E-Bikes for Fly Fishing: Part 1, Going Uphill and Getting into the Backcountry

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[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part 1 of a 3-part series on using e-bikes for fly fishing. Part 2, coming in August, covers using e-bikes for float shuttles and Part 3 will cover the wide array of accessories, confusing world of laws and regulations, and other important details. For a primer on the rules and regulations before Part 3 is released, click here.]

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There is this lake. Hike five miles that trend uphill. Descend a cliff band to a willow choked couloir and drop about 700 feet to the lake. While descending you begin to make out logs in the lake. But wait–those are not logs. They are cutthroat trout.

Accessing this lake requires a long, arduous day, or a two-day trip with an overnight kit. With an electric mountain bike however, it’s a more relaxed endeavor that has you back in your own bed for the evening.

E-bikes have been a divisive element in the cycling community–some cyclists label them as cheaters. However, my little town of Durango, Colorado has more elite cyclists than any other town in the U.S., and a number of those elite athletes use them as transportation devices. There’s also a range of older elite athletes who have had a few parts replaced on their bodies and can no longer pedal like they once could. E-bikes allow them to continue riding with friends and significant others–what’s not to like about that?

For fly anglers, e-bikes may be the ultimate low-impact tool to reach more remote waters (where allowed by land managers). To understand the functionality of e-bikes, it is probably best to ride one. In lieu of that, I will do my best to explain.

There are three official classes of e-bikes and for two of the three, you still have to pedal. You still have to put in the time and put in the work.

Besides the utilitarian aspect, they are just fun. When e-bikes first hit the market, I had a prototype for a few months. As neighbors would walk by our house, I would call them over to ride the bike. Universally they wanted to know what they were riding. I told them to just go ride. With the first pedal stroke you heard the cackle of laughter.

Choose Your Ride

The market for this segment is ever evolving. For this article, we are only focusing on Class 1, pedal assist, with a top assist speed of 20 miles per hour. [NOTE: A full breakdown on e-bike classes will be covered in Part 3 due out in September. Click here for a quick primer in the meantime.]

Dig deeper into e-bikes specs and you will see that maximum power output allowed by law is 750 watts. In the past, few e-mountain bikes met the 750-watt threshold. But as the category has evolved, you can now easily purchase a full 750-watt bike. Or something with less power, and less battery weight. Or a bike that allows various batteries to be used, at various weights and power outputs, for various applications.

One of the first questions most people have is how far a full battery will take you. This is not easy to answer because many factors go into it: Wind resistance, weight of rider and cargo, pitch of ascent (if any), how much the rider pedals, and more all play roles. So while manufacturers will give guidelines, determining your charge distance requires experience and trials. But keep in mind that you can always pedal so you’ll never “run out of gas.”

Beyond transportation to mountain lakes and remote river canyons, e-bikes are ideal for many types of fishing. In Pennsylvania, for example, e-bikes are allowed on the Great Allegheny Passage trails which runs the length of the Youghiogheny River, a great tailwater trout fishery. There are riverside “rails-to-trails” thoroughfares nationwide that allow e-bike access. Along the Rio Grande Bike Rail, which parallels the Roaring Fork River, class I and II e-bikes are allowed. Check local regulations to find an e-bike accessible fishery near you.

Given the complexities, we kept it simple in this article. We look at two bikes–one producing 320 watts, and one producing a full 750 watts. They are two entirely different feels–not unlike a medium action trout fly rod compared to a saltwater rod.

Specialized Turbo Levo SL Pro – The “Lightweight”

• Price: $10,999.99
• Weight: 40 pounds
• Motor: 320 watts
• Battery: 320Wh
• Torque: 50Nm
• Suspension Travel: 150mm
• Shop here

I freely admit that I have had a preference for Specialized’s bikes. This is mainly due to their geometry, in the past, fitting me just a bit better than other brands.

One unique aspect of all of Specialized’s e-bikes is their proprietary, integrated motor and battery kit. Other brands utilized a third-party kit. And it has occasionally resulted in warranty disputes when a failure occurred. As in the consumer has to unravel who’s issue it is? The bike brand? Or the battery manufacturer? Or the motor manufacturer?

The Turbo Levo SL Pro (SL standing for “super light”) also utilizes a “mullet” configuration. The rear wheel is a 27.5-incher while the front is 29, which is the de facto diameter for most mountain bikes. According to Specialized Ambassador and World Mountain Bike Champion Ned Overend: “To design an e-mountain bike with the motor in the bottom bracket, and 150mm of rear travel, the 27.5 rear wheel allows us to have the chain stay the length we want for a desired performance outcome, and still accommodate plenty of tire clearance.”

Other aspects of the Turbo Levo SL Pro also blew me away, like the ability to make changes in the bike’s geometry from the head tube and bottom bracket area. Given that higher end bikes are often draped with composite materials and titanium attachments, these are tasks that are best reserved for pro shops with complete selections of bike-oriented torque wrenches.

Another slick treatment that showed obsessive attention to detail was storage in the stem for the SWAT tool. SWAT stands for Storage, Air, Water, Tools, and is Specialized designation for all things storage, air, water and tool oriented. Flip a lid on the bike’s stem, and the SWAT tool appears.

Ride wise, the Specialized disappointed geometry-wise for this more old-school rider. Bikes’ cockpits (the handlebars, brakes, shifters, and grips) have gotten shorter, and handlebars have gotten wider. But hat is all on me–perhaps I should evolve as well.

The Turbo Levo SL Pro felt heavy, because it is compared to my full-suspension cross-country non-electric mountain bikes. These bikes come in at around 22 pounds and have 100mm to 120mm of travel. The Turbo Levo SL Pro weighed in at 40 pounds and a few ounces. While moving it around my shop required a bit more energy, the bike’s perceived extra weight was negligible on the trail.

As someone whose world once revolved around bicycle road racing where weight was everything, the Specialized rode like an “analogue” or “acoustic” bike (what regular, pedal bikes are now called), but with a bit of an assist. It felt agile.

Trek Rail+ 9.8 GX AXS T-Type Gen 5 – The “Heavyweight”

• Price: $9,999.99
• Weight: 53.2 pounds
• Motor: 750 watts
• Battery: 800Wh
• Torque: 85Nm
• Suspension Travel: 160mm
• Shop Here

When I first got on the Trek Rail, my ride started with a sustained uphill and I was astounded. While I did not have a heart rate monitor or watt meter pedals on, I was flying up the hill with seemingly no effort. The power of this bike, with a full 750 watts, was astounding.

While the power and speed was intoxicating, it does come with a weight penalty. The Trek Rail weighed in at 53.2 pounds, or 13-plus pounds more than the Specialized. As outlined with the Specialized, even with a motor you still have to manage that mass when on technical terrain.

As with the Specialized, my test was a 3,300-foot climb over about 10 miles to a set of cell towers. That is steep in anyone’s language. The route is decently graded county roads for half of the climb, and then a gated Forest Service access road which is more a collection of ruts and rocks, followed by a single-track descent.

For the rest of the climb the power and speed continued to astonish me. So much so that I wanted to stop and apologize to those doing the climb on analogue bikes.

On the descent, when on a few graded, country road connectors, the ride was secure and planted. Once I hit the more technical single track, the ride was equally planted. However, the weight, and the timing to hit obstacles, was noticeably different than the Specialized Turbo Levo SL Pro, and a totally different animal than my 22-pound full-suspension analogue bike.

While I adored the Specialized for its agility, my neighbor who is a motocross aficionado, loved the Trek. He was also amazed at the power. And given that his motocross bikes weigh plenty, the weight penalty of the Trek did not faze him.

You (Often) Get What You Pay For

Picture a fly rod brand’s premium offering. That is what these two bikes represent. And like fly rods, bikes have become so damn good across all price points that it is hard to find fault with any of them.

Mountain Bike Specialists, in Durango, Colorado, sells a staggering number of e-bikes. And they are the go-to shop for pro riders in a town obsessed with cycling (the team that represents the U.S. in the World Mountain Bike Championships is dominated by riders from Durango, and two locals are now competing in the Tour de France).

“A lower end e-mountain bike, at least within a quality bike brand like Trek or Specialized, is reliable, easy to service, and gets you up those rough 4x4 roads and steep singletrack trails to that remote secret sweet spot,” James Ianni of Mountain Bike Specialists said. “You may skip a gear from time to time, and the brakes and suspension are not quite as smooth and capable as a higher end model–yet both are equally capable to help you access the best backcountry Gold Medal water. Most riders find that a mid-range bike is the perfect sweet spot between nice shifting, good brakes, smooth suspension, and price. This is especially true nowadays when the premium models can cost upwards of $14,000. Yet a mid-range bike is $6,000 to $8,000 and comes with most of the same features.”

As price points are reduced in fly-fishing rods and reels, anglers notice some subtle differences in feel and castability. None, in my experience, go into the realm of barely useable. That same parallel exists in cycling.

So What Is a Potential Buyer to Do?

With both bikes I outlined above, I could have easily written a multi-page dissertation on each. Nuance of geometry, suspension travel, suspension tuning, where the rider’s center of mass is, and even tire pressure (your first point of suspension) plays significant and intertwined roles in the rider’s experience.

Your best resource is your local specialty bike retailer. They can set up a demo bike for you to test, assist you with setting the bike to fit your body, advise on accessories, and service your bike for years to come.

The reality of bike manufacturing is that a few factories produce most of the frames, especially when it comes to carbon fiber and composites. The vast majority of factories use preimpregnated composite cloth from one supplier, and two component brands control the vast majority of the market.

It is also worth mentioning that as research for this article, I created a post on a bike-industry-specific online forum about various shops’ experiences with servicing direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. The response was overwhelmingly negative (and many of these are mobile shops who do not sell bikes, but just provide service). Issues ranged from the before mentioned battery/motor issues to suspension issues that created high speed death wobbles for riders on descents. In many cases parts and tech support for these D2C brands was non-existent. It is important to mention that these wrenches see the percentage D2C of bikes that are train wrecks, not the ones that function fine out of the box. However, it is a point that a potential buyers should be aware of.

Find a bike retailer that you vibe with. Treat them well. If you purchase from one of the major brands that a specialty retailer carries, it is tough to go wrong.

The best thing about e-mountain bikes, from my standpoint, is that they serve so much utility beyond fishing. This is an investment in your health, in efficient and speedy transportation, as well an amazing fishing accessory.

Come back for Part 2 in August, about using e-bikes for float shuttles. Part 2 profiles a different set of e-bikes at different price points along with other shuttling considerations.

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Marty Grabijas is a retired product developer who owned an OEM design/manufacturing company in the outdoors industry, and a former cycling pro and fishing guide. Few writers have his degree of insight into how gear really comes to market, and the hard conversations that take place regarding margins, price points and feature sets.

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