Hot August Pitbike Nat’l
What’s more fun than wheelin’ and camping with your friends? Wheelin’, camping, and messing with pit bikes with your friends. And I’m talking about the quiet kinds that have the instant torque that you’d find in a Tesla. I’m sure you’ve all seen PURE’s interest in the e-bike scene grow substantially over the past year. Personally for me, this has grown tenfold due to the need to get around efficiently at Basecamp. Admittedly, I almost bought the Jetson e-bike scooter looking thing right before Basecamp 4.0, but didn’t because their sale had ended the very same day I went to go pick one up. Thank goodness I didn’t because our buddy Von Erick (@von_erick) showed us there was a whole world of custom electric pit bikes and mini bikes. That’s when the rest of the gang discovered just how fast these little Razors, BurroMax’s, and MotoTec’s can really go.
The reason I wanted to pick up a Jetson was to help alleviate the constant back and forth walking that we do working our Basecamp events. Prior to that, talks of getting a Segway x260 or Surron came up every once in a while, but ultimately the price point of $4000-$5000 was a huge barrier for me personally. The Razor MX650, MX500, and SX500 are the perfect machines to introduce you to the e-bike world since their used prices are generally cheap, averaging around $250-$400 depending on condition. Mods on the other hand can go up in price pretty quickly, but often become justified once you realize the stock razor’s 15 mph and 30 minute run time just isn’t enough.
The leader in aftermarket e-bike modifications, kits, and accessories is without a doubt Electro & Company (@electro_and_co) and also happens to be local to us in Northern California. They have been the best in providing consumers with easy solutions to get more speed and run time while also offering excellent support for their products. So when I talked to them and found out their next event was coming up on August 19-20 at GrassRanch (Escalon, CA), I had to be there!
Von Erick has been heavy in the e-bike scene for quite sometime while I’m relatively new to it and didn’t know what to expect when pulling up to the event. First of all, it was HOT AF. If you thought Sacramento was hot you obviously haven’t been to Escalon, CA. But the heat didn’t matter when I started seeing all the bikes and toys everyone had. We stopped by the Electro & Co booth and was immediately greeted by a bunch of their white ETM’s, Surrons, and a lovely EMX14 - basically all the e-bikes I wanted all under one roof!
The event was about 90% gas bikes and only 10% ebikes and seemed to be an early adopter of meshing the two worlds together. I could sense there was a bit of a division between gas and electric, and I totally get it coming from the automotive industry where there’s a clear line between gas and electric crowds (and even Japanese and Domestic crowds). But it was overall nice to see the event had embraced a taste of the future. I believe there were a total of 4 (maybe 5) race classes that Electro & Co were part of: Electric Kids, Surron Stock, Surron Open Class, and Open Pro 110.
We arrived there at about 10:30 AM and didn’t leave until about 7 PM. It was a long day, but I did enjoy watching the races and seeing all the different bikes at the event. I especially enjoyed leaving the event with a brand new 2022 ETM5000! Huge shout out to Austin for that! Thank you for the opportunity to shoot some flicks for you guys and the chance to meet some awesome people. Coming from a fellow entrepreneur, I really do enjoy seeing what you’re doing for the community and can’t wait to see where this all takes you. Congrats on the races and for showing out wholeheartedly at the event! I hope that I can be a part of the next one, or even better yet, I hope you can be a part of our next Basecamp event!
