PHOTOS: KEN HILL & DEREK GARCIA
Mullins tried everything to recover, even training with Aldon Baker for a spell. By Steele Creek ’16, he nailed the holeshot in storybook fashion, but one big hit from one of Steele Creek’s numerous square-edged bumps tweaked his wrist again. He pulled off the track and soon called it a career.
At Steele Creek 2019, he was back, holeshotting and this time winning. Only this time he was on a completely different type of machine.
PHOTOS: KEN HILL & DEREK GARCIA
Mullins tried everything to recover, even training with Aldon Baker for a spell. By Steele Creek ’16, he nailed the holeshot in storybook fashion, but one big hit from one of Steele Creek’s numerous square-edged bumps tweaked his wrist again. He pulled off the track and soon called it a career.
At Steele Creek 2019, he was back, holeshotting and this time winning. Only this time he was on a completely different type of machine.
lectric-assist bicycles are the newfangled thing in this world, but they’re actually not new to the Amsoil AMA Grand National Cross Country Series. GNCC races don’t offer practice, but racers can walk or ride a bicycle on the trails before the race. Mountain bikes are a perfect choice. Further, pit bikes and side-by-sides are not permitted, so teams use mountain bikes to hustle pit-board messages to riders at various vantage points.
In 2016, Barry Hawk, the eight-time GNCC Champion who now manages Team Coastal Racing, had an idea. He discovered Haibike, the German maker of electric-assist mountain bikes. Just like regular mountain bikes, they use pedals and do not have a throttle. But a battery and electric motor make the pedaling easier. The harder you push, the more assistance the bike provides.
Barry asked the GNCC series if these new bicycles would be legal at the races. He wanted his team and riders to try them and also hoped to land a sponsorship. In June of 2016, the series issued a competition bulletin with the following wording:
That was all it took. GNCC series director Tim Cotter says before long there were easily upwards of 100 so-called e-bikes at each GNCC event.
“You know how this group is: you put enough shopping carts or rental cars together and they’ll decide they should race each other in those too,” Cotter says. GNCC tracks would be a little too tough for a traditional mountain bike race. Maybe they could work with these bikes?
That was all it took. GNCC series director Tim Cotter says before long there were easily upwards of 100 so-called e-bikes at each GNCC event.
“You know how this group is: you put enough shopping carts or rental cars together and they’ll decide they should race each other in those too,” Cotter says. GNCC tracks would be a little too tough for a traditional mountain bike race. Maybe they could work with these bikes?
The eMTB races start on the GNCC pro pit lane—and with more crowd noise than bike noise. Impromptu Stacyc electric kids’ bike races break out too. (Lower left) Old GNCC hand Jason Hooper now owns a bicycle shop—eMTBs got him back on the racetrack; Specialized is all-in on eMTB promotion.
“We need it to be a race course and also feel like a GNCC,” Russell says. “Single-track in the woods is fun to ride, but we needed to offer some passing.”
“The first two tracks this year were a blast,” says Mullins, who has emerged as the alpha dog of the GNCC eMTB pack. “It feels a little bit different than going to a state park to ride a mountain bike. It’s not perfect single-track. It’s more rough like a traditional GNCC, but it’s supposed to be tough and not a perfectly manicured course.”
Russell incorporates the eMTBs into the GNCC 50cc Micro woods loop. The little bikes build some berms and race lines, but not the deep ruts that will snag bicycle pedals. The GNCC crew also clears all the leaves and sticks for the eMTBs. At first, Russell figured if he couldn’t climb a hill on his own Specialized Turbo eMTB, he should route around it. If it’s too hard, it’s not fun, right?
“Then I realized that’s kind of part of the deal—our bike pros climb a hill like it’s nothing, and then other riders have to struggle to make it,” he says. Thus, while the first 2019 race in Georgia had rolling hills, Russell put some more difficult ups and downs in the Steele Creek track. Hawk says the gnarly downhills actually separated a lot of riders. Overall, the tracks will encompass three to four miles of varied terrain.
For fun, the eMTB races start on the GNCC pro pit lane, with the team trucks and assembled fans adding an element of color and sound. When the Steele Creek GNCC launched, pro bike racer Steward Baylor fired the engine on his KTM 350 XC-F and hit the rev limiter, just to give the bicycle racers some encouragement. More noise is coming, as the series just ordered 1,000 cowbells to disperse to fans and liven up the woods. And more cowbell is needed, because after 45 years of hosting races for machines that make their own noise, it’s a little strange to see a GNCC race but not actually hear it!
(Above) Kyle Warner (2), Alan Sudderth (25), and Nat Ross (11) await the XC1 pro start in Georgia. (Right) Steve Brunton heads out for another lap in the 50+ class.
Colin Dierman“It’s pretty cool—riding the course on the mountain bike takes me back to the GNCC flow of the woods, so it feels like home to me,” he says. “It’s technical, rooty, and it’s just like a GNCC track on a bicycle. I’m going a lot slower than I was on a dirt bike, but people are cheering you when you’re racing through the pits, everyone is parked around you, and it feels kind of the same. It’s definitely bigger than I expected it to be. We thought the demos would be a one-person job, but it’s already gone crazy. We need three people under the tent now.”
Colin Dierman“It’s pretty cool—riding the course on the mountain bike takes me back to the GNCC flow of the woods, so it feels like home to me,” he says. “It’s technical, rooty, and it’s just like a GNCC track on a bicycle. I’m going a lot slower than I was on a dirt bike, but people are cheering you when you’re racing through the pits, everyone is parked around you, and it feels kind of the same. It’s definitely bigger than I expected it to be. We thought the demos would be a one-person job, but it’s already gone crazy. We need three people under the tent now.”
That’s his side, but for weekend warrior types, the eMTBs actually are easier. Morgantown, West Virginia’s Colin Dierman has spent most of his life working in bicycle shops and riding and racing bicycles, but he caught the GNCC dirt bike bug about 15 years ago and traveled to all the races battling for amateur titles in his age group. After accomplishing his goals, the travel and work eventually became too much, but Dierman is now back to follow the eMTB series.
“You never redline like you do on a regular mountain bike,” Dierman says. “Mountain bike races are just a suffer-fest. This is a lot more fun. I just have to promise my wife I’ll get home as soon as I can Saturday night after the race!” Dierman topped the 50+ class at the eMTB race at Steele Creek.
Hawk found an especially big eMTB fan in his son, Talon, who put 1,000 miles on a Haibike last year. Talon isn’t looking to follow his dad’s footsteps toward GNCC ATV or motorcycle championships, but he does want to race the eMTB series—so Barry, who retired in 2010, has decided to do them too. So far, he’s held off Talon on overall time, finishing second in the amateur class at Steele Creek behind fellow Pennsylvanian Jeff McCarran, while Talon finished second in the Youth (12-17) class to West Virginia’s Canon Kuneff.
“I want to get my wife and daughter to race them too,” Barry says. “We’re an outdoor family, and we all love riding these e-bikes at home.”
With eMTBs, riders of different fitness levels can now ride on equal footing. The slower rider can just dial in more assist.
“It put the fun back in mountain biking for me,” says Jeff Russell, whose son Kailub is the five-time and defending GNCC Bike Champion. “You put him on a regular bike and it’s fun for him, but for me it’s not fun. He’s in way better shape than I am. But on the eMTB, I can ride with him.”
Hawk proudly boasts that he’s not on the Mullins program, enjoying Doritos and a Bud Light after his eMTB race. For him, the bikes offer an accessible place to still do some racing. It’s not as hard, physically, as a regular mountain bike race, and it’s easier to jump into than a full-on dirt bike race.
Some traditional mountain bikers aren’t fans of the assisted bikes, which is part of the reason the bikes have found a home within motorcycle racing circles. Youthstream, producers of the FIM Motocross World Championship, have announced the first FIM E-XBike World Cup, which takes place during the 2019 MXGP of Italy this August. The FIM also announced the inaugural FIM EBike Enduro World Cup, to be held this June in France. Those announcements drew the ire of UCI—the bicycle sanctioning body—which is producing its own eMTB World Championships in September in Quebec (Mullins will be racing that one, by the way).
The eMTB races start on the GNCC pro pit lane—and with more crowd noise than bike noise. Impromptu Stacyc electric kids’ bike races break out too. (Lower left) Old GNCC hand Jason Hooper now owns a bicycle shop—eMTBs got him back on the racetrack; Specialized is all-in on eMTB promotion.
The FIM has a counterargument ready, contained in the announcement of the FIM EBike Enduro World Cup.
“Power-assisted bicycles and electric-powered cycles are not recent products and have long been part of the history of the FIM, as the vintage Indian motorcycle on display in our headquarters confirms,” FIM President Jorge Viegas said. “In fact the early motorcycles were much based on a bicycle frame with the addition of an engine, so the story has really returned back to the beginning of our evolution.”
In a short time, e-assist bicycles have become hot property, and the future impact of improved battery technology is leading to big decisions right now. The only sure thing is that the bikes are fun. Who will hop on and race one next? 