It rattles and crashes, and the next moment my breath catches. "He'll never make it," it shoots through my head. I take cover behind the small rocky outcrop where I actually wanted to place the camera and wait for the impact. But instead of crashing into the steep root passage at far too high a speed, Fabien Barel elegantly sails past me at eye level, casually crosses the bike in the air and hits a small patch of forest floor between two sharp rock teeth four metres below with pinpoint accuracy. I take the shortcut, run down to the finish and catch Fabien just before the shuttle up. "And?" I ask. The master raises his eyebrows, wrinkles his nose and points to the stopwatch on his handlebars. "Two minutes fifty-one, that's really fast. I reckon the e-MTB doesn't stand a chance." My hopes melt away with that answer. I would have loved to show the hardliners from the muscle bike faction where the hammer hangs. I would have loved to have what I've felt for years confirmed by someone who wouldn't disagree. That the E-MTB is also the faster machine downhill.
E-MTB versus classic bike - which is faster downhill? This question has been the subject of heated debate ever since electric assistance was introduced on mountain bikes. Too heavy, too sluggish, too long braking distances, say some. More safety and stability due to the higher weight and lower centre of gravity, say others. The latter is also my conviction. The more technical, rough and steep the terrain, the more comfortable I feel on an e-MTB. However, all my findings so far are based purely on subjective impressions and prejudices. In order to clarify the question objectively, we brought one of the best protagonists you can find on board: Fabien Barel is one of the most experienced mountain bikers in the world.
Find out whether the E-MTB is faster to ride downhill than a classic mountain bike in the downhill test duel from EMTB 1/2020, which you can download as a PDF below. The test costs 1.99 euros.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in BIKE. We don't pay for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them, hundreds of thousands of euros every year.
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