USE YOUR BACK WHEEL’S POWER TO GET UP STEPS

One area where I approach obstacles differently with an e-bike is climbing up big steps or ledges; rather than a see-saw motion, I just go straight up on the back wheel. On a normal bike, you don’t have enough power to do this move, so it’s always more of a rocking-horse weight-shift thing where you get your front wheel up and then use the forward motion and a sudden rider weight shift to kick the back end up to meet it.

On the e-bike it’s more of one fluid motion where I just wheelie up the face of things; even if they are vertical. I’d describe it as almost slapping it into the bottom of a step and then pedalling through it – so long as the front tyre clears the obstacle, there’s enough power to drag you up quite big faces or edges. This is one of the most useful e-bike techniques, and once you get used to your weight balance it’s really effective. It doesn’t work for everything if it’s undercut or totally square, but a lot of times you can get away with it powering up or through rocks rather than hopping up them.