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Curious how you think this plays out..
Lets say all 10 manufacturers have an e-bike as we all expect them to
With E-bikes taking away the noise factor,how does this effect tracks that are current and there limitations?
With no noise...does every one have a piece of land and there are endless tracks across the landscape in essence affecting established tracks business...do a multitude of e-bike only 'parks' arise?
The biggest factor has always been noise from day 1 from public liability and im intrigued where you think this starts and stops once that becomes a non issue.
I saw on Instagram that Wilson made a 3D printed hollow basketball. There was a guy doing a side by side comparison dropping them and dribbling them and they were nearly identical in function.
the top comments were…..
”it just won’t be the same without the sound of the ball”
I am a tattooer by trade. I’ve been doing it for 15 years now. You used to walk into a show and it was really buzzing. Literally and otherwise.
Now, most tattooers use some version of a battery powered virtually silent machine. It was weird for the first few weeks, but with time I don’t notice it at all. There are people who are “loyal to the coil” aka purists and I can totally understand why. The feel and sound are amazing…but most people are making much better tattoos with chordless, silent machines and so into the future we go
Electric motocross bikes will eliminate noise complains, but people will still complain about dust and traffic, and tracks will still have issues getting liability insurance.
A lot of tracks in Australia have built berms around the boundary, so bikes aren't visible from surrounding properties or roads, out of sight out of mind.
That is a super good question. Here is my take:
There will be way more "backyard" tracks once e-bikes become common place. My son's friend built a very nice home track with water. They don't ride it much because a neighbor 1/2 mile away calls the sheriff every single time they ride. It's actually completely legal, but it's such a hassle they don't ride the track much. Without the noise problem, backyard tracks will be ridden much, much more. This will take away riders for the established tracks.
HOWEVER,
With the ability for youngers to progress from Stacyc -> E-50 -> Suron -> Stark, the amount of people in the sport will grow 5x. It will be back to the good old days where kids will come home from school, jump on their bike, ride it to the neighbors track, and ride with all their friends until dark.
Just go on YouTube and watch all the Suron videos. The kids are going to get bored of riding wheelies on the pavement quite quickly and start building tracks.
This massive influx of new riders will make tracks much more profitable and viable.
Already discussed here with some examples
https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/moto-related/benefit-electric-mx-uk-alre…
The Shop
" the amount of people in the sport will grow 5 x"
You say, just because of electric bikes .
Do you really think there are 5 x the number of current riders out there and the only thing stopping them riding at the moment is availability of electric bikes ?
All these hundreds of thousands of people are not interested in dirt bikes unless they are battery powered ? But as soon as they can get hold of a Stark they will suddenly become Dirt bike enthusiasts ?
I like your optimism, but one barrier to that is the price of these bikes, and the kit that goes with them.
Take the Stark for example - what is it $14k for bike, $7k spare battery, $1k upwards for a generator .
I can see there being a few more backyard tracks, but only where noise is THE ONLY ISSUE for complaints, but unfortunately this is often not the case.
I don’t think it’ll change things in California unfortunately. Noise isn’t the big issue. Dust, traffic, environmentalism, and liability/Insurance are the big issues. Electric moto doesn’t solve any of that. I have seen a lot more surrons all over the place with turn tracks turning up everywhere in the city though.
I think the sport will gain loads of riders from the MTB sector.
The MTB guys have had a taste of E-MTB's and loved it! E-MTB Bike sales are huge!
Now their limiting factor is mountains to ride down!
Once they see they can get their 'downhill' buzz on a perfectly flat piece of land without travelling to Scotland or Wales, you watch what happens!
These guys aren't customarily 'petrol-heads', so having an ICE has never appealed to them anyway & they wont be crying about missing the noise or smell.
The MTB community will find land and open E-bike only tracks. And they'll do all of it without us.
A lot of the MX community, particularly in the UK will have to clean up their act to be welcomed in to the E-MX/MTB community.
Price of bikes?? These guys dont care! Have you seen the price of a new high-end MTB??
Yeah I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw that some E-mtb were more expensive than a Varg
And there's a huge market for them.
I like what GNCC are doing, mixing E-mtb with dirtbikes and ATV in the same event. It makes a lot of sense.
Hmm. That’s actually a really good point. I hadn’t thought about the connection with the explosion of mountain biking. This will be an interesting decade
And just like that NJ and Kommiefornia are introducing legislation to mandate licensing, registration, and insurance for E bikes … you think i’m kidding don’t you 😂
I was hoping this was about E-bike’s effect on track development, braking and acceleration bumps, ruts, etc..
Lot of torque that’s for sure. I bet it would be similar to current track conditions right? Speaking at a pro level. I don’t think local stuff will change much. If you’re slow you’re slow and not using the power regardless.
Sorry I derailed the thread. Saw the post above me and forgot what the topic was even about. 🤣
Valid all the same.
Something to be said there ...
How many noobs have the thing set to 80hp based purely on dick swinging ego competition in the pits.
How many noobs have it set on 80hp when they show their friends in the pits, before changing to 30hp as they enter the track?
I would say land affordability/availability is the biggest issue in SoCal. I've been riding here for almost 30 years now and none of the tracks we've lost were because of noise to my knowledge. Hell, look at StarWest for example. One way I see the sport surviving locally is to utilize Indian reservations and building tracks next to things that are already loud like airports, speedways and construction sites.
Imagine your dad taking you to your First race and not smelling race gas….. sorry dad. I think I’m going to go to HomeGoods with mom today instead….. But have fun and don’t forget to drink plenty of water
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