This is hilarious to me, may be more serious for you...you decide. If you are not familiar with the term 'KOM' it's when a rider has the best time on a certain section of a trail, as in they averaged 17.1 mph while the next fastest rider averaged 16.9 mph, etc. There is a little crown for them on an application that stays there until someone bests their segment trail time. Can be uphill, downhill, or flat. Can be 0.1 miles or 50 miles.
So more and more mountain bikers are getting an e-bike. No story there for most you reading, this has been a accelerating trend for the last couple of years, it's really taken off now. I'd say at least 10-20% that I follow on Strava have an e-bike now and normally (or exclusively) ride it. This has happened even faster that I predicted a few years ago. I thought e-bikes would go up to maybe 20% of the total adult bike pool (at least one e-bike in their garage or apartment, etc.) and then level off. Street-wise it seems even more than 20% now are e-bikes. Mountain...maybe 5-10% but it's growing fast.
Anyway, there was an interesting comment on Strava I'd like to share. I find it funny. One of the experts on there (not sure if he's won normal MTB races in the past) had knee problems and decided to test out a Levo. He never looked back, doesn't ride his other bikes much at all now. So now he's getting a lot of the e-bike KOMs (fastest segment times). Which, as a hub drive owner, I find funny, but whatever. I just use my e-bike for casual exploring, screwing off, etc. No way I'd take a 50+ lb bike and try to do timed downhill runs (uphill yes, downhill no). And even if someone took my e-bike KOM, big deal, it's electric power, people, it's not skill and fitness. But this guy was pissed, he was talking with someone else about how their eKOM's are getting taken away by 2000W direct drive e-motorcycles.
As far as I know, in California it's only legal for an e-bike to have up to 750W and it has to be 100% pedal assist, no throttle. So yes, technically a 2000W direct drive is illegal. But I mean c'mon let's be realistic about this. There is not even an option for them to put their ride down as an e-motorcycle. Apparently most of them make their ride private so they don't get flagged --- but of course they get flagged anyway because it's on the leaderboard.
To me this whole thing about eKOMs is so ridiculous. So let's say some guy gets a 'legal' 750W motor and takes a bunch of KOM's over all the dudes that have 250W motors. Is that a real, earned KOM? No. That's simply more electric power. If someone has 4.5 inch fat tires and they blow through chunk and climb steep 20% fire roads is that "earning" a KOM compared to a normal e-bike with 2.4 or 2.6 tires? How do you really even determine who qualifies for getting a legitimate eKOM? Wayyyyyy too many variables: watts, PAS or throttle, tire width, drivetrain type, etc. So why would anyone even care if they lost an eKOM to some dude with a juiced up bike, look it's going to happen, nothing to cry on mommy's arm about. If it's a real MTB KOM, that's different. An eKOM? Again, as an e-bike rider, I find it so funny that there is even an argument about "who stole my eKOM". It's just pathetic if you ask me. Why would they take it personally that some dude has 4x the power of their bike and got the eKOM? If you are so obsessed about it, plunk down $5000 USD and get a huge direct drive singlespeed e-motorcycle. Knock yourself out and take back all those eKOM's you lost. So you can be king of the electric nerds. Just do it and be done with it already, jesus.
So more and more mountain bikers are getting an e-bike. No story there for most you reading, this has been a accelerating trend for the last couple of years, it's really taken off now. I'd say at least 10-20% that I follow on Strava have an e-bike now and normally (or exclusively) ride it. This has happened even faster that I predicted a few years ago. I thought e-bikes would go up to maybe 20% of the total adult bike pool (at least one e-bike in their garage or apartment, etc.) and then level off. Street-wise it seems even more than 20% now are e-bikes. Mountain...maybe 5-10% but it's growing fast.
Anyway, there was an interesting comment on Strava I'd like to share. I find it funny. One of the experts on there (not sure if he's won normal MTB races in the past) had knee problems and decided to test out a Levo. He never looked back, doesn't ride his other bikes much at all now. So now he's getting a lot of the e-bike KOMs (fastest segment times). Which, as a hub drive owner, I find funny, but whatever. I just use my e-bike for casual exploring, screwing off, etc. No way I'd take a 50+ lb bike and try to do timed downhill runs (uphill yes, downhill no). And even if someone took my e-bike KOM, big deal, it's electric power, people, it's not skill and fitness. But this guy was pissed, he was talking with someone else about how their eKOM's are getting taken away by 2000W direct drive e-motorcycles.
As far as I know, in California it's only legal for an e-bike to have up to 750W and it has to be 100% pedal assist, no throttle. So yes, technically a 2000W direct drive is illegal. But I mean c'mon let's be realistic about this. There is not even an option for them to put their ride down as an e-motorcycle. Apparently most of them make their ride private so they don't get flagged --- but of course they get flagged anyway because it's on the leaderboard.
To me this whole thing about eKOMs is so ridiculous. So let's say some guy gets a 'legal' 750W motor and takes a bunch of KOM's over all the dudes that have 250W motors. Is that a real, earned KOM? No. That's simply more electric power. If someone has 4.5 inch fat tires and they blow through chunk and climb steep 20% fire roads is that "earning" a KOM compared to a normal e-bike with 2.4 or 2.6 tires? How do you really even determine who qualifies for getting a legitimate eKOM? Wayyyyyy too many variables: watts, PAS or throttle, tire width, drivetrain type, etc. So why would anyone even care if they lost an eKOM to some dude with a juiced up bike, look it's going to happen, nothing to cry on mommy's arm about. If it's a real MTB KOM, that's different. An eKOM? Again, as an e-bike rider, I find it so funny that there is even an argument about "who stole my eKOM". It's just pathetic if you ask me. Why would they take it personally that some dude has 4x the power of their bike and got the eKOM? If you are so obsessed about it, plunk down $5000 USD and get a huge direct drive singlespeed e-motorcycle. Knock yourself out and take back all those eKOM's you lost. So you can be king of the electric nerds. Just do it and be done with it already, jesus.