The rise of electric mountainbikes

Maitai Valley.

‘‘It almost feels like you’re cheating, but it’s a good feeling,’’ he said.

A slightly beefed-up version of your conventional mountainbike, an e-bike has a battery on the frame and a motor encased between the pedals.

Capable of a top speed of 25kmh, with a maximum power output of 300 watts, e-mountainbikes fit within the New Zealand Transport Agency’s power-assisted pedal cycle category.

Anymore powerful and they would be illegal, or classified a moped.

Power-assisted means no throttle for acceleration, the bike’s motor only kicks in when the pedals are turning.

And a computer console on the handlebars allows the rider to choose how much help they want up the hill.

Kelvin Gordon, owner of Kelvin’s Cycle Shop, said popularity has grown with the developing technology in his seven years of selling e-bikes.

Standing in his cramped store, where battery-strapped bikes have taken over both floors, he said demand was outstripping supply.

E-bikes were popular among retirees and people with health conditions who would otherwise struggle with ‘‘head-winds and hills’’.

Gordon has an arthritic condition and his e-bike enabled him to ride alongside his 13-year-old son who ‘‘lives and breathes’’ the sport.

Purists argue that the bikes are too fast, or rip up the tracks. There’s always going to be ‘‘those knockers’’, he said.

‘‘But at the end of the day they’re going to be on one.’’

The Nelson Mountain Bike Club, which maintains a lot of the trails around the city, were yet to determine the club’s official stance on the bikes.

Club vice-president Wayne Pool said it was likely they will ’’acknowledge their existence’’ but won’t be ‘‘advocating for them’’.

‘‘What we will be saying is that we are a mountainbike club, not a motorised bike club.’’

They will probably align themselves with the current law, he said, accepting 300 watt bikes on the trail.

But there was concern this might be a slippery slope, that riders – undetected or otherwise – would bring even faster bikes.

‘‘I guess we’re just going to see how it evolves.’’

Further around Tasman Bay, an e-bike ban may be lifted at the Kaiteriteri Mountain Bike Park.

David Ryder, chair of the committee which manages the park, said the ban was aligned with the policy of their landowner, the Department of Conservation.

But DOC has since reviewed its e-bike policy, allowing 300 watt e-mountainbikes on easy grade trails. They were seeking clarification for their own rules.

The committee could see a real benefit for people getting ‘back on the bike’’, it remained concerned about safety and compliance.

‘‘They can go faster than a fit cross-country rider up the hill.

‘‘We don’t want to be policemen ... there’s obviously some that are well over that 300 watts,’’ Ryder said.