Electrically-Fueled Mountain Bike Mastery
- 05/22/2019
Electrically-Fueled Mountain Bike Mastery
Brothers Ed and Wyn Masters power up their riding in Queenstown, New Zealand
For Ed and Wyn Masters, bikes have been a part of their lives from the very beginning. The dirt jumps the brothers built in their New Plymouth, New Zealand backyard served as an incubator for their now-successful careers in downhill and enduro mountain bike racing. It was also where their ever-competitive sibling rivalry sprouted into a life-long journey of heckling, one-upmanship and occasional trips to the emergency room.
Now with busy training schedules and seemingly never-ending sponsorship obligations, the opportunity for the Masterses to spend time together is mostly limited to trying to beat each others’ time at World Cup Downhill and Enduro World Series races. Riding together for fun is even less common, so when they were approached for this e-bike shoot around Ed’s home in Queenstown, the brothers wasted no time igniting their collective tomfoolery.
On the E-Masters project…
“It‘s always pretty cool to do something with my brother. So… Yep. Can’t complain ‘ay. We’re always ripping on each other and having a good time. It was nice, even though the film crew pushed us pretty hard. They got a little excited about the golden light in New Zealand, so we had all these early starts and late finishes. It was a good crew, but man, they loved their golden light. ” - Wyn
On their horse-riding origin story…
“Up until the age of 10 both me and my brother were both into horses. After that we quickly realized there weren’t a lot of guys riding horses at that age, I think our mother wished she had a girl in the family. Wyn sold his horse and bought a hardtail and I did what little brothers do and followed suit. All Wyn’s ever wanted to do is ride bikes. I’ve been following him ever since… ” - Ed
On the benefits of e-Bikes...
“I think it totally makes sense, especially in a place like Queenstown where the mountains are pretty big. If you’re an average rider and you bought an e-bike, you wouldn’t use the (Skyline) gondola. What’s that time sitting in the gondola? That’s time wasted. You can just keep spinning back up the hill and not do the traverse trail all the way back to the base of the gondola. That’s one way I’d look at it. They’re also pretty handy for towing furniture and beers up the hill.” - Wyn
How Long Does a STEPS E-MTB Battery Last?
The Shimano STEPS E8000 battery is an ultra-durable, powerful battery specially designed for the rigors of mountain biking - with supported travel up to 62 miles on one charge.
For these two North Island kiwis, having fun on bikes will always be the number one priority. Turning on an electrical boost in the hills around Queenstown simply gives them one more reason to ride.
