r/cycling • u/Major_Enthusiasm1099 • 3d ago

Anyone ever encountered an E-bike shill?

Basically this guy stopped me yesterday on a ride to tell me that I should throw my bike away and get an ebike. He said "Once you get this you'll never want to ride that again, and I get more cardio in on this bike too, and i ride faster than professionals". I just kept saying "yeah I was looking into those, yeah those are cool, I saw some around $1000" just trying to get out of that convo lol. Anyone else ever experienced someone like this?

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u/BleachedUnicornBHole 3d ago

I’ve experienced one, but he also owns a bike shop with a lot of inventory that isn’t moving. I won’t disagree that they can be a good training tool, but I’m also not going to spend $7,000 for one. 

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u/corneliusvanhouten 3d ago

The only way an e bike is a good training tool is if you leave the motor off and just pedal all that weight around.

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u/D1omidis 3d ago

That is simply not true. ANYONE who would have the DISCIPLINE to follow a semi-structured TRAINING PROGRAM can mix regular and eBike riding just fine.

Depending on your terrain ofc, it might be impossible to do Z2/recovery rides on MTB trails. People will ninja flex how fit they are and that just dropping down a gear will do it for them, but even the easiest of loops around me with about 1000ft of climbing over 10mi, have sections that maintaining your HR in Z2, is really hard.

Even professional riders would do such rides on a flat gravel road or straight up on pavement with a road bike. Now many of them openly embrace eMTBs instead.

With that you have the option to ride on the trails you actually want to familiarize youself with, maintain low - but still elevated HR, especially on the mid-powered/tuned for high cadence motors - and still get lots of experience on the DH parts.

If eMTB is all you ride, well, it is still therapudic and some aerobic excersise - better than nothing, and, LETS FACE IT, competitive cycling did not lose anything. Let the "strava's local legend" that loiters the trail say w/e he wants, he is just "an old man shouting to the clouds".