Electric Mountain Bikes: No one will buy one?!..

[Gubbins]

its not the dongles im asking about its how he alone can honer the bosch warranty when it clearly states on there site dongle/ tuned motors are not covered by bosch warranty and thus void.

and that's the same answer you will get from every dealer bar ebike shop.

Is that not a good thing? A responsible dealer dealing with warranty claims no matter what. My dealer ignores me and I don't have a dongle fitted.
It's always been an accepted rule that mods invalidate warranties. ..

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I don’t go off road on my bike but I can see why the owners of trail centres and the like are becoming worried, and how this could kill off e biking at those places and others. I would have thought the people who are complaining about the turn the thread has taken might be able to grasp that simple point too.

You seem to be failing to grasp a simple point yourself. Off-road, a dongle will make virtually no difference. A dongle doesn't change the power one iota. It only removes the speed limit. Uphill, you won't get past 15 mph. Downhill, you'll be freewheeling without the motor. Where would you be able to pedal over 15 mph off road. All the stories of 50 mph are total ball cox. Any bike, including yours, will do 50 mph if you chuck it off Beachy Head.

Look at Soundwave's videos to see the speed he actually travels at with his dongled bike. The display shows about 12 mph, the same as the rest of us. There's absolutely no reason for all this hysteria about dongles. I don't have a dongle on my bike and the speed is restricted to 15.5 mph. Why, because the difference between restricted and unrestricted is very little. Dongles are great if you want to speed up your long commute, because on a flat road you can pedal into the range between 15 and 20 mph. A strong pedaller can probably reach the same sort of speed as your average roadie. That's about the only advantage you get.

 

[Wander]

I wonder if Wander would like to tell us how his d bike was fixed under warranty as he said "you will be looked after to Plasmadaddy

Dinger, had my bike the best part of two years now and whilst it has not been 100% trouble free it's been pretty good, that said I do keep within the service schedules and try to look after it as much as I can. Im pretty anal about keeping it clean. It's been in for service a couple of times with e-bikeshop after the initial free bedding in service.

I did have issues with my motor as it was not engaging properly, don't know the ins and outs but was told it was a problem specific to the classic motor and covered under warranty. Needless to say it was replaced and martin's technicians operate a really quick turnaround so was back out in no time. It's been fine since.

Already looking at the new bikes coming out and pondering over an upgrade. Service has been excellent & I wouldn't consider buying from anywhere else.

 

[soundwave]

its half speed on the display tho so going 24mph i can get it to 30 on flat tho.

over 25 in turbo it eats the batt tho so thats the down side

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Ah yes. I forgot about that.

 

[dinger19]

Thanks for answering .

Great your getting good service As these bikes we like are not cheap.

 

[flecc]

You seem to be failing to grasp a simple point yourself. Off-road, a dongle will make virtually no difference.

We understand that, but the problem is with how the organisers of off-road events perceive them. To many of them a dongle is some form of tuning, and some may be aware of the illegallity issue and react accordingly due to their insurance and health and safety obligations.
.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

How can they perceive them differently, when you can't see or hear a difference. It's only people spreading these myths that make them interested. It's this word "tuning" that is giving the false impression that these bikes are going to be wheel-spinning everywhere, chewing up their lovely cycle paths, when the reality is that the torque is the same with or without them.

 

[Gubbins]

We understand that, but the problem is with how the organisers of off-road events perceive them. To many of them a dongle is some form of tuning, and some may be aware of the illegallity issue and react accordingly due to their insurance and health and safety obligations.
.

Surely an organised off road event would have regs for entrants. .. I imagine that questions about motor size or tuning would be asked. I suppose one could lie and sneak one in but it would soon become obvious would it not?

 

[JohnCade]

You seem to be failing to grasp a simple point yourself. Off-road, a dongle will make virtually no difference. A dongle doesn't change the power one iota. It only removes the speed limit. Uphill, you won't get past 15 mph. Downhill, you'll be freewheeling without the motor. Where would you be able to pedal over 15 mph off road. All the stories of 50 mph are total ball cox. Any bike, including yours, will do 50 mph if you chuck it off Beachy Head.

Look at Soundwave's videos to see the speed he actually travels at with his dongled bike. The display shows about 12 mph, the same as the rest of us. There's absolutely no reason for all this hysteria about dongles. I don't have a dongle on my bike and the speed is restricted to 15.5 mph. Why, because the difference between restricted and unrestricted is very little. Dongles are great if you want to speed up your long commute, because on a flat road you can pedal into the range between 15 and 20 mph. A strong pedaller can probably reach the same sort of speed as your average roadie. That's about the only advantage you get.

The simple point I was referring to is that the use of modified e bikes might well get all e MBs banned at trail centres and organised events. A dongled and so illegal bike almost certainly invalidates the trail centre’s insurance as it does other organised MB activities. As EddiePJ wrote further up the people he knows who run these businesses and events are concerned enough to be thinking of banning all e MBs because that can’t check them all.

That is what KTM and EddiePJ are concerned about. The former because it would impact on the UK e bike business and the latter because it would ruin his sporting pleasure.

 

[soundwave]

only on the flat up and down hill its just not needed as i could just leave it at home and still be as fast.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

the people he knows who run these businesses and events are concerned enough to be thinking of banning all e MBs because that can’t check them all.

That is what KTM and EddiePJ are concerned about. The former because it would impact on the UK e bike business and the latter because it would ruin his sporting pleasure.

People are only worried because people like you are stirring them up and misguiding them. I thought we were talking about bikes with dongles, not "tuned" bikes, whatever that means.

 

[flecc]

People are only worried because people like you are stirring them up and misguiding them. I thought we were talking about bikes with dongles, not "tuned" bikes, whatever that means.

But that is how outsiders will perceive a modification. They are not going to accept someone modifies their powered bike to achieve the same legal performance. Why would they since there would be no point?

Event organisers like the general public will understand modification as being tuning. They are not engineers and won't think like you.

There are many in the cycling community who are strongly opposed to even the existence of e-bikes and very strongly opposed to their taking any part in cycling. They will seize upon any opportunity to block e-bike access and would use the dongle issue to do that. There's no point in trying to keep the issue secret, the cat has long been out of the bag as a discussion long ago in the CTC forum showed.
.

 

[RobF]

Two of Martin's sternest interrogators on here either have dongles and/or have stated they wouldn't buy a bike from him.

Thus they are being played as patsies by Col, who has at least one thing in common with Martin - a desire to flog more bikes.

Nothing wrong with a businessman trying to promote his business, and as we have seen there is more than one way to do that.

But if we are to criticise Martin, we should also criticise the likes of woosh, Eclipse, and anyone else who sells an illegal kit or bike.

As d8 has pointed out, a relatively weedy Bosch bike is still relatively weedy, dongled or not.

The higher power bikes and kits are much more of a threat to trails and the safety of the public.

 

[Gubbins]

Two of Martin's sternest interrogators on here either have dongles and/or have stated they wouldn't buy a bike from him.

Thus they are being played as patsies by Col, who has at least one thing in common with Martin - a desire to flog more bikes.

Nothing wrong with a businessman trying to promote his business, and as we have seen there is more than one way to do that.

But if we are to criticise Martin, we should also criticise the likes of woosh, Eclipse, and anyone else who sells an illegal kit or bike.

As d8 has pointed out, a relatively weedy Bosch bike is still relatively weedy, dongled or not.

The higher power bikes and kits are much more of a threat to trails and the safety of the public.

These "interrogations" Remind of those given to politicians trying to get them to answer questions that we all know the answers to anyway.

 

[mike killay]

Dongled bikes are not ebikes.
Shout and scweam as hard as you like, stamp your feet, put your fingers in your ears. Scweam really hard until you are sick.
Makes no difference. Dongled bikes are motor bikes.
Imagine you are the organiser of an "off" road cycling event and have insurance. You have completed your risk assessment, written it down etc,
Then someone turns up with an ebike.
You are aware of dongles.
Even more so you are aware of just how much financial liability you potentially risk if you let them use the track if they have a dongle.
You are not an electrician etc.
Easy peasy, ban all ebikes.
1 There are very few places that are legally 'off' road. Can we start using the term 'Totally private land' If the public are invited to a rough forest trail, it is certainly no longer 'Off Road'
There are no 'totally' private lands in Scotland

 

[soundwave]

mines a motorbility scooter

 

[Alan Quay]

....
There are no 'totally' private lands in Scotland

Is there no motorsport at all in Scotland then?

 

[soundwave]

i got an idea instead of using all these tiny motors lets up it a tad and weld a bike frame to 1 of thesebad boys and watch it go.

http://www.zytekautomotive.co.uk/products/electric-engines/170kw/

that do me fine tho id want a force field

 

[rippedupno1]

But will Badass do you a 200kph dongle for it? lol