Setting the record: The world’s longest e-bike jump
BMX athlete Jed Mildon and Bosch team up for the longest ever jump on an e-bike.
Sitting on a bike at the top of a run-in and contemplating a world record attempt is something that Jed Mildon has done many times before, but never on an e-bike and on such a large scale.
The five-time Guinness World Record holder has been dreaming of this day for years. It's the morning of the jump and Jed Mildon hasn't slept well in some time. After nine months of planning, he's about to attempt the biggest jump of his life. There on the green, rolling hills of New Zealand, a 13m-long ramp lies in wait for him to make history.
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The athlete and his dream
Jed Mildon, best known for his exploits on BMX bikes, was the first person in the world to land a triple, and then a quadruple backflip. He now travels the world and is pushing the limits of what can be done on two wheels. He is working since a long time for his next goal: doing the longest ever jump on an e-bike.
Prior to being a professional athlete, Jed worked as a welder and has used his skills to master the art of building take-off ramps many times before this record attempt. “I based my career on doing things nobody else wanted to do,” he says of his early years. “I grew up welding. And I built a lot of ramps.”
For this record-breaking jump, Jed teamed up with Bosch. From selecting and setting up a bike ePowered by Bosch that can handle the rigors of taking on this huge jump, to using the Bosch GLM 150 C Professional laser measure to find a site that would allow Jed to safely make the distance and having the tools to build the perfect launch ramp — Jed was backed by Bosch, from the start, until his ground-breaking finish.
“Every part of the process is nerve-wracking. But overcoming those fears... that's the exhilarating part. That’s why we do it.”
The hills of Dirt World
Located on a private farm to the south of Rotorua known as Dirt World, Jed found the perfect site for the world record attempt.
With a large hill that allowed him to reach over 90 km/h on the run-in, a flat valley to set up the 13m-long by 3.5m-high take-off ramp, and an adjacent hill that allowed for safe landings, Dirt World was the ideal location.
Once the site was chosen, Jed was able to do the earthwork to create a 300m-long by 4m-wide run-in to the take-off and to shape a massive landing area. The Bosch GLM 150 C Professional laser measure and the GWM40 Professional measuring wheel were used to make sure the jump and landing were situated accurately.
Ramp, bike, and tools
With the locations prepared, Jed got to work on building the take-off ramp that would later launch him for the record attempt.
As he was working away from a power source, the high-performance Bosch BITURBO Brushless GKS 18V-68 GC Professional cordless circular saw was an ideal tool for cutting the framing and supports. The Bosch GST 18 V-LI Cordless Jigsaw was also put to work, cutting the plywood transitions. The tools were powered by our high-performance ProCORE18V batteries.
Jed is used to nimble BMX bikes that can be flipped and spun with relative ease. But for this jump, he chose a Trek Rail 9 bicycle. The powerful Bosch Performance Line CX motor made the bike a great platform to work with. After the selection, Jed worked with mountain bike expert Jono Church to perfect the set-up for this unique attempt — changing out and tuning the forks and the rear shock to handle the impact of landing, selecting fast-rolling tires to maximize speed and survive repeated impacts. Following speed testing using the Bosch Kiox on-board computer, Jed settled on a 29-inch front and 27.5-inch wheels.
The final day
The sun stood high in the sky. Jed’s hands and fingers tightened around the handlebar. He focused on the ramp down the hill one last time. This was the last and final jump in a total of three attempts and he wanted to give it all to beat his previous jumped distances of 20.7 and 22.6 meters. Jed accelerated and gained even more speed than in the first two attempts. The tires got perfect grip on the ground and the bike shot onto the ramp. He lifted off and flew! The bike landed after leaping the incredible distance of 24.37 meters (80 feet). After the jump, Jed looked back over his shoulder at the rolling hills of Dirt World just south of Rotorua. Smiling from ear to ear, he was thrilled to have ticked off another one of his goals: jumping the world’s longest distance with an e-bike.
“Who knew an e-bike could fly so well, aye? Going really big, and this was big, on a bike is something that I’ve always wanted to do — but it creates a whole different set of challenges. It was great to have the team from Bosch behind the idea. We got to work and were able to put a great plan in place to make this jump happen”, says Jed Mildon.
The team is following up with formal ratification of an official world record, understanding it as the longest jump distance ever recorded on an e-bike.
