AustinBike Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Yeah, GM is going to bring out an electric hummer. And then this: https://www.engadget.com/2020/02/02/jeep-e-bike-super-bowl-ad-teaser/ How many bad car brands are going to try to create a mountain bike, only to have them implode in a spectacular bonfire of excess? I once saw a BMW mountain bike in Taipei and tried to take a picture of it and actually got yelled at. Stop the madness. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack_turtle Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) Looking forward to all the "alpha" types showing up at trailheads with eHummers and Hummer emtbs, backpacks stuffed with tactical gear at Walnut. Camo Camelback and all-black cargo shorts and wrap-around shooting eyewear, 5.11 hiking boots, and a Punisher t-shirt are mandatory. Edited February 3, 2020 by mack_turtle 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tip Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 This is NOT going to help the e-bike cause. Having a car company bragging about how powerful their bike is only exacerbates the "we don't want motorcycle type vehicles on the trails" argument. Does this Jeep thing have a throttle? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinBike Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 Exactly. My biggest fear is that things like this ultimately risk our sport. "Bringing in non-bikers to the sport" is not always the best thing for the sport. If they help bikers who have lost the capability return to the sport, that is great. But if it brings in a bunch of hummer heads that think they can now crush everything, we're all gonna lose some access over time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheX Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 6 minutes ago, AustinBike said: If they help bikers who have lost the capability return to the sport, that is great. But if it brings in a bunch of hummer heads that think they can now crush everything, we're all gonna lose some access over time... Agreed. Give humans something that can be used for both good, and bad...and it will get abused most of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack_turtle Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 31 minutes ago, AustinBike said: If they help bikers who have lost the capability return to the sport, that is great. But if it brings in a bunch of hummer heads that think they can now crush everything, we're all gonna lose some access over time... This has always been my objection to emtbs on trails. Yes, they are great for the former category of rider, but we're fooling ourselves if we think the industry is making enough money on the venture by selling these bikes to that market. I have no data to back this up, but I suspect the market is being driven by the latter customer base- outsider brap bros who do not yet understand the culture and respect the trails. There's no way to gate-keep who is "allowed" to ride what and where, so we have wait out this tide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) Red Bull Crankworx airtime (😀) on television doesn't help the cause. Red Bull is all about fame and fortune... No matter the cost. You don't see any television mountain bike shows about low-key rides through the quiet backcountry trails — unless its an entertainment documentary type deal that a Crankworx star shows up in, and even then it has the must-have cool jumps and hard riding attitude in it. Money... Pushing the sedentary lifestyle just doesn't make it. At least, not in the economy of sporting activities, not in eye-ball mass media like television at least. And that's what companies like Jeep and BMW and the like are after... Eyeballs. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the owner of Jeep, took in €110.41 billion (euro) in 2018... It's believed that Trek may have hit $1-billion in gross revenue in 2019. Shoot, the entire global bicycle market size was valued at USD 47.51 billion in 2017... Which is nothing to sneeze at, but that's not even half of Fiat Chrysler. Eye-balls... If they think it will gain them attention, then they'll have at it. That's just how the folks in capitalism work. And mountain biking, at this time, is trending in the way that grabs the attention of these folk. And the more popular mountain biking gets — which is certainly helped by the urban (and close to urban) trail building efforts of mountain bike promoters — the more these folk will try and incorporate it into their marketing efforts. Mountain biking has not been an under-the-radar sporting activity for maybe fifteen years now. And the manufacturers, the big guns like Trek and Specialized, they just want it to keep growing. And the more trails built in urban or near urban areas, the more participation from the general public you'll get. Although the famous movie line, "...If you build it, they will come..." (spoken by Kevin Costner's character in Field of Dreams) is kind of not really true, if you mix in some powerful marketing, it might just happen. And in the context of current building of urban and close to urban trails, and melding this with the marketing of mountain biking, maybe this is proving that line true. So what now... Stop building urban and near urban trails? Get mountain bike manufacturers to stop marketing the sport in their effort to grow business? Might be a bit late for that. Edited February 3, 2020 by RidingAgain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 I believe this was the design used for the BMW bike a few years ago. Before this — back in the mid-late '90s — they used an AMP-style design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 My mistake... This is what I was thinking of... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack_turtle Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) I wish I could remember what car company "made" this bike. Something luxury or sporty. The owner brought it to the shop for service and was super proud of it. It was horrible! Sorry I don't have a photo of the whole bike. Edited February 3, 2020 by mack_turtle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) That looks like an AMP fork... I think both BMW and Jeep used AMP bikes to promote the brand. BTW... Back in the day, a couple of the AMP bikes were highly sought after for xc racing Edited February 3, 2020 by RidingAgain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAF Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 2 hours ago, AustinBike said: I once saw a BMW mountain bike in Taipei and tried to take a picture of it and actually got yelled at. Stop the madness. BMW of Austin had a BMW mountain bike on display - since we were dropping many grands on a car, I asked to ride it and they let me. I messed around on one of those fake rocks they display offroad cars on. Kinda fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheX Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 13 minutes ago, TAF said: BMW of Austin had a BMW mountain bike on display - since we were dropping many grands on a car, I asked to ride it and they let me. I messed around on one of those fake rocks they display offroad cars on. Kinda fun. Lol, I would have been all over that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tip Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Thanks BMW, that was fun. Here's your bike back: 2 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yosmithy Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 The industry is not even close to trying to market just the dying and decrepit...like me. They are focused on everyone that want's to put in minimal work for the maximum amount of thrill...like me. Let's face it, there's and untapped market of couch dwelling, beer drinking, ice cream addicts with massive amounts of disposable cash that if romanced with the thought, that by just laying down cash for and eMTB they can go straight from the fridge, charge up their magical electron biased miracle machine and turn Walnut Creek into Whistler downhill bike park. Like me 🙂 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack_turtle Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 If Ed Abbey was alive to see this, he'd die of disgust. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheX Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 I'm no stranger to crappy bikes of the past. I've owned a Klein, and a couple Cannondale Super V's. This was years ago, but they were terrible bikes. The Klein was over 20 years ago. Looked like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 It might surprise you what that Klein Mantra sells for on eBay these days... And yet, here's an article on it from Pinkbike back in 2016... https://www.pinkbike.com/news/1996-klein-mantra-pro-now-that-was-a-bike.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddbrider Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 29 minutes ago, RidingAgain said: It might surprise you what that Klein Mantra sells for on eBay these days... And yet, here's an article on it from Pinkbike back in 2016... https://www.pinkbike.com/news/1996-klein-mantra-pro-now-that-was-a-bike.html That ebay listing doesn't show how much it sold for, only how much someone was asking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, olddbrider said: That ebay listing doesn't show how much it sold for, only how much someone was asking... Okay... Here ya go... According to eBay's "...Sold listings..." list... Edited February 3, 2020 by RidingAgain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidingAgain Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) Double post. Edited February 3, 2020 by RidingAgain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonioGG Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 1 hour ago, mack_turtle said: If Ed Abbey was alive to see this, he'd die of disgust. I think that exact same thought whenever I see a news story about someone being extracted from a park, or some Instagrammer falling to their death. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustinBike Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Yosmithy said: The industry is not even close to trying to market just the dying and decrepit...like me. They are focused on everyone that want's to put in minimal work for the maximum amount of thrill...like me. Let's face it, there's and untapped market of couch dwelling, beer drinking, ice cream addicts with massive amounts of disposable cash that if romanced with the thought, that by just laying down cash for and eMTB they can go straight from the fridge, charge up their magical electron biased miracle machine and turn Walnut Creek into Whistler downhill bike park. Like me 🙂 If they get people off their couches, that is a good thing. It's getting them onto the trails that might not be a good thing. I've been passed by ebikes in places that I was not expecting it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yosmithy Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 12 minutes ago, AustinBike said: If they get people off their couches, that is a good thing. It's getting them onto the trails that might not be a good thing. I've been passed by ebikes in places that I was not expecting it. I'm probably not riding the common areas for it, but I haven't noticed that many on the trails so far. What areas/trails are they being used the most? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheX Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 1 minute ago, Yosmithy said: I'm probably not riding the common areas for it, but I haven't noticed that many on the trails so far. What areas/trails are they being used the most? Lol, we were doing a Sunday trail work day at Walnut, really muddy that day...and along comes a couple guys on e-bikes zipping right through us as we're fixing what they break. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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