It’s happened often enough that I’m convinced there’s a pattern. Someone will ride past me on an e-bike and apologize. It could be on a bike path, road, or trail, but every time, the rider is a bit sheepish. Why is this?
As a whole, bike culture embraces doing things the hard way. No matter if we’re riding road, gravel, mountain bike, cyclocross, or whatever, we like a challenge. Especially in North America, bike riding has always been a fringe activity. We embrace that weirdness — often to our detriment — putting up barriers to easy participation with a culture of suffering. E-bikes make things too easy, right?
Direct Current is going to dispel the misconceptions surrounding e-bikes, or at least we’re going to try. E-bikes are fun, the technology is wicked, and they come with precious few drawbacks.
Admittedly, one drawback is price. A lot of riders are pretty frugal. I know that I am. E-Bikes are often critiqued for making an expensive sport even more so. But like all high-tech consumer products, prices will come down year after year. This has already started happening. Plus, riding an e-bike is so goddamn fun that it’s probably worth spending a little extra cash.
Direct Current will help you shop for an e-bike that fits your budget with helpful reviews and tech articles. Just like you, I can’t spend a fortune on an e-bike, and hopefully, by sharing my experience as a shopper, I can help you along the way.
Finally, along those lines, I think e-bikes still carry a stigma because there isn’t enough information out there about how they work, what goes into the technology, and how it can change your riding experience.
This is why I decided to create Direct Current. I’ve been racing bikes since the late ‘90s, and I’ve done it all — mountain bike, road, cyclocross, gravel, and every little sub-niche in between. I’m also an industry expert, having worked with bikes all my life from my high school years in a bike shop to a stint at VeloNews, a once-great American cycling publication.
With this project, I plan to combine my personal passion and experience to explore the depths of e-bike technology, something that’s long piqued my curiosity. I also love all things mechanical, especially motorcycles, and I think we in the bike industry can learn a few things from how the moto folks talk about motors and how they influence bike performance.
For starters, we’ll focus on e-MTB, but in time, I hope our stories will be entertaining and informative to suit anyone who has ever considered trying an e-bike. Don’t hesitate to ask questions or suggest topics. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the ride!