- Tonight on the EMBN Show,
we have the legendary Martyn Ashton joining us,
and coming up, motorbike's getting in on the e-bike action,
we have a former pro BMXer joining us on the EMBN set.
- And downhill versus e-bike, did we lie?
(upbeat techno music)
- Back, so Martyn, you couldn't help yourself,
you just couldn't help yourself could you?
What are you doing here?
- I've been dying to get in this set since EMBN started
because I'm an e-biker, man!
I've got an e-bike handbike, which is amazing and I love.
Gets me out riding,
and I've also obviously got an e-bike mountain bike.
It's not quite your standard one,
blurring the lines slightly but I do love it
and it gets me out there so I'm an e-biker, man.
I love it!
- [Steve] And you're obviously after another e-bike
to add to the garage. - Yes.
Yes, I definitely wanna improve
my e-bike riding and my e-bike system,
so I'm definitely be looking to do a lot more of it.
And of course you're gonna need some help, man.
When you're travelling all around e-biking,
who's gonna be here, helping you out in the set?
Moi.
- Any plans for the year, e-bike wise?
- Definitely, I've got some plans
for several e-bike projects
but I can't go into them too much just yet.
- Mm, I'm looking forward to it 'cause I've kinda heard.
- Yeah, yes, some good stuff going.
So, right, let's get into the news for EMBN!
- Let's do it, let's do it, news.
- Sam Pilgrim, FMB star and obviously e-bike rider
these days riding for Haibike,
he has been further proving what is potential on an e-bike
by doing the first ever e-bike flair.
So, that's basically like a 180 backward.
- Pretty mental, pretty mental.
We've also seen Guido Tschugg, ex four cross racer,
and Mountain Masters World Downhill Champion
now riding Husqvarna bikes,
and I've also seen that Geoff Gulevich
is possibly joining Focus Bikes, that could mean
that we see him on a Focus e-bike in the future.
- Yeah, he'll be quite an e-bike rider.
- Totally.
(upbeat disco music)
- I'm picking up that point
on Guido Tschugg riding for Husqvarna.
It gets me talking about the news of motorcyle brands
bringing out e-bikes, blurring the lines.
- Blurring lines indeed, yeah,
the likes of Husqvarna, KTM, I mean even Ducati.
Obviously Yamaha have been involved in the e-bike market
for awhile with their motors,
but you know there definitely needs to be a distinction
between petal assist and throttle assist, right Martyn?
- Yeah absolutely, I mean if you're buying an e-bike,
and you're expecting it to be like a motorcyle,
I mean you're gonna get a shock
because they are completely different beasts.
- Totally, totally different.
Also, if you're gonna buy a motorcycle thinking
you're riding it on mountain bike trails,
you're sadly mistaken as well.
A mountain bike trail is a very certain method of making it,
it's hard pack, it's got flow.
Ride a motorbike on that
and you're gonna be chewing it to (bleep).
- Yeah, can't be doing that.
- Yeah so guys please let us know
your thoughts on this subject.
The whole business of the motorcycle industry
getting involved in e-bikes,
and also the business of trail access.
- Yeah, get involved in the comments section down below.
(techno music)
- Which leads us onto the video we posted last week
on downhill bike versus e-bike.
Now we've got some great comments in.
Tomi Saaranen says, "Totally enjoyed the vid!"
"Love it!" says Giga Freak,
whereas Elliot Hutton is more of the point of view of,
"I feel like in the hands of a pro,
"the downhill bike has more potential to be fast."
- Well that's interesting actually, that's interesting.
Honda 20009 takes it a bit further.
"I don't believe that video for a second.
"Y'all should take lessons from Lance Armstrong,
"because he could at least lie convincingly."
- Really, seriously, come on!
- It was legit, it was legit!
Matt Green, "Can't believe
"you didn't do a run with the motor on?
"Surely it shoulda been a three runs shoot out?"
- Matt that's a really good point.
That gives us a great excuse to go in, do that,
and revisit that test, totally.
- Alrighty, Mister Cycleguy says, "Great video!"
"This is exactly what I want from EMBN."
- I like to hear that because coming up on Sunday,
we have another feature similar to that,
so keep tuned in for that.
- Great comments, thanks for getting involved.
Love hearing what you think about the videos,
and I thought it was a great vid, but Steve.
What did you take from it?
- I think the overall feeling from that test,
was about the weight on the bike.
It affected the stability, the grip, the fatigue levels,
and it made me think, you know the e-bike
was about 44, 45 pounds,
which is where downhill bikes were 10, 15 years ago.
But obviously downhill bikes today are about 33 pounds,
so maybe things will shift towards that weight,
I don't know.
- But in downhill, it's quite common now
for riders to test putting weight onto the bikes,
to see how it changes the handling
and improve their race runs,
which is effectively what you were finding out.
So, are e-bikes ahead of the game?
Do they need to get lighter?
- Are you telling me
you don't want a lighter e-bike (laughs)?
- Oh it's a good point.
(upbeat disco music)
Great videos coming in from you guys,
first one this week is from Josh Phelps in Madison,
in Wisconsin, I might absolutely love this thing.
- Yeah, totally. - Check this out.
Check this out. - Melting the snow.
- He is absolutely nailing it. - Yeah.
- [Martyn] This is perfect better terrain for an e-bike.
Love that, love that.
Nice one Josh, thanks for sending it in.
- And this one from Carlos Bruno in Lisbon,
with some serious e-bike skills here.
- Oh wow looking forward to this one.
- Yeah I mean there's a man after your own heart here,
Martyn, check this out. - Alright, come on in Carlos.
What's he doing? - Yeah.
- [Martyn] Into wheelie stance.
- [Steve] Into a wheelie, and then--
- What! - Look at that!
That's pretty cool isn't it?
- Straight up the steps. - Straight up the steps, yeah.
- Oh my goodness. - But his wheels spin.
Nice, nice one Carlos, love it.
Yeah, wanna see more of this.
Honestly he's been watching your videos I think.
- And to finish up, we've got Curtis Evans
in Seven Stanes in Scotland, more snow action.
- We've had a lot of snow,
we've had a lot of snow this month.
- [Martyn] Oh what, he's towing a sled!
That's outrageous.
- Yeah, nice socks. - And incredibly lazy.
Yeah, look at that.
I can feel like something's gonna happen here.
- Well-- - I dunno,
I think being towed along by a bike, oh no yeah--
- Oh there you go.
- I knew it! (laughing)
I knew they were going down.
I knew it.
- Yeah, thanks for that one from the Seven Stanes.
- Yeah, keep your videos coming in,
we love seeing what you're doing with your e-bikes.
Make a little edit, send it in, we'll take a look.
- Snow, sun, ice, mud, whatever, send your videos in.
(upbeat techno music)
- This week on EMBN Bikes,
we have Martin Murray in the studio.
Martin, you've done a few two-wheel sports
over the years right?
- Yeah, I have.
Mainly BMX, but over the last 10, 15 years
quite a lot of mountain biking as well.
- Were you successful at BMX?
- I had a little bit of success, yeah,
although a long time since I raced.
I finished competing in 2001, so 17 years ago.
- Wow, wow.
- Yeah, a long time.
- So you've brought in the
Rocky Mountain Altitude Powerplay,
did you ever foresee the day when you'd be here
with an e-bike?
- Well actually, if you go back probably 12 months,
I'd never even ridden an e-bike.
- Right.
- And I was definitely one of those people who,
e-bikes are cheating,
and how can you ride an e-bike, they're so heavy and ugly,
and I was one of those guys, hands down.
Until I rode one, and then I just did this.
And I didn't even do this, I was just laughing.
It was a ridiculous amount of fun,
so I'm a big e-bike convert.
- Cool well hey,
let's talk about the Rocky Mountain Powerplay then.
Travel, 160 fork 150 rear? - Yeah.
- So tell us about what's specific to this system then,
obviously there's a much bigger battery right?
- Yeah so this is the Altitude Powerplay,
so it's built around Rocky's Altitude,
the non e-bike version and the geometry on this bike
is exactly the same as the regular Altitude.
- Short chainstay?
- Short chainstay, everything is exactly the same.
And the way that they managed to do that,
was that they had to design their own motor
so they didn't compromise the suspension
or the juncture needs of a one day trail bike.
- Two different battery sizes on this?
- Yeah, in the 50 level bike,
you get a 500 watt hour battery.
- Which is kind of the normal for e-bikes.
- Yeah, pretty standard, yeah.
And then in the 70 and the 90 you get 632 watt hours.
- [Steve] 632 watt hours, you get a lot of range right?
- [Martin] You get a lot of gas in the tank.
- Great, Martin thanks for coming in and showing us
the Rocky Mountain Altitude Powerplay.
(upbeat techno music)
- This week I've had Massimo Mant from Italy
get in touch with a battery which fits into a bottle cage
on a specialised Kenevo and Levo.
Now it's about 500 millilitres and it gives 224 watts output
which actually increases the range in your bike,
by considerably quite a lot.
- [Martyn] Well that's actually pretty interesting,
is that something that's easy to do,
is it something you'd recommend?
- Is it something I'd recommend?
Probably not, but we've got Georgia from Specialised here,
who can give you the correct answer.
- Oh nice.
- Georgia get on the set. - Georgia come and join us.
- Hi.
(laughing)
- So Georgia what would you say to this, I mean
you're from Specialised, - I dunno what he's just said.
- You're experienced,
you know your e-bikes like the back of your hands,
we've got Massimo here, messing with his batteries,
is that a good idea, I mean would you recommend it?
- I would not recommend it.
- Right.
- As much as it sounds like it would be a lot of fun.
- Yes.
- It will void your warranty.
- Oh good point. - You don't wanna do that,
do you? - Good point.
Georgia, get out.
- Anything else, Martyn, this week?
- Yes, we've got this one from Alex Baldock
adding a mudguard to his bike protecting
his battery and the motor - Very sensible.
- And the suspension of course,
I feel like this one's a bit more achievable.
Yeah I like the look of that.
- What would Georgia think of that though?
- I think mudguard's are allowed, yeah?
- [Georgia] You can do mudguards, mudguards are allowed.
- Okay, word from Georgia, we can do mudguards.
- Great, keep em coming in so we can take a look,
there's the e-mail address, you've got no excuse.
We want to see what you're doing with your bike.
(upbeat techno music)
- Caption contest, this was last week's photo.
Steve looking resplendent in his EMBN garb,
with one of his mates out on the trail.
- Very good mates.
- That's a nice picture Steve, I like that.
Here's your first option for the caption contest.
It's Georgiadorking and she says, "What an ass!"
- Meanwhile Nemanja Maksimovic, Nemanja Maksimovic,
- It's not easy to say that.
- It's not, it's not easy.
"The way you feel when you forget to charge the battery."
- Yes, that's true yeah.
I think that sort of refers to what an ass.
Metalldanny says, "Twins".
- Charming.
- Yeah I don't think that's very nice that one.
- Not really (mumbles).
- And what about this one from Joshyphil,
"Neil and Steve on set once again".
(chuckles)
Neil's not coming out that well.
- I guess not.
- Go on and pick a winner, who're you gonna have?
- Pick a winner?
It's gotta be Georgia I think.
- Yeah, Georgia Docking you are a winner,
you win an EMBN hat, it's on it's way to you now.
Right let's take a look at this week's photo,
get stuck into that, if you dare,
in the comments section down below
and it's your chance to win an EMBN hat next week.
Good luck!
- Can somebody else go in the photographs?
- No, sorry Steve, can't be done.
(sighs)
(upbeat techno music)
- It's bike vault time and we're joined
by the one and the only, Dotty.
Dotty sorry, there's no smoke machine here just yet.
- But I have brought something with us
from on set, I've got the horn.
- Got the horn.
- Can't have a bike vault without the horn.
(gears clicking)
- Back to (mumbles) in the first bike vault entry this week,
what'd you think of that?
Beautiful view. - Distraction techniques,
it's all about the view there.
That is a lovely shot.
- This isn't view vault,
it's bike vault. - Can't see the bike
unfortunately.
- It's a nice. - Yeah, yeah.
- You're mean. - No, just fair.
- Now, Chris Duke is a chimney sweep from up north,
he did send a picture of his van
but I didn't know we were allowed to put that on the show.
- No you can't put vans in the bike vault,
- They don't fit in the bike vault.
- That's crazy. - Chris Duke is a chimney
sweep under Scott.
- I'd go super nice, you know.
- Super nice? - Yeah.
(air horn honks) (mumbles)
- Our next one is from Dirk Van Zeo in South Africa.
- Nice.
That's where Blake's off on holiday isn't it?
- Yeah, seems like that river bed side, and I like that.
- You're a river bed man, Martyn?
- I just think riding over those rocks and that river
bed would feel amazing. - Yeah.
- I'm going straight to nice.
(air horn honks) - Super nice.
- Hit it again. (air horn honks)
- Next one up is Jim Bathwell in Massachusetts.
- That's nice, what's the bike?
- Smoother river bed Martyn?
- It's a smoother river, and pine needles,
lot of fun to ride on. - Yeah, yeah.
- It's nice, it's nice. - It's nice.
- Next one...
- Distraction technique, again two bikes.
- That's a beautiful brace of bikes.
- But two identical bikes.
- So? - So that's quite cool.
- Well not quite identical,
the one on the right has got REM tyres, the one on the left
has got normal tyres. - Guys, e-bikes
is about sharing, right?
- Go on.
- Super nice? (air horn honks)
- Next up, we have Martin Sharva.
- Oh I'm going straight in to super nice on that.
- It's an amazing photo. - Yeah, focus.
- Bike looks good, petals at three o'clock,
everything is right. (air horn honks)
- That's a super nice! (mumbling)
Our next one is from Thomas Angeles in South Otago.
- South Otago in New Zealand, I mean I gotta be honest,
Martyn that is a man after my own heart there.
- Because of the sheep.
- Yeah.
- Well it's not the shadow is it?
It's not the shadow of the bike and the fencing.
- Scotty loves the shed, Steve loves the sheep,
and I think the bike is nice.
- I'd go nice, if it didn't have orange reflectors,
I might go higher.
(explosion) (gears clicking)
- And we are out of the bike vault.
- Oh it was so soon!
- Just before we got more sheep.
- Hey that's a good bike vault,
that one. - It is good.
- I'm quite impressed by the standard.
- Keep your bikes coming in to the bike vault,
there's the address, you've got no excuse.
It feels great when you get a super nice,
so don't miss out on a chance to get one for yourself.
(upbeat disco music)
- On the channel this week, what have we got Martyn?
- I've got a great video on Friday coming from Neil,
a how-to, you can definitely look forward to that.
- That reminds me, Sunday is e-bike versus enduro bike
on a super tough track with Adon.
Must tune into that, it's a not-to-be-missed video.
- Yeah that's gonna be ace.
And then on Monday, we've got a video
all about caring for your Shimano motor.
- And then Wednesday, back here on the EMBN set,
are you ready to get stuck in again, Martyn?
- Yeah well I'm hoping I can barge my way in,
I'm enjoying being on the EMBN set.
- Well I reckon we can give him an invite.
- Yeah I'll try and be here.
What other videos can we throw these guys to?
- Definitely clear to rewind to the downhill video,
click up here.
- And if you wanna subscribe, you can hit the button there,
and become part of the gang and of course,
if you don't mind, give us a thumbs up like.
We'll see you next week.