Foldable Bikes Party: SRAM gives e-mountain bikes a little something EXtra

Tuesday, 17 May 2016

SRAM gives e-mountain bikes a little something EXtra

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Love them or hate them, e-bikes – or more specifically in this case, e-mountain bikes – are here to stay. Though their popularity seems to really fluctuate from country to country, there’s no getting away from the fact that manufacturers are selling more of them, no matter where you are in the world.

Though, for the most part at least, the current crop e-mountain bikes use standard mountain bike parts, SRAM, having spoken to many of their customers who have e-bikes in their stable, knew there were issues that needed addressing – particularly when it came to shifting.

The brand has responded with a new e-MTB-specific drivetrain, named EX1. That's joined by a dedicated line of brakes – Guide RE.

Breaking chains

"Most of our customers gave us a hard time saying, 'Hey, we need a super strong chain, as we always have problems with [that], so we discussed this with our engineers and it seems the chain is not the main issue. The main issue that all the drivetrain are specially designed for normal riders”, said Marcus Schneider, E-MTB product manager at SRAM.

"We have this little fellow [the Bosch motor] here in the e-mountain bike, and he has a completely different way to bring torque and power into the drivetrain," Schneider added.