Back in my day, a mountain bike was a mountain bike…
Words are weird, and it seems like the lingo mountain bikers use is in constant flux. Not only that, but whenever something new comes out, the original thing is often the one that ends up getting a new name. Take hardtails, for example. We’re pretty sure that term didn’t exist until there were full-suspension bikes that didn’t have hard tails.
With electric mountain bikes, riders find themselves at a similar crossroads. The Singletracks staff has been internally debating how to best distinguish traditional mountain bikes from their electric progeny in our writing. Like it or not, as the previous sentence illustrates, it’s no longer enough to just say ‘mountain bike’ and assume folks know you’re only talking about the non-electric ones.
More food for thought: Most of the choices in the survey above have either a positive or negative connotation, depending on your perspective. While terms like non-electric are decidedly more neutral, they’re also clunky.
The only bikes that need differentiation are e-bikes. Call e-bikes what they are, and call mountain bikes simply that. E-mountain bike vs mountain bike.,,simple and effective. Of course, those of us who prefer to earn our turns and rely simply on our own skills and fitness call traditional mountain bikes “real” mountain bikes.
Agreed!. There is no reason to change the title or wording for a mountain bike. They are mountain bikes. They are a bicycle with no motor or assistive devices.
Fully agree, we do not need a new name for mtb’s. Just refer to e-mtb’s as e-mtb’s.
Exactly, it is just that a bicycle. Be it a mountain bike or a road bike.
Electric bikes have motors, and are therefore motorcycles. E-bike is also a fine term if you don’t like to think about the fact that they are motorcycles. No need to re-name bikes without motors – they are still just bikes.
Nomenclature: Mountain bike, e-bikes (e-bike should also only apply to pedal assist). If it has a throttle it is an e-motorcycle.
“Bikes” and “e-bikes”. As the deviation, it’s electric bikes that need the modifier.
Only mountain bikes without engines are “real” mountain bikes!
Real mountain bikers don’t motors on their bikes!
Only way to make this a non biased survey is to provide “mountain bike” as an option.
Non motor assist bikes should be called mountain bikes and keep the distinction with e-bikes
As stated in the intro to the survey, that’s not always possible. Whether we like it or not, at this point the term mountain bike has come to include both electric and non-electric bikes in the minds of most riders.
The intro only states that the people in your office have differing opinions and therefore jumps to a conclusion that it’s not possible or correct. If you want to truly survey what the public opinion is that must be an option for the public to choose.
But it certainly is possible. Your assumption to the contrary is your own, and the acceptance you suggest does not represent most riders. Not by a long shot in my experience.
And to be clear, I’m not against e-bikes. I just recognize that e-bikes are a deviation from what a mountain bike fundamentally is.
April fools!!!
Right?…. Is it?… 🫠
A mountain bike does not have a motor, and needs no further distinction. E-bikes, which are motorized vehicles (and ok when used where they are permitted) are not mountain bikes. They are different, and that is fine, just call them what they are.
This blurring of the lines seems like attempted justification to allow them where they are not currently.
We have bikes and we have motor bikes.
It seems that some who want to sell motorbikes, and get motorbikes onto bike trails, are trying to use clever language to cloud this issue.
It’s a frigging mountain bike. End of story. Ebikes are motorcycles for the exercise impaired.
Mountain bikes….they should be called mountain bikes. No need to specify anything. E-bikes have motors. Mountain bikes do not.
Bicycle, Bike, Mountain Bike, etc. Call the new bikes by there “first initial” – E-Bike, E-Mountain Bike, etc.
I like e-bikes, don’t own one and have never ridden one, but like the idea of people getting to ride. BUT… The only reason they want us to put a name on regular mountain bikes is to manipulate the system. By having a name for both, suddenly they are on equal playing fields, one is no longer the standard they are both something different from the standard. People should be allowed to ride whatever they want, but please stop trying to convince us that it’s the same. E-bikes are a “cheat” that allow someone without the conditioning or skill to ride what they could not without an e-bike. If mountain bikes are not called just mountain bikes then ebikes are equalized and we will see changes in way trail rules are made. I ride a Mountain Bike, not some made up name or any of the incredibly stupid suggestion listed above. Acoustic.. Are you kidding???
E-MTBs are bikes… they are a completely valid option for someone who is older but still wants to shred. I will point out that I don’t ride them as I am in good condition, but I don’t understand the hate for them. I feel like people say that E-Bikes are stupid just to act tough and seem cool. As for your point that E-bikes allow people without skill to ride hard stuff, it’s completely invalid. You might as well go talk smack about bike lifts.
Bombardier, you must have misread my statement, I was refering to the names they gave Mountain bikes as stupid nothing more. I support E-Bikes and never implied that people without skills could now ride, but could now ride at a higher level. But if you had a bad day and needed a release I’m cool with you insulting me. I’m actually thinking of renting one on my trip next week. The comparison to lift is a joke. DH rules!
Okay, I understand what you mean now, sorry about my harsh statement, I just get pissed when I think someone is being stuck up about the e-bikes vs bikes. I just have one parting point. DH is good, but enduro rules! 😁
Happy riding! 👍
When the granny gear just isn’t enough
Bikes.
They are just mountain bikes. Anything with a motor or ride assist should be called an e-bike, motorcycle, or whatever it is. There should be no need to differentiate pedal powered mountain bikes
There is no need to call a traditional mountain bike anything but a mountain bike. The notion that the arrival of e-bikes requires the renaming traditional bikes is nonsense. I agree with an earlier comment that it is the e-bike industry trying to blur the lines so that e-bikes, (MOTOR BIKES) can be ridden where they never have been allowed.
A lot of folks are making similar ideological argument here in the comments, and I totally get it. To me, however, this is a language question.
Let’s take a sentence like this: Electric cars require less maintenance than ___. If we just place the word ‘cars’ in the blank, it doesn’t make sense. So, we have add a modifier to ‘cars’ to talk about the subset of cars we’re comparing the subject to, which is in this case is gas-powered cars. Before electric cars, cars were just cars. Well not really, there were all types of cars and what we’re really trying to clarify — for the purposes of the sentence — is what is being compared. Again, I think it’s a question of language.
Electric mountain bikes are more expensive than ___. To fill in the blank without adding a modifier to the word ‘mountain bike,’ we would have to change the subject to something else.
OK, so let’s say we have a sentence comparing these battery-assisted, pedal bikes to mountain bikes, which as many are saying should be called MOTORBIKES. Motorbikes are more expensive than mountain bikes. Sweet! The problem is, many folks will assume we’re talking about mopeds, or motorcycles, or dirt bikes. The term motorbike has been in use for a long time and is not specific enough.
Which, unfortunately, leaves us back where we started. That is, unless, we invent a new, unique term to call eMTBs.
I suggest sparky spokers. Sparky spokers are more expensive than mountain bikes.
Fixed!
Electric mountain bikes are more expensive than mountain bikes. No additional subject modifier needed, and we all understand the intended message.
E-bike and eMTB are already accepted language, so no further new, unique name is needed for industry/consumers to know what we’re talkin’bout.
In that case you’ll need a pair of references. Like pedal powered vs pedal assisted, analog vs digital, motorless vs motorized etc.
Bicycles and e-Bikes. Pretty simple.
Bicycles without a motor are non-motorized bicycles. Bicycles with a motor are motorized bicycles. Duh! No need to invent new terms just because the bike industry and their lobbying group People For Bikes insist, in their fantastical way of thinking, that ebikes are non-motorized.
This article’s effing stupid it should be obvious hardtails are hardtails, Softails are Softails Anything Electric will have electric added to the front of it
Don’t make it more complicated than it really has to be because right now this article seems pretty much like a filler article
‘Acoustic’ makes me cringe every time I hear someone use it. And why ‘analogue’?! How is an e-bike ‘digital’?
Banjos.
I ride and like both, a emtb and a real mtb as I call it
I refer to my non e-bike as a “Me-Bike”
H-bikes. E-bikes are powered by electricity. H-bikes are powered by humans.
BIKES. BIKES. BIKES. BIKES.
HA!…great topic. Usually, Mr. Barber is far more diplomatic/aseptic with his surveys. Refreshing to see him take on the role of provocateur. This survey has generated a lot of “enthusiastic” responses. ; )
Amish bikes.
The term you’re looking for, for ideas like “hardtail,” and others like “day baseball game,” is “retronym.”
I like the term “me-bike” that someone in the comments mentioned.
Mountain bikes are mountain bikes and ebikes are ebikes. The names are given already. Whenever we speak of both we say mountain bikes AnD E-bikes. This survey seems as if you are trying to get the purist and ignorant worked up to comment…..Which clearly it worked.
Bikes and ebikes.
Not ideological.
How about “bikes”…..if you must pick a general term..
Yeesh…Slow week?
Bikes with out motors are bikes. Pretty simple.
We already have hardtail, softtail roadbike gravel bike(meh) MTB, and e-mtb or e-bike I think we’re good.
Srsly,…let the roadies figure out what to call THEIR e-bikes… We have MTB and E-MTB,
It’s done.
I ride a HuKE (Human Kinetic Energy) MTB, totally off-grid of course.
Can’t trust those robotic eBikes, I mean, sending gap jumps uphill just isn’t right. And what if the battery exploded, there goes your inner thighs. Plus I’m broke.. but if I had an extra 10k def would buy an eBike. Have you tried grey poupon energy gels?
Amish bikes.
I prefer to call non-electric MTB’s normally aspirated…
Call them “push bikes”
They’re referred to as ‘mountain bikes’, to differentiate between them and road/gravel/e/tandem/fat/TT/DJ/ and other bicycles.
I call my Transition Patrol a Me-bike, because the power comes entirely from me.
There will probably come a day when I will go with an e-bike, but I’m going to put it off as long as I can.
E-bikes are just e-bikes (mopeds). Mountain bikes without electric motors – I just call them Amish bikes.
E-bikes and manual bikes. Keeping it simple.
I have nothing against e-assisted bikes, but non-electrified bikes are just bikes. Mountain, road, fitness, hand cycle, etc. Electrified are e-bikes. Personally I see it as electrified bikes theoretically have no limit on their performance, while humans can, in the end, only generate so many watts.
Call e-bike just that. Full suspension mountain bike is what it should always be. The term “mountain bike” is non-specific. It could be anything from a full rigid single speed to a full sus downhill bike. Don’t over complicate.
B-Bike as Bio Bike 🙂
Mountain bike without motor = Mountain bike; Mountain Bike + motor = moped (a lightweight, low-powered motorbike that can be pedaled)
I prefer Naturally Aspirated, kind of says it all.
Acoustic and Analog are just non-sense. Maybe if my bike was powered by sound or e-bikes suddenly become powered by something other than Analog electric power (and pedal)…., batteries(electricity) are only Analog now.
BOBO called it in his latest video. We call them Amish bikes now 😅
“Mountain bikes”
They are mountain bikes. ebikes are motorized and by definition are mopeds.
mo·ped
/ˈmōˌped/
noun
Just call a mountain bike a mountain bike and call E bikes E bikes or in the case of an electric mountain bike, an EMTB. Riders mainly ride non powered bikes, to try and erase that fact because someone out of shape spends 10k on a bike that helps them get out on the saddle is no excuse for them to hijack the sport and pretend they aren’t on electric assist vehicles.
Hello. As an urban ” bike only” lifestyle rider who has adopted ebikes, I mostly encounter the need to differentiate non powered to powered bikes in an ebike forum. The English use the term ” pedal bike”.
I appreciate the readership here is far different and prefer additional descriptors applied to the newer generation of ebikes. For obvious legislative consideration we prefer to separate ebikes from motorbikes and motorcycles and refer to them as ICE bikes. What to do about defining high powered off road only types of ebikes? ( Illegal comes to mind, lol) Truly a quandary at this point as they have achieved ice bike type power…yet many cannot, yet are considered over powered.
The 3 class system for ebikes leaves a bit to be desired, yet a 20mph limit for most is reasonable from my own practical observations. Of course ice cars and bikes are built with no limits on speed- the laws are meant to be obeyed. Why are bikes are left so underpowered? People are converting existing bicycles never designed for the speed that can be held with a motor. The vast majority of bicycles are inexpensive lines that cannot survive even light use much less severe duty.
Maintaining any decent machine is a constant process most are unqualified for. And our riding infrastructure is rather poor even before considering the the new fleet of powered bikes. BTW, the majority of high power ebike types are off roaders and do not buy into my city centric views. I have spent 25 years of my adult life without a car, yet had 20 years as a local CDL driver in several fields and as a heavy equipment operator. I’m not just some dink that just dislikes cars. Any touring I have done has been in state and under 250 miles.