What weighs 110 lbs, has 147 ft. lbs of instant torque, and brandy new costs less than most mountain bikes? A Sur Ron X e-bike.
I know a guy that's been showing up to our trials bike practice days on one of these. He's 70something years old and does just about everything on it that we're doing on gas trials bikes. That got me intrigued because I don't have anywhere within an hour or two from home where I could respectfully tootle around the Beta 2 stroke. Then I found out that another guy I know has one that he's put the pedal kit on and rides it under the radar on mountain bike trails that are within 10-15 minutes of where I live.
Pedal kit installed:
Putting the pedal kit on it is akin to having rowing paddles onboard an off-shore racing boat.
Day 1 learning curve was a little comical on the Sur Ron. Riding it on trails or the pavement it's pretty conventional scooter type riding - just twist and go. It's top speed in "sport mode" is mid-40's mph which is plenty freakin' fast on this thing. It was a lot of fun ripping around some bike/walking trails in my neighborhood without alerting anyone to my antics. The first awkward moment came when I was climbing a sloppy hill that was partially covered in snow/ice. On the trials bike I would keep some revs on it and feather the clutch to control traction and speed. With the e-bike there's two big differences with that besides the obvious - no clutch. First, there's an interlock between the brakes and the electric motor. If I apply any brake it disconnects power from the motor. And second, the throttle response must be like a parabolic curve: slow to come on then holy **** all 147 ft. lbs. then not much difference in the last bit of throttle rotation. That made for some "teachable moments" where traction was hard to come by.
The other comical moment came when I went to pooch the front wheel up over a rock step in my back yard. I've been over that thing a hundred times on my Beta 2 stroke. That bike responded with great pop and then letting off the throttle would flywheel itself on over the obstacle with no more throttle. That's a typical trials technique to stay slow or stop on the other side of an obstacle. So I go to pop the front wheel up over the rock and the next thing I know I'm hung up on the rock teetering over the handlebars with my hip mashing the horn button. It was a "what the...oh yeah" moment getting my first lesson in max level regen braking on the bike. Let off the throttle and it brakes pretty hard. I knew that - but apparently needed a hard way lesson on it.
The good thing is that all that behavior is programmable. I can turn down or off the regen braking. I don't think there will be any fly wheel power to use but at least it'll coast on whatever momentum I put on it. The other thing I did was disable the rear e-brake so I can drag it while I have power on. Hopefully, with some practice, that'll smooth out the really slow crawl throttle response curve because right now I'm either stopped or roosting up my backyard with nothing in between.
I've owned a Super Duke 1290R and a Grom and this little e-bike has the most hoonigan potential than all. With any aggressive throttle action, even with my 200 lbs of corpulence on it, it's a threat to loop - well, after I put +6T rear sprocket on it
. This bike is going to need a lot more rear tire or it's just going to be burnouts and roost sessions.
I'm mostly riding on private land but I might try to take it on some public bike trails since it's so stealthy. I'm thinking some rainbow stickers on it to stay in character....
Now, if it would only quit snowing and dry up.
I know a guy that's been showing up to our trials bike practice days on one of these. He's 70something years old and does just about everything on it that we're doing on gas trials bikes. That got me intrigued because I don't have anywhere within an hour or two from home where I could respectfully tootle around the Beta 2 stroke. Then I found out that another guy I know has one that he's put the pedal kit on and rides it under the radar on mountain bike trails that are within 10-15 minutes of where I live.
Pedal kit installed:
Putting the pedal kit on it is akin to having rowing paddles onboard an off-shore racing boat.
Day 1 learning curve was a little comical on the Sur Ron. Riding it on trails or the pavement it's pretty conventional scooter type riding - just twist and go. It's top speed in "sport mode" is mid-40's mph which is plenty freakin' fast on this thing. It was a lot of fun ripping around some bike/walking trails in my neighborhood without alerting anyone to my antics. The first awkward moment came when I was climbing a sloppy hill that was partially covered in snow/ice. On the trials bike I would keep some revs on it and feather the clutch to control traction and speed. With the e-bike there's two big differences with that besides the obvious - no clutch. First, there's an interlock between the brakes and the electric motor. If I apply any brake it disconnects power from the motor. And second, the throttle response must be like a parabolic curve: slow to come on then holy **** all 147 ft. lbs. then not much difference in the last bit of throttle rotation. That made for some "teachable moments" where traction was hard to come by.
The other comical moment came when I went to pooch the front wheel up over a rock step in my back yard. I've been over that thing a hundred times on my Beta 2 stroke. That bike responded with great pop and then letting off the throttle would flywheel itself on over the obstacle with no more throttle. That's a typical trials technique to stay slow or stop on the other side of an obstacle. So I go to pop the front wheel up over the rock and the next thing I know I'm hung up on the rock teetering over the handlebars with my hip mashing the horn button. It was a "what the...oh yeah" moment getting my first lesson in max level regen braking on the bike. Let off the throttle and it brakes pretty hard. I knew that - but apparently needed a hard way lesson on it.
The good thing is that all that behavior is programmable. I can turn down or off the regen braking. I don't think there will be any fly wheel power to use but at least it'll coast on whatever momentum I put on it. The other thing I did was disable the rear e-brake so I can drag it while I have power on. Hopefully, with some practice, that'll smooth out the really slow crawl throttle response curve because right now I'm either stopped or roosting up my backyard with nothing in between.
I've owned a Super Duke 1290R and a Grom and this little e-bike has the most hoonigan potential than all. With any aggressive throttle action, even with my 200 lbs of corpulence on it, it's a threat to loop - well, after I put +6T rear sprocket on it
. This bike is going to need a lot more rear tire or it's just going to be burnouts and roost sessions.I'm mostly riding on private land but I might try to take it on some public bike trails since it's so stealthy. I'm thinking some rainbow stickers on it to stay in character....
Now, if it would only quit snowing and dry up.
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