KTM Factory Tour - Do you have any electric bikes?

It’s the question that has made many bike shop employees shiver. The thought of a bike that assists you to ride is quite against the grain for many cyclists, more so mountain bikers. We are in a sport that rewards hard work. Even riding downhill we search for flow and maintaining momentum over the smoothest lines. And a pump track, what is it except showing how smoothly and efficiently you can make the bike move without pedalling – but certainly without any motorised assistance.

Perhaps Australia is a little behind though? Electric bikes are being sold as commuting and hybrid bikes, but they are becoming very popular for mountain bikes overseas – especially in Europe. While the market was slow to adapt to ‘E-bikes’ in Europe, for the same reasons many riders in Australia laugh at them, the people have been won over. On a recent visit to the KTM bikes factory in Mattighofen, Austria, they reported that 30% of their turnover is from E-bikes, and 15% of their models. Clearly a valuable product.

KTM began producing E-Bikes in 1994, and were the first company in the world to develop them. In 2011, they even introduced an E-downhiller to the world!

And now we see more E-MTB’s on the market. Before you recoil in horror, ask yourself if this is a bad thing. Assuming you are fit and able-bodied, and already a passionate mountain biker they are not the bike for you. But what if you were returning to the sport, and had lost a lot of fitness. Or perhaps your partner was quite fit and you wanted to be able to share the experience – or what if you developed a health condition that limited your level of exertion? Or, in the case for a lot of Europeans – what if you live near lots of huge mountain passes but you like a (many) beer and schnitzel way too much?

Now the E-bike, and the E-MTB makes more sense. It opens the door to our sport a little wider. By reducing the barrier to entry (in terms of fitness, not cost) to mountain biking we can attract more people. More than changes in wheel size, this will get more people on bikes.

Touring the production facility at KTM, where everything is done in house save for the raw frame being produced in Asia, the dedication to E-bikes is clear. There is a special area of qualified technicians to build them, with 16 specialist work stations, and an area for tuning the software that runs the BOSCH computers that manage their output.

KTM have the eGnition model, a 160mm travel full suspension bike. It uses a four bar linkage, 27.5” wheels and runs mostly an XT drivetrain. The head tube is a slack 66 degrees, and the top tube is pretty long, matching new geometry trends. It’s a quality E-MTB capable for just about any trail. Their popular Lycan model (tested earlier this year) is also available as an E-MTB. As a hardtail option they have the Ultra Pinion 29, using an aluminium frame.

Far from just a few token models, KTM also have the Macina Freeze, an E-Fatbike. How niche can niche be? And the Macina Mini Me 24 – a kids E-MTB.

Now as we see Trek launch their E-MTB, with more brands to follow – maybe the Austrians have been more savvy about getting more people in the outdoors to enjoy riding all along. And who’s to say that someone who ends up loving their E-MTB won’t end up upgrading to something a little lighter, a bit more exotic, and only pedal powered?