In one more new instance of an business defying progress out of desire for “the previous methods”, X Video games riders and followers are going to be seeing lots fewer electrical bikes within the air this yr. That’s after a brand new rule change has quietly banned electrical bikes from competing. And the reasoning? It’s not truthful to the gassers who’re making an attempt to maintain up.
That’s not hyperbole; that’s the reasoning given by the X Video games management.
The X Video games is an annual excessive sports activities competitors that includes prime athletes in occasions like skateboarding, BMX, motocross, and snowboarding. Identified for high-flying tips and intense competitors, it showcases the perfect in motion sports activities whereas pushing the boundaries of what’s potential.
Consider it just like the Olympics of dust bikes, so to talk.
As electrical bikes and dust bikes have change into extra common, riders have found that the brand new expertise has opened the door to trick innovation and stunt using at a degree not beforehand potential with inner combustion engine (ICE) dust bikes.
Highly effective electrical dust bikes just like the Stark Varg are sometimes lighter and quicker than their gasser counterparts, and their decrease weight distribution permits them to rotate and carry out tips in ways in which solely electrics can obtain.
Within the face of that new innovation, the X Video games has responded not by encouraging their use in an effort to encourage new stunts, however as an alternative by banning them altogether.
In an announcement supplied to RideApart, an X Video games consultant defined that the transfer was designed to create a “degree enjoying discipline” in order that gassers may sustain.
“At X Video games, we’re dedicated to preserving the core of motion sports activities whereas repeatedly evaluating new applied sciences. Our present competitors codecs are designed across the efficiency and traits of conventional gas-powered bikes, which stay the worldwide customary for elite competitors. Whereas we acknowledge the developments in electrical bike expertise, our focus is on sustaining a degree enjoying discipline and delivering the perfect expertise for each our athletes and followers. We’ll proceed to watch the evolution of the game and assess how new improvements match inside X Video games competitions.”
As RideApart rightly identified, that reply appears to fly within the face of years of technological innovation that has helped particular person athletes push their sports activities additional. X Video games rivals depend on their instruments, whether or not a dust bike, a skateboard, or a mountain bike, to carry out mind-blowing feats, and developments in these instruments have allowed every sport to progress to more and more gravity-defying stunts.
The truth is, journalist Jonathan Klein’s response to the X Video games assertion nearly sums up the ridiculousness of the scenario.
“What we doubtless have listed here are a bunch of cry-baby rivals that don’t just like the Starks and different EV dust bikes permitting riders to up the ante to the following degree. To go more durable than earlier than. To take the game of freestyle motocross to the following degree identical to Deegan and Pastrana and Carmichael and McGrath and Hart and Bartram did earlier than them. And these similar present riders acquired the oldsters on the X Video games to capitulate to their crocodile tears.”
In the end, the X Video games have merely confirmed what we’ve all suspected: Electrical bikes are superior machines, and the previous guard doesn’t like that their fuel bikes can’t sustain anymore. Interval.
