Super Fat E-Bike Straddles The Line Between E-Bike & E-Moto
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The first time I saw a fat-tire e-bike, I thought it looked doofy. After all, wider tires means more effort to pedal, even if they’re helpful in some sandy situations. But, eventually, I rode my first fat-tire e-bike, and all that changed. I could still get some exercise on the bike, but I could have the ability to power through sand without struggling all the time.
But, is there a limit to how much fatness an e-bike’s tire can have before it’s too fat? A recent video at YouTube shows us that the limit probably does exist, but that it’s probably further out than we think. (Article continues after video.)
Honestly, this bike is more of a motorcycle than an e-bike, but is it really all that different? I don’t think the police department in any major city would be happy with you if you rode it around on the street commuting to work (assuming you don’t know a way to navigate the system and register it as a motorcycle), but off-road, you’re not going to spend a lot of time at high speeds with a bike like this. It’s an obstacle climber and a sand destroyer, not a crotch rocket or even a dirt bike.
The Volcon Grunt Evo, as the Electric Cycle rider showed, is made for a very different kind of ride than most people take. Think “Jeep trail” instead of dirtbike track. He took it on the hardest trail in the part of northern Colorado he lives in, looking for the kind of track that nobody would want to ride on two wheels. Along the way, there’s rock climbing and mud to tangle with.
The bike is a lot more than just an e-bike or motorcycle with fat tires for extra grip and maybe flotation. Depending on the battery option you go with, it has either 8 or 12 kilowatts of power, most of it arranged to produce low-end electric torque to bring it (and hopefully YOU) up the most ridiculous hills and rocks. That’s quite an accomplishment when you consider that the bike weighs over 300 pounds with the second battery on board.
You can see early on during the ride that the bike is a beast. It just grabs and pulls anything, and seems to be pretty stable because there’s so much tire spinning around and producing gyroscopic stabilization. Even Heart Attack Hill, which challenges typical dirt bikes, wasn’t a big problem for the bike and its rider. Even when others gave up, he managed to grind and claw his way up the hill over the worst of the obstacles.
Next, he did some much more mild downhill segments and double-track trail that few off-road vehicles would struggle much with. But, he noticed that it was still pretty fast in the straight and flat segments. Sadly, the brakes were not great, especially for such a large and heavy bike. It didn’t act like it had regenerative braking, which kind of sucked for being able to control speed on downhills.
The next challenge was The Chutes. Unlike Heart Attack Hill, this segment is rock crawling, something people usually do on four wheels because you can stop without tipping a 300+ pound bike over! The bike had plenty of torque, but being able to control it and hook up on rocks instead of looser-packed stuff was a little much for it. Unlike a normal 50-ish pound e-bike, the bike was difficult to move once it got stuck.
He ended up taking the bypass around The Chutes. In the final discussion, it was pretty clear that the Volcon Grunt Evo wasn’t meant for the most wild trails. It’s marketed as a farm and ranch bike, or the kind of bike someone would typically use to explore the back roads and see the sights.
Sadly, the bike didn’t make the whole run on a battery, and he needed to push the bike along to get it back to his truck. Fortunately, he did find some downhill sections he could use to operate the bike like a Dandy Horse. Upgrading the bike to two batteries is not just a nice thing — it’s mandatory if you want to be able to complete longer, harsher trails like this.
Adding the second battery adds a lot of weight, but the extra power and range (28 miles) really adds a lot more utility than it loses via weight. But, all that extra speed really challenges the bike’s weak braking system (something a rider will have to consider carefully while riding fast).
The Versatility of Electric
Whether this bike is right for your kind of riding, it does show one thing: how versatile electric drive can be. You generally don’t see gas-powered fat bikes like this anymore. They were once very common decades ago, and even sometimes came with three wheels (sadly having one in front and two in the back was dangerous). But, we’ve seen the market split itself between mountain bikes and dirt bikes, without a lot of room in between for bikes that excel in some terrains, but aren’t great for terrain they aren’t optimized for.
As we’ve seen e-bikes come around, innovation and experimentation is unlocking again. With electric power, it sometimes makes more sense to optimize for lower speeds while focusing on the kinds of things this bike is optimized for. But, on the opposite side of the spectrum, you have e-bikes that ride the line between bicycle and motorcycle while focusing more on speed, like Sur Ron, Luna, and other “Class 4” bikes.
Really, the unregulated off-road space, where e-bike classes constrain and the task isn’t commuting, is where we’ll probably see the most innovation and experimentation in the coming years. Different form factors, different optimizations, and different cargo-hauling capability will all play a role in creating better and better bikes powered by electric drive.
If we’re lucky, some of these ideas will trickle back into the on-pavement and on-gravel market. Things manufacturers learn about drive systems, motors, batteries, and just making different frames will mean that some parts will end up in the more regulated and narrow commuter bike market. Even if people don’t need fat tires for that kind of riding, it’s still something people will want, even if just for looks.
Featured image: a screenshot from the embedded video (fair use).
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