies with small mechanical problems in traditional type bikes, baby trailers etc.
So, that is the client base that they catered for. Not many ebikes on show, and the mechanics were fascinated by the crank driven Tonaro as opposed to the hub motors that they were selling.

 

[EddiePJ]

I can't find the article, what was/is the date of it?

 

[RobF]

I can't find the article, what was/is the date of it?

Me neither, but the likes of Wiggle selling Haibikes must be another notch up on the ebike acceptometer.

 

[flecc]

Me neither, but the likes of Wiggle selling Haibikes must be another notch up on the ebike acceptometer.

They have sold good e-bikes previously, quite some while ago they were selling Techniums, which were the same thing as the Kalkhoff pedelecs, just differently badged.

Cracking price too.

 

[Artstu]

It was posted 17 hours ago, it's 2/3 of the way down that page on the left. Perhaps you need a Facebook account to see it. It was all the Facebook user messages I was referring to.

https://www.facebook.com/wiggle

I hadn't clicked the link on Facebook, that just takes you to the bike for sale on Wiggle.

 

[trex]

To save you the bother, here it is:
Gary Doughty Kill it with fire!
It's fugly!
Dan Diment If you can't be bothered to push the pedals, just stay on your sofa. If I see you out on the trails on this, I will throw sticks at you.
Jason-lee Martin hold on all you peeps slagging this off.It could help those who find some mtb to hard due to health or Disability too many elitist tosser's round here
Gaz Kendall I've seen people out on the trails with only one leg before now, and a specially adapted crankset so he could ride. I dare say he would take this bike as an insult!
Darren Bodfish Someone needs to hang their head in shame for this!,it's not big & it's not clever.
Andrew Gibbins For £3700 you could buy a KTM dirt bike....
Stuart Pegg Wont be long before they are hacked like every playstation and games console, it is the playstation/fat generation after all. In a year or two the second had value will be next to nothing (free to any stick fingered scum) and it'll be going flat out with some chav on it without even turning the cranks, now where is the fun in that!?
Richard Wing I want the pain and I want to suffer and I want my heart to beat fast I don't want that
Tom Davies Pointless! just get into motorbiking!
Philip Isherwood G.A.Y no wonder there's an obesity problem in this country!
Dean Jones I'm fat & lazy & wouldn't use one if you can't get up the hill you don't deserve to ride down !
James Ardagh Wrong wrong wrong wrong if you are too lazy to ride a bike properly get back on your sofa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whats next electric exercise bikes ........
Ben Holdaway I can see in five years time all the lazy muppets thrashing around trail centres and local woods pissing the walkers and environmental peeps off so much that MTB's get banned? Saying there dangerous, to quick etc. can you just imagine how many would love to do what we do but can't be bothered to be fit enough therefore don't? Well not anymore, get ready all here they come. Cherish your fav trails chaps there soon to die!
Dean Jones If you want to cheat yourself out of accomplishment of getting up the hill's that's fine ! If it gets disabled people back out on the trail then I think that's great. I imagine it will be fat rich people that will mostly be buying these.
Jonny Norton Yeah seen them! There only about six grand or something? I'd rather be poked in the eye with a shifty stick!!! lol
Simon Livingstone Can I demo one on the Ups and Downs - getting fed of being the slow fat bloke, want to be the quick fat bloke
JulieRick Ellis This just turned every trail centre in to a race track
John McCracken Its cheating
Tobias Alfred Browne For fat lazy people enough said ...
Gaz Kendall I cant wait to see someone out on one of these, they are soooo getting the **** taken out of them!
Gary Cameron Beat me to it Gerry. Like crime in multi storey car parks, this is wrong on so many levels.
Justin Mcc Does this mean we are going to get really chunky older men now on the trails because they can now finally get there??
Stuart Pegg All trail etiquette goes out of the window for any bike that has a motor.
Jon Isaksson What is the point?
Matt Reeves Way to go bike industry/technology another way to ruin a perfectly good thing.
Robert Pasley Seems irresponsible to sell these. Where are they allowed to be used?
Dave Id An escalator aids you.. I understand why they exist, I'd just rather take the stairs.
Gerry McLachlan Just plain wrong.
Paul Astin Defeats the object of cycling
Stewart Paling You never see trim people on electric bikes.

 

[flecc]

Thanks Trex, I couldn't see it not being a Facebook member.

That last comment reminds me of taking my road cyclist brother to an e-bike event. Afterwards I asked him his impression and his answer was:

"I've never seen so many fat people in one place".

Sadly he wasn't wrong.

 

[Artstu]

and that's just a small selection of the 168 messages against e-bikes with only a handful of positive comments, really quite sad if that's a true representation of MTB riders.
I imagine road cyclists could be even worse in their negative opinions.

 

[trex]

I was limited by the 10000 character per post limit.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/haibike-xduro-fs-rx-ebike-275-inch-g2-2014/

to be fair, the bike doesn't help.
I'd probably try to push a fat guy who rides this bike into the ditch myself.

 

[KTM Bike Industries UK]

wiggle selling Haibike has the potential to kill the brand in the UK. will be interesting to know where they are getting them from.

No thriving brand knowingly supplies Wiggle or CRC.

but the comments about eBikes are things we hear day in and day out from shop owners and staff in traditional cycle shops.

They think people will replace their bikes with eBikes, which is not really the point. The point is that its different, just like buying a motorbike is different to buying a car. You can own both.

Eduction will take a while, but this attitude is caused by the fact that in the UK cycling is a sport / hobby / competition.... not a form of transport.

its slowly changing, and the arrival of quality brands selling reliable lighter weight performance products is helping improve the image and acceptability of eBikes within the industry, which means you'll be seeing more of them, and hopefully benefit all brands that are operating a sustainable business model.

Col

 

[flecc]

and that's just a small selection of the 168 messages against e-bikes with only a handful of positive comments, really quite sad if that's a true representation of MTB riders.
I imagine road cyclists could be even worse in their negative opinions.

I'm sure they would, and think it's representative of most MTB riders' opinions.

But as I posted above I don't think it unreasonable for a UK cyclist to think an e-bike isn't a bicycle and to be critical of e-bikes being in a cycling environment.

They don't criticise motorbikes because they aren't in cycling "space", and probably wouldn't criticise e-bikes if they were outside the cycling "space".

It's mixing it with bicycles in all areas that causes problems in the "cycling is sport" attitude UK.

N.B. Crossed with KTM Col's post above, similar points made.

 

[flecc]

wiggle selling Haibike has the potential to kill the brand in the UK. will be interesting to know where they are getting them from.

No thriving brand knowingly supplies Wiggle or CRC.

I do wonder about manufacturers at times though Col.

As I remarked above, Wiggle have sold a large batch of Techniums, which were just Kalkhoffs with a different badge that normally appears mainly in Germany.

The extremely low price for them meant they could only realistically have come from the manufacturer, Derby Cycles gmbh, but I bet they wouldn't admit that to their exclusive UK agent for Kalkhoff.

 

[los monty]

Jason-lee Martin hold on all you peeps slagging this off.It could help those who find some mtb to hard due to health or Disability too many elitist tosser's round here
.

Think this one about sums it up

 

[Gubbins]

Went into Lbs (Air Valley Cycles) to have my brakes sorted. The guy who booked me in had never heard of a crank drive e_bike and was very interested with no negative vibes at all. Charged me £15 to blead and reset my brakes . Happy customer.

 

[EddiePJ]

It was posted 17 hours ago, it's 2/3 of the way down that page on the left. Perhaps you need a Facebook account to see it. It was all the Facebook user messages I was referring to.

https://www.facebook.com/wiggle

I hadn't clicked the link on Facebook, that just takes you to the bike for sale on Wiggle.

Found it.

Certainly a load of bullshit comments. Sadly as always the negative stands out from the positive.

The positive replies outweigh the negative in substance and meaning, as do the current 247 likes.

As said before, I didn't receive one negative comment at the Wiggle Rough Ride, so I'm guessing that it's just the usual case of ill informed small minded keyboard warriors just trying to be clever.