OK, I'll dip my toe in the water:
The post pulled up is 2 years old. What's changed? Well I carried through on my automobile commitments and now drive an EV and am NEVER going back to a gas powered car. I might rent one if the need arises, but for day to day driving there is no need (for my personal usage needs) to get a gas car,
and the EV infrastructure continues to grow. They will take over the vast majority of vehicle applications: the current generation EVs on the market are only the starting point of well integrated and highly functional battery electric vehicles.
So, regarding my E-bike comments:
My thoughts stand and are exactly the same as they were 2 years ago. What does that mean?
My biggest beef with E-bikes isn't "e-bikes are bad": of course they are fun and Knolly could VERY easily design one and get it on the market ASAP. Honestly, it's not hard at all to integrate a Bosch or Shimano E-steps motor (or bafung or brose or, etc...) into a bike. In fact, the biggest issue is dealing with the battery and deciding what route to go (and actually building a decent wiring harness - most are terrible). Unless you design the entire system from scratch (yes, I'm talking about the Turbo Levo), e-bikes are surprisingly easy to make because the drive unit companies have made their systems very easy to integrate.
And that's the first problem. Companies like Knolly exist because we do something
different. We are literally unique in what we do for suspension bikes. We can say this because we own and develop our own IP and I have a bunch of patents granted in my name with more in development. The USPTO has said what we do is innovative and different enough that they granted these patents to us.
Four by 4 suspension exists because it can provide performance advantages where subtleties matter. The problem with drop in e-bike systems is that they make all bikes more and more similar (homogenized), the tripling of effective power erodes those subtle differences between suspension designs and the bikes become more of a branding exercise than engineering exercise. Maybe that's how it's always been (marketing over engineering), but it's not how Knolly is. So, if we bring out an e-bike (and I won't say that I'm opposed to it), we're not going to be a copy cat bike like every other bike on the market. Specialized gets huge props here: they are hands down far and away better than every other brand in this product category.
Problem number two is that NOW, CURRENTLY, you can connect the dots from a 100% human powered mountain bike to a 100% gas powered dirt bike by over a half dozen incremental steps. This is a HUGE problem for advocacy groups and land managers. In fact, in the USA you have groups like People for Bikes (which sounds all altruistic but it really an industry organization) lobbying
around the established hard working advocacy groups that have spent a decade or two building relationships with land managers to get mountain bikes allowed. PFBs is promoting e-bikes aggressively because they are the fastest growing market segment. I have a problem with that as well and fear that we'll ultimately become our own worst enemy. Perhaps not, but it's a very delicate balance and anyone who's worked with the BLM in the western USA will understand how the subtleties get lost... Then again, the BLM seems to like guns, dirt bikes, cattle farming and oil exploration, so maybe motors on bikes is just what we need to get more trails on federal lands!
Remember, according to the media, "Simon Cowell was riding an e-bike"
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life.../simon-cowell-accident-electric-bicycle-sales-soaring-are-they-safe/3335931001/
https://www.latimes.com/world-natio...ation/story/2020-08-09/simon-cowell-injures-back-while-testing-electric-bicycle
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sim...itics/simon-cowell-accident-renews-bike-safety-concerns-sales/story?id=72269495
I think I've made my point here.
So, from my perspective, if / when we tackle the e-bike topic (and I'm sure it is more a "
When" than an "
If" - we still don't have a new Podium and the last batch was made in 2013...):
- We need to do something unique and to have a USP that really separates it from the other products out there.
- We need to do something that isn't just another product with a different brand name on it. It needs to have a niche and we need to own that niche.
- We need to do something that feels right ethically and isn't just a portfolio filler. It needs to be designed with the future needs, not the current needs. And interestingly, I think that trail maintenance is exactly where we would focus our first e-bike project. We'll see: I have a development schedule that's easily full for the next couple of years, but perhaps there will be time to tinker.
Ok, that was more of a cannonball than toe-dip
