An emoto is basically a mountain bike with MotoCranx and a motor.

Emoto skills are MTB skills — with a throttle. I’ve been training Molly on a mountain bike for six years. She is getting very good on a bicycle, and it’s translating straight to the emoto.

Learning to jump an emoto

Molly gets the hang of accelerating uphill at the Hartman Rocks beginner MX track in Gunnison, CO.

This is a clean rep. Form first!

Rocking the rocks

Here’s Molly’s first ever rock climb …

… and descent.

Molly’s MTB skills kept her safe, but she’s using too much throttle. After a few episodes of “Whisky Throttle TV” I went emoto guru and said,

Bike handing first. Power second.

Balance on your feet and work the angles just like on your mountain bike. Use just enough steady throttle to maintain controlled speed.

That became the mantra for our two days at Hartman Rocks.

Bike handling first. Power second. That’s smart on MTB too.

This feels like DH … but all day long

As I become comfortable with the 180-lb Eride Pro SR, it feels more and more like a downhill bike — but uphill too.

And back down. OMG I love this!

Time for speed intervals

Watch Molly pump the terrain.

It’s starting to come together

“It feels like skiing”

Flowing through the sage, what a feeling.

Getting spicy

Molly makes the cover of eMoto Digest.

I looked at this from the bottom and said

“I can ride right over that, no problem. Hold my phone.”

HA! I rode over that precipice and about shat myself.

Then I had to coach myself.

“Dude. Bike handling first. Get your feet on the pegs and ride it like a DH bike.”

Whew!

Have fun out there,

Lee

Thanks for Power Curve Cycles

in Golden, CO for taking care of my Eride Pro SR and upgrading my suspension to the Tech E39 fork and EXT Arma MX shock. My SR is feeling more and more like a dialed downhill bike.

Power Curve Cycles

As Molly adjusts to the limitations placed by her overworked heart — she trained endurance so long and hard that her right ventrical is permanently scarred — she’s embracing skills-based riding. This means pump track, dirt jumps, slopestyle, and dual slalom and downhill racing.

Or so we thought. As she peaked for Sea Otter, while she was warming up for an easy pump track workout, her heart went haywire. She lost consciousness and crashed hard. We know from her Garmin data that she was on the ground for a while with a heart rate below 40, her heart restarted, then she rode home.

She called me. “Lee, my face is bloody and I don’t know what happened.”

I hauled ass over there and took her to the ER. To sum up some complex cardiac shit:

• Molly’s career as a pro XC racer scarred her right ventrical and created electrical issues.

  • To learn more see Lennard Zinn’s book “The Haywire Heart: How Too Much Exercise Can Kill You, and What You Can Do to Protect Your Heart.”

• She’s had a surgical ablation, where they kill the scarred tissue to take it out of the circuit.

• She hadn’t had symptoms for years, so her cardiologist gave her the green light to train for Sea Otter.

• That day on the pump track, several electrical things lined up perfectly, and her heart threw an error code.

• It’s likely to do this again. This time her heart stopped working and she got a concussion, but she’s OK. Next time could be way worse.

Molly’s cardiologist understands the important role riding plays in her life. As a full service coach I went to the appointment and pressed for specific guidelines. They are:

• Keep doing the things that bring you joy.

• Get the procedure described below.

• No more Olympic lifting. Regular strength training is OK.

• Short, intense efforts are OK, but they must be short with full recovery. Pump track, skate park, and dirt jumps are cool. Stop at the first sign of fatigue.

• Avoid high rates for extended periods. Don’t go over 130bpm for more than 60 mins. She loves exploring trails. Time to emoto!

A month ago Molly went in for a two-part procedure:

1 Voltage mapping. Test the electrical voltages of the right ventricle. Low voltage indicates dead heart cells aka scaring. Stimulate the heart to see what arrhythmias (changes from regular normal heartbeat) get triggered.

2 Impant a monitor or a defibrillator depending on what happens.

In step 1 they stimulated two lethal arrhythmias: ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation aka cardiac arrest. So they installed an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator).

An ICD is like having a 24-hour emergency response team under your skin just below your collarbone. It constantly monitors your heart rhythm. If if detects dangerously fast or chaotic heartbeat, it delivers electrical shock to reset your heart and prevent cardiac arrest.

Choose Life, choose emoto

Many of us are more mature, more skilled and closer to Flow than ever, but our bodies are starting to devolve. Tendons ripping off bones, hearts running out of fucks to give — that sort of stuff. We’ll be smart to adapt our riding to our new bodies.

Enter e-motocross. I swear electric dirt bikes are the best of mountain biking and motocross. Quiet. Simple to operate. Easy on the tendons. Easy on the heart. Molly and I bought Eride Pro SRs from Power Curve Cycles in Golden, then I taught her how to ride.

Emoto skills are MTB skills with throttle. After a half dozen lessons at the motocross park, Molly was ready for her first trail ride. We hit the Tenderfoot trail system near Keystone. This is prime woods riding: tight, technical and flowy, with some immense views. It was super fun, and Molly crushed it of course.

Here’s a taste:

I asked Molly to tell the tale in her words:

From Mountain Bikes to Moto Bikes

By Molly

Today was my first day riding 16 miles of sweet Colorado singletrack without pedals. Instead of pedals I was standing on foot pegs over 180lbs with 25,000W peak power of electric dirt bike.

To escape the brutal heat of the front range, Lee and I chose to make the drive up to Tenderfoot trail system near Keystone that supposedly had “green” moto trails based on a trail finder app. I had ridden Tenderfoot on my mountain bike years ago, so I was somewhat familiar with the terrain, but I was completely unable to comprehend the exhilarating experience that was about to unfold.

I knew I had the basics down since I’ve been riding the local moto track the last 6 weeks with Lee who has taught me throttle control, positions, cornering and pumping skills. These skills transferred seamlessly from the mountain bike to the moto.

The biggest differences between mountain biking and moto is learning control of the very touchy throttle, and slight difference in riding position … oh and gearing up with all the armor, boots, and helmet feels like getting suited up for a space walk.

We headed up a steep jeep road to find the single track. It was fun to go as fast as I wanted and I was very happy not to be pedaling up at a painful 3mph. We turned off onto the first singletrack we saw and suddenly I realized “woah this is really S-I-N-G-L-E-track”.

I became acutely aware of the large, cumbersome machine I was operating and how it wasn’t my nimble little hardtail. The path was dry, loose, and climbed steeply … very steep at times. I was also traveling at faster speeds than I would be pedaling which made the control and precision of bike handling critical.

I did wash out twice climbing up these steep sections. Lee instructed me to actually sit down instead of stand in a hinge. He told me to sit with my sit bones directly on the front part of the saddle and then hinge my torso to the bars in relation to the angle of the trail.

This created the balance and traction between the back and front tires. It felt awkward at first but eventually my gaze softened and my core tightened. I had good control. I widened the corners by staying up on the outside of the berm and then throttling up at the apex.

I started to get excited once I saw another steep incline coming. I’d get into position, be patient through the corner then rail. As the trail leveled-off I would stand to pump rollers, roots, snap around tree branches then rail another switchback. I started to feel flow like on a downhill track but I was going uphill!

We topped out at 11,400ft then it was time to descend. I felt a feeling I don’t have very much when doing my activities … anxiousness with a touch of doubt. Due to my newfound knowledge of the challenges I faced on the uphill and the fact that the bike is 60lbs heavier than me there was validity in the concern.

However I trust my skillset and I have a healthy respect for the bike and the terrain I am on. I can happily say that 24 years of mountain biking with 6 years of perfecting MTB skills with Lee came in handy. I let the bike coast as the terrain dictated and rode the bike just as I ride any other bike. It was steep, tight, exposed and loose through the pine forest.

With my feet side-by-side I noticed had more balance and strength pumping backsides and loading corners. As the trail would descend it would unexpectedly rise again in steep roll ups, twist around an exposed corner and then up or down again. I was getting into a rhythm standing, hinging, snapping hips to clear quick rise, then sitting to rail another switchback.

At one point my nervous system misfired and I stopped in front of a steep technical roller. Lee told me to back up, soften my eyes, and look ahead. I got my awareness together and executed cleanly. I was aware of the narrowness and steepness of the hillside we were undulating along. I was relaxed and calm in my mind which allowed my body to do the thing it knows how to do.

In the end it was a blast to realize I can put the same skills from riding mountain bikes to riding a moto on the same terrain. Today opened a doorway to new experiences and opportunities to build my skills and enjoy the mountains on two wheels.

Go Molly.

Choose Life!

Lee

Hi all!

Before I took Molly for her first ride we discussed the lesson plan (Your first emoto ride: What to focus on) and answered all her questions. With analytical people it’s best to separate the thinking from the riding.

Here’s how the riding went:

30 seconds in

Learning the throttle. The power is set to 10% of max.

2 minutes

Working her hinge and starting to feel the turns. The bike fits big. Footpeg risers and a lower rise handlebar are on order

5 minutes

Starting to work the bumps and load the corners with a bit of throttle. 0:45 shows some real skill.

We did some slalom drills then rode a variety of tracks. Molly’s bike skills plugged straight in.

“Holy cow Molly,” I beamed. “You just rode a proper motocross track, and you did it well.”

“Yeah,” she said, “and it feels natural.”

One hour

Finding some real flow. Look at that form!

So rad. So fun.

Lee

[Partner with DialedMTB]

Do you run an emoto business?

Imagine your logo, photo, description and links here. Once this section gets traction, I’ll spool up a dedicated emoto Substack.

If you’re interested in reaching thousands of intelligent, emoto-curious mountain bikers, email me at leelikesbikes@gmail.com.

Electric dirt bikes are basically mountain bikes with a natural foot stance and motors. If you’re a skilled mountain biker, learning to ride emoto can be easy, fun and SAFE.

My advice for your first rides:

Tame the power

Emotos are sold almost entirely on power because 1) power is easy to quantify and 2) it sells. For context:

A standard full power MTB has 750 watts peak. The new Avinox motors make 1,500 watts peak.

My Eride Pro SR emoto comes stock with 21,000 watts. If you sign a waiver you can unlock it to 25,000 watts. That’s 33 horsepower; close to a 250cc 4-stroke race bike. Crazy for a machine with the geo and wheelbase of enduro MTB.

Electric motors have instant torque. Crack the throttle and BOOM the power hits! If you’re new to throttles this is terrifying and dangerous. No mountain biker needs all that juice.

Get an emoto that lets you control the power output in each mode (usually eco, sport, race). Set eco to 10-20% of the total power. Even if you’re a strong pedaler, 2,000 to 4,000 constant watts is gonna feel insane!!

The Eride Pro app lets you set the total available power, then a percentage of that for each mode. I’m running Eco at about 20%. Max speed is set to 32% of a claimed 70mph (about 22 mph; fast trail speed on a mountain bike).

Heavy feet, light hands

Riding off balance on a mountain bike is dangerous enough. Riding off balance can be way worse with a throttle.

Whiskey throttle: A dangerous riding mistake where a rider unintentionally twists the throttle open, gets pulled backward by the acceleration, twists the throttle even more then rides smack into their El Camino, knocking it off its cinder blocks.

Stay balanced on your feet so you can stay neutral with your hands and retain control of the throttle.

Emoto first lesson plan

When I took Molly to IMI Motorsports in Erie, CO we started with these lessons. She rode around the open parking area until she was comfortable, then we hit the tracks.

Lesson 1 - Apply your hinge to the emoto.

Knees over pegs, butt back, core on, torso engaged, hands neutral. Because your feet are side by side and the cockpit is short and tall, this is way easier than on a mountain bike.

Practice accelerating and braking. Lean forward or back to keep your hands light.

Lesson 2 - Basic flat corners

Balance on your feet, lean the bike, load with your feet and apply gentle throttle.

Same rhythm as on MTBs, but with more acceleration.

Lesson 3 - Pumping bumps

The same movements as bumps on an MTB, without letting the bumps influence the throttle.

That’s a good start. Within an hour Molly was riding a variety of tracks with total control and huge stoke. Stay tuned for videos.

Be patient. Explore new shapes and increase your emoto’s power gradually.

Have fun!

Lee

[Partner with DialedMTB]

Do you run an emoto business?

Imagine your logo, photo, description and links here. Once this section gets traction, I’ll spool up a dedicated emoto Substack.

If you’re interested in reaching thousands of intelligent, emoto-curious mountain bikers, email me at leelikesbikes@gmail.com.

I’m having so much fun riding this electric dirt bike. I’m teaching Molly how to ride, and I’m making content for MTBers who want to emoto.

This post tells you why we’re riding emoto, and which emoto we chose.

Why moto?

You know I love bicycles. But to me motocross is the ultimate expression of shred. It’s everything great about a bike — with power. Ebikes are cool, but they don’t make my heart sing. My bimodal mind screams at me: I’m gonna use a motor I might as well go all the way!

(Check out the moto archive from the OG Lee Likes Bikes blog.)

Moto might seem like insane risk taking, and when I was young it was! Today, with these riding skills, motocross is deeply meditative. I think it’s the combination of speed and duration. Imagine a downhill run, but for 90 minutes at moderate effort. The flow state is broader and deeper than what I get on a bicycle.

And then there’s the tiny detail of my hamstrings tearing off my pelvis. Horrible. Gruesome. After decades pulling Gs in the offset bike stance, my legs are done. I still ride pedal bikes for fitness, fun and work. When I’m shredding I strongly prefer my feet to be side by side.

The MotoCranx adapter lets you mount your pedals directly to the bottom bracket, like motorcycle footpegs. I do most of my on-bike training on MotoCranx.

Plus:

This is as young as I’ll ever be. Choose life!

Molly is a big reason I’m back on the moto right now. Since her heart went haywire again shortly before Sea Otter (story here), she’s been looking for ways to explore infinite shred without stressing her blood pump. Choose life!

Why emoto vs gas moto?

I’ve owned a handful of gas motos, from 2-stroke motocross bikes to a 4-cylinder street bike. Gas motorcycles are rad. But they are a pain in the ass to own, and they require mastering the foot brake, shifting and clutch.

Electric motorcycles are easier to live with. No air filters to clean and oil. No gas to mess with. No noise. And no shifting or clutch. Brakes are on the handlebar, like a mountain bike.

Molly and I already prefer to ride with MotoCranx. An emoto becomes a big mountain bike with lots of suspension, a motor and a natural stance.

The more I ride the emoto, the more I think it’s the best of mountain biking and motocross.

Which emoto did we pick?

We each bought the Eride Pro SR.

The wheelbase and geometry is almost identical to my Pink Mistress trail/enduro/DH bicycle. Why that model?

• Domestic support and warranty.

• Local shop for service and upgrades.

• Same format as Surron, so all Surron aftermarket parts fit.

• Very high power motor, which we don’t need, and a big battery to run it. This gives us range.

• Phone app to tune the amount of power and speed in each mode (eco, sport, race). I set eco to 20% of total power. That’s been mellow and fun to learn with.

Retail price is $5,700. That’s the price of a mid range mountain bike or the cheapest eMTB and yes I’m shaking my head.

We both got models with 19”/16” wheels. This gives us more tire choices and a fatter, grippier tire in back (key for trail riding). Bonus: We can ride the local mini motocross track, which bans bigger wheels.

The SR comes with a long or short seat. I at 5’8.5” got the long seat so it feels like my old motocross bikes. Molly at 5’2” got the short seat because it’s lower and effectively makes the bike smaller.

Suspension travel is 225mm front and 200mm rear. It’s basically a self propelled downhill bike.

Suspension quaity is so-so at best, but — funny thing — it feels pretty good when I’m riding smoothly. Do I want the sick $2,500 fork and $1,000 shock upgrades? Yes of course! But I have to follow my own advice:

“Bro. The stock bike is fine. Learn to ride it.”

RAD fit

Since we’re riding these things like mountain bikes that happen to have throttles, we want them to fit as RAD= as possible.

• For me the stock fit is a bit RAD+. I’ll likely go with a lower rise handlebar.

• For Molly the stock fit is very big. She’s ordered a footpeg riser and a lower rise handlebar.

Bar width: We’re starting 40mm wider than we use for bikes, but I think I’ll end up at the same width. I’m not fighting the bars at all, so I don’t need leverage.

Molly gets after it. Her highly developed mountain bike skills plug right in.

For reasons of fun, shred and physical decline I see many of us MTBers riding emotos. I plan to do for emoto what I’ve done for MTB.

Ask your questions here!

Lee

[Partner with DialedMTB]

Do you run an emoto business?

Imagine your logo, photo, description and links here.

If you’re interested in reaching thousands of intelligent, emoto-curious mountain bikers, email me at leelikesbikes@gmail.com.