BMW Helps Cook Up Belt Drive, Full Suspension HNF Heisenberg XF1 eBike

I’m sure all the Specialized haters will claim this thing is better looking than the Levo the Big S just announced.

This thing should be illegal in the US just based on looks alone.

Higher sprung mass is not desirable for high performance suspension, and whilst this mas is located near the pivot, it is still articulated and therefore impacts suspension performance..

Cynically perhaps they have basically copied a scooter…. ?

A motorcycle, just by a friggin motorcycle. At this point, everything that makes mountain biking enjoyable, the exercise, the lightweight machine that can be thrown around underneath you, all goes out the window, so why even bother?

There must be pretty big profit margins for all of these companies to be making electric motorcycles.

So MANY different levels of wrong.

If by motorcycle you mean moped then yes, if by motorcycle you mean motorcycle then you’re just an idiot.

Urban assault beast master from hell. While commuting to work, you can jump and smash through anything. Electric urban assault commuting are what these FS ebikes are for… not offroad.

The Rohloff is not compatible with thru-axles, hence the regular drop outs.

@ Shadwell Sprung weight is your body, frame, and parts attached to it. Unsprung weight includes the wheels, swing arm and fork lowers. You want less unsprung weight for better performing suspension. Correct on mass proximity to center of rotation.

If I know where the bike is, I don’t know how fast it is going. If I know how fast, I don’t know where it is.

I wonder if this design could adapted to the Pinion gearbox. I bet it would still weight a hefty bit, but my inner nerd really loves the idea.

1997 called and they want their unified rear triangle back. Der.

As in, if you stand, the suspension doesn’t work. It’s always amazing how a product can go from concept all the way to production with a piss poor design.

Can I just have the hub?

“why not just make the entire motor part of the suspension…”

Because it’ll make for extremely sh*tty suspension performance.

BMW, Mercedes, VW, Audi, all of them are over engineered German piles of crap. If Honda & Toyota can figure out a way to build something with one fastener, the Germans will use 3, make them inaccessible, one time use only, then use a funky head bolt you need to buy a new tool for. Just for good measure, 99/100 mechanics won’t be able to work on them, forcing you to go to a big city to get work done. This bike appears to be just like their cars. Sign me up, not.

There is already a site for this crap – VitalMX.

All of the ebike fan bois, including those at bikerumor that write about them, clearly have no involvement in trail maintenance or trail access. Yes, a sweeping statement. If you did, you would not be advocating for these ‘motorbikes’ that are clearly designed for off-road riding. Writing about them on a site that is dedicated to traditional bicycles is advocacy for the sake of advertising dollars. You can dress that turd up all you want but it’s still a turd.

I was just at a trail access meeting last night and you’re fooling yourself if you don’t think the topic isn’t front and center and fooling yourself if you don’t think trail access in the US is at risk. I can tell you there is less interest in discussing increased trail access until there is a clearer picture on ebikes or more specifically as discussed last night, laws preventing them from trails. As I said in another comment sections about this ebike crap, it doesn’t matter what reality is, it’s all about perception and that is playing out currently.

Carry on.

abominable

Motorcycle.

I think I just snapped the chainstay yoke by looking at the photo too hard.

This is a poor design from the start. It is ridiculous forced use of a Rohloff QR axle system and the whole thing is silly in order to utilize a belt. Chains are the most efficient final drive for offroad. Cycling and Moto have pretty much answered that question.
As far as Ebikes go. I have no problem with them whatesoever. Any uproar at trail access meetings is over perception and bias being brought as much by the Land Managers as the supposed trail advocates. I say supposed since these “trail advocates” come in with their own very defined biases and excluding Moto has already been done. A new enemy to distract everyone needs to be found, thus Ebikes are the new enemy.
If you really want to be concerned about noise and unpleasantness on trails refocus on this potential nightmare of drones. I was on a trail the other day where some dbag was flying one overhead and it was unbelievably annoying. If guys start buying these damn things to document how slow and not rad they are I can predict major conflicts coming.

Um..motorcyclerumor? I would really rather have a BLUR TRc and a KTM…

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I think that could be fun in the Alps, using the motor uphill and then going downhill. But I am fine with my £600 Voodoo Bizango 😉

I’ll sell you an inner tube, but I won’t touch your e-bike. And keep it the F off the trails.

Sweet moped. Keep it off the trails.

12mm thru-axel Rohloffs will be shown at Eurobike 2015. Available in 142mm, 177mm and 197mm spacing.